How to take great photos of your items!

I wanted to share my knowledge on how to take good photos of jewelry and other small objects. I created a "Photo Box" which is easy to construct and use! I will be posting this in the art section also...


Items you need:
12x12x12 box
14 x 10 piece of plexyglass or glass
a knife
background paper (scrapbooking paper is great from craft store)
velinium paper (scrapbooking section- looks like frosted paper)
60-100 watt light

How to put it all together:

1) Take your 12x12x12 box and cut out one side. Keep the bottom of your box intact.

2) (open side you just cut out) Measure 9 inches from the bottom and make a slit all the way to the back of the box on both sides. Do not cut the back of the box.

3) Slide your glass into the slits of the box

4) Take the velinium paper and take it over the light source. The velinium paper is used to defuse the light.

5) Aim the light towards the opening of your box.

6) Lay your background on the bottom of your box as your background.

Your camera should focus on the jewelry or small object. The background will be fuzzy due to the distance of the background from the object.

Here is an example of a photo I did using this photo box



Here is the photo of the photo box...



Hope this helps anyone interested in taking good photos for auctions or their website. I still need to redo a bunch of items on my site.

Matthew Nix
www.createapendant.com

 

wow thanks that was great advice

 

yeah, great idea! thanks for sharin!!!

 

Oooh.... I need to share this with my mom. She makes some great jewelery and has a hard time photograhping it. Thanks for sharing.

 

I've been using this photo box with my Ebay auctions and have seen a dramtic increase in sales the last several weeks. When it comes to jewelry... it's the photo that usually sells it. You can see my auction photos at:

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQfgtpZ1QQfrppZ25QQsassZnixcreations

Matthew

 

Do you have any recommendations for taking pictures of clothing and other items? I have a hard time getting good bright clear pictures of my clothing.

 

Clothing is probably harder to photograph than jewelry... for other reasons. There is one rule in photography... the best lighting is sunlight. Do not take pictures next to your car or in some junked up garage. Take a white sheet and hang it and pull it tight so there are no wrinkles. Always use light colors as a background. Do not include the indiviuals head in the shot because it draws attention away from the clothing itself. Make sure you take a photo of the front and back of the outfit. Make sure you have a good model body type for your clothing. Also make sure you tell your buyers the dementions of the clothing. I personally don't know how you "one of a kind" clothing sellers do it. I'm just trying to use my knowlege and common sense on the photography of clothing. I've never taken photos of clothing. There are many clothing designers here on the board. They may have better insight, argree or disagree with me.

Matthew
www.createapendant.com

 

Hi,
What I have used for some Jewelry Photography is a styroform box (ice cooler available in grocery stores for three odd bucks), and place the jewerly inside it and use the camera flash when I click. The background comes out 'pure' white, and the flash light diffuses and gets reflected from all sides giving a very consistent white light on the object. Some times, I have used a white paper sheet inside as the background. For some small clothing accessories I have been able to use the white board (that you can get from Staples, etc., again for 3-4 bucks). That gives a very neat background.
For large clothing I agree the best is the natural sunlight, but I am still struggling to get a good background.
ro1vi
http://www.thelittlebazaar.com

 

Thanks for the new idea Ro1vi. Never thought of the styrofoam box idea. Might have to give that a try.

Matthew

 

Excellent idea and thanks for sharing that....it is always the simplistic that evades me...I tend to complicate things trying too hard to accomplish the simple.Great idea with very little investment.
Thanks again for sharing.

 

thanks for sharing