Top 5 Tips for Photographing Handmade Jewelry

We all want to be able to take beautiful photographs of handmade jewelry but it can sometimes be a little challenging to get the photos to look just how we want them to. Use the tips below to help build your photography skills!

#1 – Use natural light. Jewelry photographs beautifully in diffused natural light, meaning not in the direct sunlight but still utilizing the natural light from outside. A tip is to photograph your jewelry next to a window. The photo below was taken outside once the sun was no longer directly above. 

#2 – Make your jewelry the focus of the photos. Make sure to clear away any distracting background items in the photo and use your props to enhance your jewelry, not distract from it. When someone looks at the photo, you want them to see the jewelry first and foremost and everything else secondary. Even though the photo above uses a post card as a prop, the jewelry is still the main focus of the image.  

#3 – Wear a white shirt while taking images. If you wear a white shirt while photographing, you become your own white reflector and help to brighten up your photos. Nice, clear, and bright photos are the goal. Make sure that your photos are not too dark or with too many shadows where you cannot see the jewelry. Bonus Tip: a direct (non-diffused) bright light right above your shooting area will cause shadows.

#4 – Show scale or photograph on a model or bust. In person, someone would be able to see the size of the jewelry and would most likely hold it up to themselves to look at it in a mirror. Your photos are the bridge between the online shopping experience and the physical shopping experience. Showing the jewelry on a person helps the customer imagine what it would look like on them and can help lead to sales. It will also help them determine the size of the piece.

#5 – Keep your colors true to life when editing. It’s very tempting to use filters and adjust your photos to look "just right" but you don’t want to do this at the expense of distorting reality. If you have a purple and green bracelet, you don’t want to edit the photo so much that it now looks pink and yellow (because whatever your customer sees in the photo is what they expect to arrive at their door). Just make sure to keep your colors true when editing and match them to the actual design.

For more tips on photographing handmade jewelry, watch the video:

Featured Video: Tips for Selling Handmade Jewelry Episode 5: Photographing Handmade Jewelry

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