Metal Clay Business Resources - Photography
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On this page you’ll find resources to help you with photographing your jewellery. If you intend to teach metal clay, PMC or Art Clay or sell your jewellery, you’ll want to have good quality photographs for your marketing material and website. You can employ a professional photographer or do it yourself.
To find professional jewellery photographers, click here.
Content checked June 2020.
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Correcting Color
This useful article tells you how to use black and white to correct the color balance of your photos.
Flickr – Promote your work by displaying your photos online
Sign up for a free account with Flickr and upload your photos. This photo sharing site is a great place to display your work, especially if you don’t have a website of your own.
GIMP – Free photo editing software for Mac OS X
This software is downloadable for free and will only work on Mac OS X. User friendly.
Holding Objects for Photography
Great article on Ganoksin by Charles Lewton Brain about how to hold jewellery items when you’re photographing them.
How to Make a Light Box to Improve Your Photography
These photography tips are designed to help you make your photographs looks bright, eye catching and professional and you don’t need to have an expensive camera to do this!
Jennifer Kahn – Photographing Jewelry Blog
Tutorial from Jennifer Kahn about photographing your jewelry. Great read!
Jewelry Making Guide – Jewelry Photography Tips
Useful article with some tips and hints.
KelbyOne
This site has a large number of video lessons on photography and photographic manipulation programmes like Photoshop. Some are free. To get access to more, you are required to subscribe and pay a small fee. The Photoshop beginners lessons are divided into 5-10 minute lessons. You can pause the video to try the techniques as you watch.
Photographing Jewelry Videos from Expert Village.
This series of short videos on YouTube has a wealth of information for taking photos of your jewelery.
Settings like the ISO and aperture should be set low, and use a manual focus. Practice your jewelry photography with the right settings in this free product photography video.
Photographing white jewelry on a white background can be a difficult shot to arrange. Learn ways to troubleshoot jewelry photography with this free product photography video.
A tilt-shift controlled perspective camera lens is great for photographing the complex planes of jewelry. Learn about lenses and practice your jewelry photography with this free product photography video.
Photographing jewelry may use a variety of lenses popular with professional photographers. Learn about lenses and practice your jewelry photography with this free product photography video.
Having a secure tripod is a must for professional photographers. Practice your jewelry photography with a quality tripod in this free product photography video.
Earrings should be photographed hanging to replicate how they are worn. Practice your jewelry photography on earrings with this free product photography video.
Getting rid of reflections in jewelry photography can be tricky. Practice your jewelry photography without unsightly reflections in this free product photography video.
To get the right light for jewelry photography, light underneath the subject. Practice your jewelry photography with the best lighting gear in this free product photography video.
Photography Quick Reference
This useful chart shows you the depth of field, shutter speed and ISO effects in picture form.
Photography Secret Weapons – Vickie Hallmark
Vickie Hallmark has a great blog and she’s put her secret weapons to take fantastic photos on her June09 blog page. If you love gadgets, you’ll love Vickie’s secret weapons!
Photography Talk
PhotographyTalk helps photographers tell amazing stories with their cameras. With the best resources that are loved by over 3 million photographers all over the globe, it’s everything you need to know about photography at your fingertips. They’re the “everything” resource for photographers.
Photography Tips – Fire Mountain Gems
Useful how-to article with a video compiled and Written by Sam Niemeyer, Exclusively for Fire Mountain Gems and Beads via an Interview with Matt Connell, Fire Mountain Gems and Beads In-house Professional Jewelry Photographer.
Photography Tips – Fusion Beads
FusionBeads.com photographers, Joysha, Devin and Chrissy, have provided TONS of valuable information that will help you take amazing photographs of your own jewelry! Follow these tips, from choosing your setting, laying out your jewelry, setting up your camera, to taking your photo, and you will be shooting photos like the pros!
Table Top Studio
This site has a huge range of resources and tutorials for photographing all types of jewellery including glass and beads. All the tips and tricks you need to take the best photographs. It also lists the tools needed to create great photos without spending a fortune.
Taking Photos of Reflective Objects
Great tutorial from Charles Lewton-Brain.
Top 17 Best Online Photography Courses
On this page are some of the best courses available on the web. Best of all is that a majority of these are free!
Top Online Photography Courses
Online courses for all levels. Whether you are fully-dedicated to photography and want to earn your online degree or you just want to learn the basics of Photoshop, you can review the links on this website and see what form of education suites you.
The Ultimate Guide to Photographing Jewellery
One of the most important parts of selling any product is good photography. The more amazing your items look, the more people will want them! But it’s not always so simple. Jewellery photography can be quite a challenge at times and it’s difficult to determine exactly what steps to take to improve your pictures. So Kernowcraft have created this article to try and help anyone who wants to improve their photography. Whether you’re just starting out and using your phone, or you have a big professional DSLR camera, there’s something here for everyone to learn.
Using Flags to Control Reflections in the Studio
In this video, you’ll get a first hand look at how flags work. Flags are simple dark or light pieces of cardboard or plastic that are used to control the reflections on shiny objects. I’ll be photographing some custom jewelry to showcase how your photos can be improved by the use of flags.
Proper Lighting for Photographing Jewelry by Robert Lobitz
In this day and age, if you want to show off your amazing skills or even sell some of your work, you need to learn how to properly utilize the internet. Many of us are diehard fans of the brick and mortar stores and face to face interactions, but the best way to get your name and pieces out there and into the thoughts and dreams of more people is the internet. To do this the right way you need to know how to take good pictures and the biggest mistake I see made every day is the use of improper lighting. Let’s solve some of these problems.
This picture is an example of what to not do. The piece looks dull, the pendant is out of focus and the surface they chose to shoot on seems to be a black plastic trash bag. There is a lot to discuss here, but we are going to focus on lighting.
LED lights are the best studio option if you want the perfect light. Many people will opt for the less expensive CFL bulbs, but I did that once and then I smashed one bulb, I bought a replacement, had to spend twice as much money and ended up spending way more money than I would have had I just bought LED lights. LEDs are quite durable, in contrast to fragile glass bulbs, and that quality alone is important for those of us who are going to be moving and repositioning lights every day.
Light the piece from all sides without having any lights in the frame to avoid lens flares, heavy shadows and searing glare. Get some light softening filters to further avoid glare and washing your piece out entirely. This is known as using diffuse light and it is mandatory for photographing reflective surfaces.
Above all else, you are going to want to choose lighting instruments that give a wide range of wavelengths that replicates daylight as closely as possible. LEDs can offer you the perfect light in a continuous form with predictable and repeatable results.
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