During that time, my biggest struggle has been with making sure my photographs are up to snuff. Jewelry and beads are items that are way easier to sell in person, where people can touch and see the sparkle and nuances of colors that make an item spectacular. Your photographs have to try desperately to capture as much of the detail and beauty as possible. Anyone who has sold jewelry online will probably tell you, it's not easy!
I think I may finally be happy with my current set-up...I finally have good lights, with full spectrum white-light bulbs, and a ridiculously cheap, but effective handmade lightbox. Here are what one of my better pictures looked like before:
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| Not horrible, but not really professional, either. |
Here is how they look with my newest set-up:
See how the harsh shadows disappear? And I didn't even attempt to tweak the color or light levels in Photoshop. What you see is a raw photograph--the only thing I did was crop it. Both were taken with the same point and shoot digital camera.
I still want to tweak my set-up a bit. I'd like to diffuse the light a bit more, so that you don't get any glare, but I'm not sure if that's a realistic wish when photographing glass! But I love how I don't have to manipulate the photo, and yet it still shows the colors as true.
So what do you think? Am I getting excited over nothing? What else needs to be tweaked? I am always looking for suggestions for bettering my presentation, so comments and critiques are welcome!
Rachel, it looks like you have made effective improvements with your photography set up. The results are amazing!!! I really like how you staged your earring photo. I truly enjoy taking jewelry pictures - to me that is almost more fun than designing the jewelry! :-)
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