Photographing Jewellery

I found this one of the hardest styles to do well and I still think there is much to be improved. I found it difficult to get the lighting right and flatter the jewellery at the same time. They just ended up looking quite clumsy because the composition was awkward and also the fact that it was zoomed in so far made it difficult for me to make the photograph interesting...hence the clumsiness. Also I think that because I was using a 14-42mm lens (which incidentally is the only one I  have that fits my camera) it messed with perspective and I couldn't get close enough so I had to use digital zoom (ech!) and the photographs came out funny...again hence the clumsiness. Unfortunately, I had clocked onto the lens problem much later on so I haven't had a chance to do another shoot although it is definitely something I want to try again...I guess its just a case of borrowing a camera and macro lens! 

In judging the photographs, my thought process was this...I would look at the photograph from two perspectives: the photographer and the consumer. 

First I would look at the technical aspects. Is the composition good? Is the exposure good? Is it in focus? Is the lighting correct? Is there glare? Does it need editing or cropping? blah blah blah!!! There always seemed to be something I could improve on. 

Then I would try and look at the photograph objectively and ask myself "If I saw this in, say, a magazine or on TV would it want me want to buy this product?" If the answer is no, I'd wrack my brains trying to figure out why and more often than not the answer was "I dunno know....I just doesn't seduce me like it should!". This ends with me trying many different combinations of compositions, lighting and angles. 

Anyway...here are some of the photographs I have been ranting about...

My problem with this photograph is that one earring has the correct exposure whereas the earring on the left is slightly overexposed. however when I angled it like the other, the composition just didn't work as well!

With this photograph, my issue was the reflection in the ring which is something I had a  problem with A LOT! Also a little bit of glare on the left :(

 I really enjoyed taking photographs of the watch however I wasn't able to do it in a way that includes all four numbers-it just looks strange when some of them are missing...or half missing!

My main problem with this photograph was glare-the light bounced off these bracelets like CRAZY  (note to self...do not photograph anything with glitter!).But I was able to solve the problem by reducing the light on the left and adding another light on the right just to ensure that the bracelets are well lit.

Technically speaking, I really liked the composition of this photograph-it took a while to find the right position for the bracelet and the lighting and exposure were great however my problem with it would be as a consumer in the sense that the bracelet itself wasn't very 'fabulous!' however it was a very interesting piece to try.

This photograph was not one of my favourites. Mainly I think because of the composition. It looked very awkward and I found this piece perhaps the hardest to photograph because of the shape of the stones. It was difficult to extenuate the shape whilst keeping the earrings well lit as well as avoiding glare! A way to light it properly would be to use a few more low intensity lights and decrease the one already being used to give a nice even lighting brightness whilst avoiding glare.

I then looked at some professional jewellery photographs for some inspiration at which point I came across a British commercial photographer called Tony May. I looked at some of his images and I noticed he tended to use a completely white background which made the jewellery stand out more (see right)

I then decided to try not placing the jewellery on top of something and decided to combine it with this technique we were taught using another light and a biconvex lens...

Using a biconvex lens in combination with the light source produced a colour spectrum which was projected onto the white table below the subject so the effect becomes the background. As the light passes through the lens the light is refracted an the colours separate producing this effect. Even thought is technique is still very different from the very crisp and clean cut style of jewellery photography Tony May has adopted I think that the use of the biconcave lens does add a certain something special so I think it works well. However if I were to improve the photograph I would ensure that when the spectrum is projected onto the white table, it is more straight because I think it would look better than the angle it is in now. Also I would perhaps exchange the transparent plastic because it has some scratches on it.