If you are new to this series, I encourage you to read the first installment here.
Last week we covered how important natural lighting is for your photography, and in the coming weeks you will find out more reasons why. I hope by now you know the absolute best time of the day to photograph your jewelry or small items as well as have figured out the best place in the house to do it.Like lighting, composition and background are very important. They should compliment the main subject of your photo, not detract from it. Here are some key points I follow when setting up my photo area:
1) Color
My colors of choice are simple: White and Grey. I know it sounds dull and boring, however, I believe when you throw colors in the mix, it greatly distracts from your piece. Just a simple swatch of special occasion fabric does the trick. I use 1 yard pieces of each white and grey satin and will choose them based on the pieces. If the piece is dark, I use grey so as not to create too much contrast with the white. Contrariwise, I will use grey if the piece is very light colored so as to create more of a contrast. In the past, I used white quite frequently, however, I have been trying to add more grey to my photos. I almost think grey helps with the lighting and editing of the photos. Play with your fabric swatches to get the best effect you are looking for. Please forgive the following photos as we have rain and grey skies today. Doesn't make for a good demonstration photo session!
When getting ready for a photo session, I pull out a cookbook and a cookbook holder. I place them on the table so that they will hold up the fabric in the background, but I do not place them so that they cause shadows in the picture. What I mean is that I place them so that they do not block the window. In this picture, the actual window is to the left of the photo. Again, you don't want to be on top of the window, you want a few feet of space between your window and your actual photo set-up.
Then I drape my fabric over them so that it covers the table also. You may want to press your piece first so as not to show wrinkles in the photo. I also use the wrong side of the fabric to cut down on glare from the shiny satin. I use the cheapest satin I can get, but you can get creative with this by using different special occasion fabrics. And, of course, you will want to move the chair out of the way when doing your actual photo....nothing worse than shadows in your photo area!
2) Pattern
This is just a matter of preference, but I tend to stay away from pattern. As if your piece isn't competing against enough, and believe it or not, the weave of your fabric will more times than not show up as a pattern in your photograph. Therefore, adding extra pattern just clutters things. I keep to a plain white and grey cloth.
Here is an image up close with macro showing the pattern of the fabric that many times will show up in your image. This is really pattern enough. Any pattern print will certainly be overkill.
3) Props
I think props are useful only to show the scale of a piece. When using a prop, I tend to stick with things that are more or less universal in size. The funny thing is that I have used many items for propping my pieces and found that my most favorite piece happens to be my most favorite cup and saucer. It is white, it is pretty standard size and it just plain works for me. The drawback is that I cannot use it anymore for tea :(
I do, however, throw a little bit of accent color in my photos by adding a little sprig of silk flowers in the background that matches the color of my shop. You don't need a lot of flowers, just a section cut from a spring of silk flowers is enough. It looks ugly up close, but it is usually in the background and therefore gets softened by the depth of field in the actual photos.
Next week, I will concentrate on your camera features and angles to use when photographing jewelry. Your job this week will be to acquire appropriate fabric, hunt the house over for a good prop (think scale) and maybe find something that you can put in the background to add a little color for interest and depth.Disclaimer:
Please remember that I am not an expert. These are not hard and fast rules. This tutorial only contains information I have figured out along the way that happens to work well for me. Please feel free to adopt any of the tactics that I have stated.
