Photographing resin jewelry

This past Saturday, I ventured out midday to photograph some of my resin jewelry to be used as a photo enlargement to display on a wall in my art show booth.  The idea is that customers and art gallery and boutique owners can see the photographs from a distance and will be at least intrigued to come into my booth.

I made my own light box by cutting out the sides and top of a cardboard box and replacing the cutouts with white computer paper, which serves to diffuse the light.  The background is a white to gray to black photogradient paper.  This is an industry standard when photographing anything for show entries or magazine advertisements.  (Kind of like that brown/gold background when you get elementary school pictures.)  I used a piece of aluminum foil to reflect light back onto the piece of resin jewelry.


So here are the finished pictures:

Per some other artist recommendations, I am getting these printed at Costco (in a 12 inch by 18 inch size), and will hang them with poster clips.  The Costco price for printing was very affordable, so I'm hoping the pictures will turn out well too.

Photographing new jewelry

I have some new resin pendants using recycled Scrabble tiles.  I'm just now starting to list the first set of resin necklaces with cupcake designs, but I have lots more designs to list as well.  I love the look of these:  dainty, cute, unpretentious.  As much as I love the necklaces, I'm "unsettled" with the photography.

There are several aspects of my jewelry photography that I'm struggling with.  First of all, I'm having a hard time getting the true beauty of the pieces to translate onto a computer screen.  I've heard multiple times from customers that my jewelry is much prettier and nicer in person.  It's certainly meant as a compliment, but I also know that means my jewelry pictures just aren't that great.  I struggle with lighting, backgrounds, angles, and much more.  This is definitely one of those jobs that I would be happy to have someone else do on a regular basis.

I also struggle with using photoediting software such as Photoshop.  First, I'm a bit of a "purist" about capturing images of my resin jewelry.  I don't think it's fair to do much more than correct a wrinkle or adjust the contrast.  I don't want to manipulate images so much that it's completely computer generated.  Secondly, I just don't have a good grasp on using Photoshop.  Maybe if I was better at using it, I wouldn't feel so bad about using it to improve my jewelry photographs.

The important part in all this, is that I want to hear what readers think.  I want to hear your perspective as a customer, another artist, general fashion enthusiast, or whatever!  Do you like seeing the jewelry on the natural, beige colored stone?  Do you like a completely blank (white) background better?  Would you rather see it on a model?  How about the graduated light gray to dark gray background (see an example here)?  A fresh set of eyes might just help direct me on how to photograph my resin jewelry.

P.S.  If you're looking for the next post on the resin bracelet making process, I promise it's coming.  I decided to install a new piece of equipment to help me with the procedure, which I will talk about in the post.

Why didn't I think of that?

So I mentioned on the KMS Designs Facebook fan page a few days ago that I didn't like the pictures I had taken of my jewelry. Helen, one of my fans and newest friends, gave a suggestion on a setup to try. Once she mentioned it, I thought, why didn't I think of that?? I did some research on the setup she shared and had then idea to make my own. I took a styrofoam cooler and cut it to work for my tripod and camera. I like the resulting pictures much better! Thanks Helen!