Taking piccies of jewellery?

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Little Tiger

Little Tiger

O.G.
Dec 10, 2007
364
2
#1
I have decided to...finally!...sell some old jewellery which I don't wear very much (not family stuff but some things which I'd bought and don't wear enough to justify keeping. I'm on a pare down mission!).

However I can't seem to take good photos of it...any tips?

The diamonds just look exceptionally shiny and much better than they actually are in the pics I take.
 
#4
Also: To do the best job, use a tripod. It completely reduces the shake that you get with hand holding. You can get very close (enough to use the macro setting), and you can use a variety of angles including overhead. I use one that collapses to table-top height. You can find ones that aren't expensive.
 
#5
Little Tiger said:
I have decided to...finally!...sell some old jewellery which I don't wear very much (not family stuff but some things which I'd bought and don't wear enough to justify keeping. I'm on a pare down mission!).

However I can't seem to take good photos of it...any tips?

The diamonds just look exceptionally shiny and much better than they actually are in the pics I take.
Click to expand...

What is your outlet for selling your jewelry? I've kind of wanted to do the same thing, but I don't know a good outlet to do so. Ebay is pretty much all I can think of and I don't know if I like that idea very much. Is there like a used jewelry website that you sell at?
 
#6
I use a professional "photo box" for my glass beads and jewellery. It comes in a kit and includes the proper lighting so you never have to rely on the weather forecast. That way your pics come out fool-proof and very professional.
 
#7
nyc_cady said:
What is your outlet for selling your jewelry? I've kind of wanted to do the same thing, but I don't know a good outlet to do so. Ebay is pretty much all I can think of and I don't know if I like that idea very much. Is there like a used jewelry website that you sell at?
Click to expand...

I'm in the UK, but as the jewellery I'm selling is quite old, picked a jewellers I've bought from before and is specialist in that area. I need to send them accurate pics so we can agree a price range (they're in a different city). I thought people would specifically go to that jewellers to buy trusted old jewellery, so would rather send to them rather than ebay etc.

Besides, I've never sold before so am a little nervous about it!

It really depends what you have; it's probably easier to sell on ebay if it's hallmarked/recent (benefits of cutting out the middleman), whereas if there is a specialist market, look into that. Definitely ask around and get lots of opinions before you sell anything.

Thank you very much for the suggestions about taking pics; I must be going absolutely loopy as I had tried to take photos indoors with a flash :blushing:

I will go and persevere with the flower icon on my digital camera.

Thank you!
 
#9
These are great tips. I did the photography for a book on costume jewelry and that can be really challenging because of the way rhinestones refract/reflect light. We used a photo box but also all kinds of other set ups, depending on the piece. I have found indirect daylight, no flash, to give the truest colours with less blue cast in the background. Also yes to the tripod and macro settings. Experiment with backgrounds. Some pieces look better against white and some against black.
 
#11
Wanted to add also consider experimenting with angles...like this:

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#13
A really old Sony 5 MP camera. I have found Sony to take amazing jewelry pictures. I have a Nikon D300 with a macro lens and found it a lot more difficult to get the pics I wanted.

Here is another one. I'm not a huge fan of props, but it worked well here. I find on Ebay people use too many distracting backgrounds and props. Simpler tends to be better.

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#14
mistikat said:
A really old Sony 5 MP camera. I have found Sony to take amazing jewelry pictures. I have a Nikon D300 with a macro lens and found it a lot more difficult to get the pics I wanted.

Here is another one. I'm not a huge fan of props, but it worked well here. I find on Ebay people use too many distracting backgrounds and props. Simpler tends to be better.

attachment.php
Click to expand...

I think you're just really talented with photography :) I have a Nikon coolpix, to be fair to the camera I haven't sat down and read the manual back to back.

Thanks for the images, they are wonderful.
 
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