Product photographers have to face additional challenges as these products are usually small, reflective, and difficult to stage for shooting. With proper strategies, these problems can be avoided.
- Smudged, unprepared products.
Jewelry products should be clean and polished. The problem is that a DSLR and lighting setup makes everything on your jewelry product when photographed.
So clean it up every time you touch it. Well, wear cotton gloves; they may help save time and excessive reshoots.
- Inconsistent shooting
Develop a set of guidelines for your jewelry photography and follow them strictly. Avoid any consistency and variations from products and shots as it will distract your customer. Also, note down everything, including camera settings, backgrounds, lighting, and equipment position. It would be great if you could resume shooting even on a different day without considerable changes.
- Complex background
Many people lacking experience would regard a boring white background and try for active and colorful backgrounds.
There is a logic in eBay, Amazon, Rakuten, and other major platforms for requiring a white or neutral background or rarely black. A plain white or light grey background helps to keep the focus where it must be on your product. A seamless white paper, and creating a lightbox may help in this regard. Try to fix blemishes, if any, through any photo editing software.
- Unnecessary props
Props are distractions that are not needed at all. Some think their jewelry will look great when staged elaborately. Someone may want to show it in a lifelike manner. But actually, most props throw attention away from your product. Sometimes, it is good to use stylish props and models on magazine covers, hero images on websites, and banners in emails. But they are not required with your jewelry product photography as they bring inconsistency and distraction, which is unacceptable.
- Reflections everywhere
Surely, no one would intend to confuse their client, whether the reflection in product photography is captured by the photographer or a flaw in the stone.
The presence of gemstones and metal provides a technical challenge for jewelry product photography. It is difficult enough to shoot highly reflective objects with no distracting reflections. Here, you need to use a double overhead light to shoot such reflective jewelry items.
Put your jewelry product on a solid block or table, setting one large studio light on either side. Diffuse both lights with umbrellas. Also, hang and sweep a seamless white paper behind and underneath the product.
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- Shaky images
If you are trying to handhold your camera, it is a bad idea. It results in blurred images of the product, highly unacceptable. So always have your tripod with you while planning product photography. These are not expensive but highly useful in capturing ideal photographs of your jewelry product. When your camera is in the hold of a tripod, it is easy to use optimal aperture and ISO settings. Mark your floor position at the tripod point so that you can easily replicate your setup even when shooting later days.