Tutorial - how to take effective jewellery and other small goods photography

[Rock_n_rollKitty]

Thankyou! i really think this is a nifty idea.. too bad i dont have a box big enough to fit me in it...

o wait.... refrigerators come in boxes dont they..

 

[Hannah Z]

I would think a refrigerator would come in a pretty big box - yep! If not, I'm sure a shop or something would be happy enough to give you a box if you asked.

Has anyone had time to try it yet?

[arrhythmia]

Not yet....just came back from a week of R&R.  It's on my list

[arrhythmia]

Just got hubby to make a box for me. Gonna go take some pics and play with types of lightbulbs. Gotta download the GIMP, too. Pics soon...I hope.

[arrhythmia]

Hannah Z - I took a few pics with the new box set up. I am having trouble because my bulbs are too yellow/harsh and they wash out the color - so the road has been a little bumpy. I'm gonna try it later with the reveal(daylight) bulbs and see if I can improve it.

My GIMP experience has been a little rough. I'm not that techie and it's fighting with my system Windows ME and aborting after I work on an image. I lose the whole thing. So, again, I'm not doing too well. I may see if I can download the trial Photoshop and play with it a little. So, I'm not able to retouch the photos too well. HOWEVER>>>

Here's a link to a couple of photos I've taken with the new setup. The Ice Cream pic is the large one on the page with the white background.

http://ddskies.freespaces.com/icecream.html

Here it is with other pics for comparison.
http://ddskies.freespaces.com/bagsmedium1.html

Here's another bag with the lightbox.
http://ddskies.freespaces.com/navyfloral.html

Here it is again with others.
http://ddskies.freespaces.com/bagsbig4.html

Both bags are tough ones to photograph outside, as they wash out in the sun. So I am really happy to have another way to take pics that will work on 'tough subjects'. As you can see, I haven't retouched the photos to take out all the background stuff. I'm still new to this and am still experimenting. Already, though, it is paying off. Thanks for your great tute. I'll post again when I get a 'much better' pic.

Oh, btw, I love your website and all your awesome photos!! Thanks for sharing your photo techniques.

[gherkin]

What a great tute!  I am am a bit confused as to how you take the picture of the item.  If the lights are hanging through the hole in the top of the box and you are viewing through the isde of the box, does the item sit inside on the bottom 'level' of the box?  If so, how can you get such a good overhead angle (as the lights should be in the way!)

Confused Gherkin

[TessTessi]

HannahZ: Thank you for the great tutorial!!  I haven't built the light box yet, but your suggestion to download gimp was great!

[Hannah Z]

Sorry its taken me so long to reply to this!

arrhythmia - I can't get any of your links and I'd love to see the pictures. Don't know what to suggest about Gimp with windows as I use Firefox. Have you checked the white balance on your camera as that might help with the yellow colours you are getting.

gherkin - Yep, the lights can get in the way sometimes! I either take the photo at a slight angle which can work well for some things, or hover the camera above the item and snap away. I can see on the screen on the back of my camera whats actually inside the picture.

TessTessi - Glad your finding Gimp useful, I find out new things every time I use it:) You can hit the 'auto' button in the Colour Levels window and that will adjust the light balence automatically. So simple I really don't know why it took me so long to try it out! Sometimes it does make the colour go a bit nutty, but then you just press reset and do it the normal way.

[arrhythmia]

Hannah Z - No, I have a dorky kiddie camera with no white balance. I don't know what's up with the links. They pull up for me in lots of browsers. (mystified.....?!) Sorry you can't see them. I'll try to post them here in Craftster and put them in the page.

The GIMP thing is because they aren't updating the project anymore for Windows Me or earlier versions. So I can't save anything I do. I finally just took it off my computer. If I could get it to work, it'd be an excellent tool. I'm going to try the free temporary version of Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator, I think.  Here are a couple of the pics.





As you can see I didn't get to do much with the lines/corners, since I couldn't get the gimp to work. I tried the daylight bulbs and had only slightly better success, so I think I just need the photoshop/photo editor.

Thanks for all the help!

[clare00]

Great tutorial. I've been taking pictues of jewley for a while and I have always had trouble getting the set-up quite right. 

I just thought I would add that scanning jewlery has given me some really  great images.  I usually lay the item out on the scanner bed and then use a white shoe box top to  cover the piece so that the scanner lid doesn't alter my set-up. 

Then  hit scan and... voila!