Whether through websites, social media, or print catalogs, your jewelry photography connects you to customers. Learn to make the best use of images.
This article is one of a series of articles from Metalsmith Magazine “Art and Technics” talking about techniques in craftsmanship and design. For this 1992 Spring issue, Tim McCreight talks about superstitions and superstitious beliefs. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Somewhere in our childhood each…
A vertical copy stand is sometimes used for shooting prints, drawings, jewelry and other fairly flat objects. A copy stand is designed so that one has vertical movement of the camera while it faces down. There are usually fixed lights at 45 degree angles to the shooting surface. The vertical column that the camera is mounted on keeps the plane of the film parallel to the shooting surface which gives good results for.
In response to Marilyn Shaw’s article “Photographic Images on Refractory Metals” (Metalsmith, Summer ’84, page 32), we have researched the possibilities of a safer alternative of producing photographic images (chromatec). The health hazards of the previous process (using xylene) deterred…
The photography of jewelry can achieve a whole lot more than just depicting products. It can focus on unique details that generate very different feelings and can contribute to the visual communication of the jewelrys inspiration. Unfortunately, we see time and again that jewelry designers adopt a strangely ambivalent position when faced with how to communicate their products. This applies in particular to jewelry manufacturers in the initial stages of their careers. It is a crying shame that there are so many designers able to achieve the highest standards of precision and perfect craftsmanship in the production of jewelry and then proceed to take inferior photos of it that in no way do justice to their own excellent work. Conversely, established designers who are familiar with trade fair business and with handling the media have usually already discovered or experienced how important it is to define a clear approach in communicating ones own style of jewelry and its special features. An idea of who is or may be the target group for the jewelry can help the photographer or designer find a suitable language of images.
Now we’re going to start talking about taking the picture – actually getting closer to taking the image. There’s a couple of things that we need to think about. One of them is the size of the object in proportion to the image area (remember any cropping action your camera will inflict on the image seen through the viewfinder and also that you will lose some of the edge area under the slide mount). It should be just right, no too big and.
Good photos of your work, or pieces you take in for repair, are invaluable. These small-scale photos, however, can be tricky to shoot without the following tips.
Steve Satow shares his procedure for customized light box for your jewelry photography projects and customized bench shelf for more storage spaces on your bench. Customized Light Box This is a picture of the Light Box in use, using 4 of 5…
Depth of field refers to the amount of the object that is in focus (the depth that is in focus). When you look through the camera’s viewfinder on a close – up shot you may notice that part of the object is in focus and part is not. You can change the focus using the lens so that the front, middle or back zone of the object is in focus. You will, however, not normally be able to see the entire object in focus at the same time throughout the viewfinder.
English enamels made during the period 1750 to 1840 were chiefly ornamented with transfer printed images and mottos. While the most important innovations in this manufacture were connected with these transfer processes, other new working systems were needed to make…
If an object will sit by itself on the shooting surface this is not a problem but often it needs to be propped up in some way. Even objects that will sit well on a flat surface sometimes need tilting slightly towards the camera by placing something under their rear side. Holding objects in place for the photograph is usually fairly easy and fast just by placing a.
The successful documentation of finished work is of vital concern to every artist. Excellent slides make better teaching tools, and it goes without saying that the quality of photographs weighs heavily when work is being considered for juried exhibitions. I…
The photography of jewelry can achieve a whole lot more than just depicting products. It can focus on unique details that generate very different feelings and can contribute to the visual communication of the jewelry’s inspiration. The jewelry by the…
The film that I’m going to recommend, and that I use myself, is 64 ISO Tungsten Ecktachrome film. It only comes in 36 – shot rolls. It is used with photoflood bulbs. Even though it says 64 ISO on the box, in actual practice you set the ISO on the camera to 50 (check the instructions that come with the film). You can happily use Tungsten Fujichrome film.
There is nothing that will block the path towards acceptance in a juried situation more quickly than a poor quality or unintelligible image– be it digital or film. The goal is to convey as much information about the piece pictured as possible without ambiguity or confusion. Relying on the jurors having any time or desire to puzzle out what is going on in an image will result in an irritated jury indisposed to accepting the entry. A poor image may indicate to a jury that the artist doesnt take their work seriously enough to find a way to document it well. When the competition is stiff (the amount of quality images/entries is high) this can definitely affect an artists chances of making the cut. There are certainly instances when a piece is so strong that it can shine through a screen of poor photography. But relying on that is faith misplaced. If the only true acquaintance a juror–be they an exhibition juror, book or magazine editor or gallery director– has with a piece is the image taken of it, then that image had better make a positive first impression.
The kind of lights and lighting that I recommend for our drop shadow system are photofloods (type B). You can buy these bulbs at many photo stores but you should shop around: prices vary from 2 dollars to 10 dollars per bulb. They are a pretty standard item in photo stores that sell to professionals. Tell the camera store staff you will be using tungsten film.
The goal of this guide is to help you create images of your jewelry that you can be proud of, whether for simple record keeping purposes, for appraisal work or for advertising locally or on the Internet. Buried in here is a guide to a simple setup that works, and it works every time. Its buried because I want you to read a little to uncover it; youll be learning on the way.
In photoetching a photo transparency defines the area of a metal plate to be etched. The transparency is the control unit, the program, that prescribes which parts of the light-sensitive resist will chemically harden, polymerize, to become impervious to attack…
We are assuming you have a 35 mm camera. You will need a ‘single lens reflex’ (SLR) camera with a ‘through the lens’ metering system (TTL). This type of camera allows you to see through the viewfinder what will be recorded on the film. It also allows you take reflected light meter readings from your object through the camera lens. My favorite is a.
The following article explains photo techniques used to transfer images onto refractory metals. These findings were developed during my graduate studies at California State University, Long Beach, California. Traditionally photo resists have been used as a masking agent in the…
As a former staff photographer for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Sheldan Collins has photographed an extraordinary range of art objects from one of the world’s most extensive art collection. In his new book, How to Photograph Works of Art…
Three – dimensional objects will be well served by the methods described before, such as overhead diffuse lighting, fill card and mirror use. For flat things (like prints) use copy set – ups which primarily consist of extremely even light on the object and the camera centered properly on the work. Shiny things will need tents. We did, however, ask a number of craftspeople and artists whether there were any special considerations they felt were associated with different media. The following is derived from their comments.
The use of ‘Plexiglas L’s’ is an extremely effective small scale lighting system. You take white, translucent Plexiglas, and you make squares approximately two feet (60 cm) on each side. Then you make two L – shaped constructions by gluing the edges together.
Do not get caught in the dark – make certain your shop is well lit. In the jewelry shop, two types of lighting are used. 1. Ambient or General Lighting. 2. Task Lighting. It is best to have a combination of the two in your shop. It is best to have a combination of the two in your shop..
Reflective surfaces are a special case. I remember seeing an Art in America magazine once, and on the cover was a picture of some really famous sculptor’s work in a Washington, DC gallery. It was a large, bulbous, bronze casting. It was highly polished, and what was really funny was that there on the cover of Art in America magazine was a picture of the sculpture.
These are some check lists to use when preparing to phtograph objects.
“The saying “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” could scarcely be more relevant that in the creative sector. Painters, illustrators, designers and photographers alike all view the things and beings around them with their own individual perception of…
If, like me, you consider yourself a successful photographer, you may be skeptical about products on the market that promise to improve your jewelry photos. I had a recent opportunity to review one such product, the MK Gem eBox, a light box designed to aid in the process of digitally photographing jewelry, by MK Digital Direct in San Diego. Since I always jury-rig my stage, I was prepared to dismiss the Gem eBox as technological overkill—an expensive alternative to the bed sheet tenting I have always done.
A note on slide developing: you want your slides to be developed for the best quality possi¬ble. If you want to impress your local photo shop, you go in and you ask “do you do dip and dunk E-6 photo processing?” Dip and dunk means that it’s not touched by human hands or rollers or anything, and it’s supposed to be a much better quality of developing.
This article, “Transparency Making for Photoetching”, is the first of two parts written by Allan Liu and Carol Webb. Check out the second part of this article series “Photoetching for the Studio Jeweler.” Photoetching is a radical departure from the traditional…
This vertical photography set can be constructed inexpensively to photograph small objects such as jewelry and vessels from high angles. Make the modified box of ¾” plywood, about 12 inches wide and 16 inches deep, with a height of 12…
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