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

[Hannah Z]

A lot of people have asked me how I take photos of my jewellery and I've been promising a tutorial for a while, hope it makes sense - just ask if there are any questions and I'll do my best to explain in more detail. I'm not completely sure where this tut should go, so let me know if it needs to be moved somewhere else

How to get your photo looking like this:


***Take a large lid (or tray, or similar) and fix light bulb fittings to it. I have 7, but you could use more. I keep forgetting to buy more but the amount I have is fine. I've then used a cardboard box, cut the top off and cut in a window then lined it with white paper. The bulb tray balances on the top and plugs into a nearby powerpoint.  Only use energy saving lightbulbs for this as they are much cooler than normal lightbulbs and therefore much safer. Remember that energy saving bulbs take a mintute or two to get to there full brightness.

This is the box of light bulbs that I use:
http://www.hannahzakari.co.uk/images/craftster/lightbox1.jpg

and here it is taken apart:
http://www.hannahzakari.co.uk/images/craftster/lightbox2.jpg

*Arrange your item as you want it to appear and take your photograph with a digital camera. I use a Canon Ixus 400 (Canon Powershot S400 in the States but is discontinued there according to my research!), its a small easily portable camera.
*You need to adjust the white balance on the camera to make sure it comes out white and not yellow. How to do this varies for each camera but its a very important step!  
*I don't use the flash, just rely on the lights, but if you are photographing a particularly reflective item it helps to cover the lights with white paper or tracing paper to reduce the glare and reflection.
*If you have trouble arranging the item inside the window put a sheet of white paper on top of a tray or book and arrange the item outside the window and place the tray inside once its ready.
*Upload the pic to your computer.

********************************************************************

The next steps I do using Gimp Image Editor  (www.gimp.org), and I have no idea how to use any other photo editor so I'm sorry if you don't have it but I can't help!

*Open your picture up in Gimp, then you need to adjust the levels which are in the navagation bar under "Tools" > "Colour Tools" > "Levels" like this:
http://www.hannahzakari.co.uk/images/craftster/colourlevels.jpg


*You move the top bar of the level (badly circled in red!) to the left to adjust the brighness of the photo like this:
http://www.hannahzakari.co.uk/images/craftster/adjustlevels.jpg
You can play around to get the brightness that you want. You can see in the "Input Levels" window that there is a black peak - you will want the arrow to be pointing somewhere within that area for your picture to change to the best level of brightness.


*Then I crop the photo so it looks like this:
http://www.hannahzakari.co.uk/images/craftster/grey.jpg


*Still a bit grey around the edges so use the largest brush to touch up the edges like this:
I've outlined the ones I use in red. You can change the size of the brush to suit the size of the image.
http://www.hannahzakari.co.uk/images/craftster/brushes.jpg
http://www.hannahzakari.co.uk/images/craftster/paintbrush.jpg


*And here's the final photo:
http://www.hannahzakari.co.uk/images/craftster/bracelet.jpg

I really hope that this helps some folks. It took me ages to find all this out, but now I know how to do it taking photos for my website is easy and I actually rather enjoy it now

If there are anymore questions just ask and I'll do what i can to help, and if i can't I'll ask my husband who knows way more than I do!

[CatyX]

Wow, thanks thats a great tute- and I love the bracelet too!

[surfergrl311]

this is awesome thank you so much

[Hannah Z]

I'm glad you found it useful!

I know its a bit of a faff making the box and the lightbulb tray, but I think its worth it if you have an online business and need good product photos. A lot of people seem to think I get my photos done professionally, but this cost next to nothing to do and the results are just as good imo

[arrhythmia]

Hannah Z. -Thanks for your tutorial. It is awesome. I'll show this pic to my hubby and he can help me figure out the bulb part. Are the bulbs halogen, incandescent or fluorescent?

I especially appreciated the screenshots of the GIMP pages and how you did that part. VERY helpful !!!! This is an awesome tutorial. I am hoping I'll be able to get some better shots with my very limited digital camera. Right now I'm stuck with outdoor shots and they are pretty blurry.

Also, another question. About how big is your box? It is a little hard to tell from the pics. Are we talking big enough for a fax machine, or is it really thin and tall and shallow from front to back? Sorry, but I can't think of any examples. Just wondering how big of box you need for getting good shots.

Thanks again for the awesome tut. I really appreciate it. I'll work on getting a box made and try to post a pic I've done when I finish.

[Hannah Z]

arrhythmia, I so pleased its helped you!

I don't know what kind the lightbulbs are, I thought they were just energy saving! I've had a look on them and it doesn't say either. The box is approx 45cm high x 50cm wide x 30cm deep, but I think you could use a slightly smaller or bigger one as long as it fits the tray that you're using - the bulbs we have are long so it needs to be that high.

If you come across any problems just let me know!

OH!! My husband was taking some photos using the box last night with his super duper new camera and they all came out with a very slight pink tinge - we worked out it was because he was wearing a red t-shirt that must have reflected (it was only in a certain area of the shot). This hasn't happened before and it must have been 'cos his camera is so good, but there is a way to get rid of it if it happens! Go to the "colour levels" box and use the "value" drop down menu next to adjust individual colour levels and you need to play about with the opposite colour from what you need to change and it will bring your picture back to being white. OR maybe just wear white clothes when doing it

[Silver-Faery]

thansk! i dont think i could go to all that effort but it defo helps for knowing ho wto do it welL!

[Rock_n_rollKitty]

i think its awesome! thankyou for the tutorial!

quessie please:: How do you attatch the lightbulbs to the lid. Is it a very obvious answer and i'm too dull ((sort of pun.. lol lol)) to get it?

[Hannah Z]

Rock_n_roll Kitty, I didn't do the attaching lightbulbs bit (I'm rubbish at that sort of stuff so my husband did it for me!), but it basically involved drilling some holes in the lid to feed the wires through and screw the lightbulb fittings on and then using glue to secure them a bit more. They are the same light fittings that you would use for the ceiling and we got them from B+Q (in the UK) for a few pounds each. I've just used a plastic lid that I got from Ikea for £1.

Silver-Faery, It is a bit of hassle, I agree! I suppose its really just in case people who sell stuff online want to take this kind of photography for there website and I can help them out.

 

[arrhythmia]

I love the red shirt story. Good to know about in case I get any wierd color effects. I'll try it out and let you know if I have any problems. Thanks again. Oh, yeah, thank you for the box dimensions.