Photography is integral to online jewelry sales. Presentation sells! We are always striving for that perfect balance between accurately depicting our work and those fun and creative, “artsy” shots. Because we sell beads, and not jewelry, it’s not necessary that our photography be artsy, but instead our pictures need to be as realistic as possible. This can be a challenge at times, and over the years we’ve learned a few tricks.
Rudi Taylor does ALL of the photography at Happy Mango Beads. She prefers the diffused natural light that comes through three south-facing windows in the warehouse. Nearly all photos are taken on a white paper background with her trusty old digital Olympus camera. It goes through ‘AA’ batteries like you can’t imagine so I help by quickly laying out the beads, moving them after they’re photographed and laying out more beads so she never has to turn off the camera. As you can imagine, this is probably a routine that only a mother and daughter can make work! Rudi braces herself against the table and holds her breath for each shot (no blur!). She’s experimented with cameras, tripods, light tents, etc. but this is how she ultimately captures her best photos. There are always those not-so-photogenic beads: purples, blues, shiny or mirrored surfaces and or worse yet, clear beads, grrrr! Trials and tribulations, we’re continually learning.
We would like to share some of our photography tips, and we encourage you to share your tips and opinions in the comments below.
Camera Settings
Macro Mode: enable close focus. Ideal for shooting most beads and jewelry, whenever your subject of focus is approximately 1 foot away.
Aperture Priority Mode: control the depth of your background. The size of your aperture will depend on your desired effect. At smaller apertures the background of an image will be in focus; at larger apertures the background will blur. By blurring the background some, for example, you minimize distraction from your focal point. Experiment with this!
Mega Pixels: for online use 4 mega pixels should be sufficient. More mega pixels = more detail so images can be viewed in larger sizes, but there is a limit to reasonable image size online.
White Balance: don’t rely on your digital camera’s auto white balance setting (AWB). By manually setting your white balance unnatural colors are removed from your photo, improving the accuracy of your photography. Adjusting color on the computer can be messy; eliminate having to do so by setting the white balance before shooting.
Lighting
Effective lighting is very important to eliminate shadows and unrealistic color. Shooting in natural filtered light is always the best option (no flash). There is a reason why photographers love an overcast sky! You can use a light box for shooting indoors. Browse portable lighting studios online, like this economical studio by Digital Concepts: http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Concepts-Ps-101… For all you do-it -yourselfers check out this tutorial on how to make your own light tent for under $5: http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006…
Composition
A white background is clean and professional. Props and unusual backgrounds can be interesting and add character if used effectively, get creative! Remember, don’t forsake accuracy when depicting your jewelry for an artsy photo. Often a necklace (for example) will be laid out lengthwise for a photo, this isn’t always necessary, try creating a slight coil, as Rudi always says, “fill the frame with your subject”.
Shooting
It can be difficult to shoot up close, in macro mode, and take sharp in-focus images. Remain steady, use a tripod if necessary… whatever it takes to shoot clear images. Shoot in a larger file size and back up some from the object you are shooting to minimize blur. You can easily crop and re-size on the computer. Work the angles. Have fun!
Editing
If you shoot your jewelry in natural light with the appropriate camera settings, editing on the computer should be minimal. Crop and re-size. We love the ability to quickly re-size (and rename) and entire album of photos easily in Easy Thumbnails (free download: http://download.cnet.com…). Consider your audience when selecting the appropriate image size; the actual file size (expressed as number of bytes and related to pixels) determines how fast the image loads on your website. Remember, dial-up is still out there! Most large online image dimensions are 640 x 480 pixels (thumbnails usually range from 75 x 75 to 160 x 160 pixels). Many online shopping carts and stores, like Etsy, conveniently allow you to upload one large file and they create the smaller thumbnail images for you. An exception to the 640 x 480 size would be an online zoom feature; for example, Etsy recommends uploading image that are 800-1000 pixels wide for this purpose.
In a Nutshell
- Use natural, diffused light
- Macro setting on camera
- Shoot in a high resolution to allow for cropping
- Fill the camera frame with the subject
- Use a background that creates contrast
- If you can’t hold still enough, use a tripod
Whimsy, according to Webster’s Online Dictionary, is the quality or state of being whimsical or fanciful. I’ve never been a whimsical or fanciful person. I’ve never tacked tiny windows and wooden doors to my tree for the trolls or made my bathroom cabinets look like little doll-houses. The closest I’ve come to whimsical is sprinkling fairy dust, a.k.a. glitter, across the pillow and along the window-sill for my daughter when I had to be the Tooth Fairy. Then one day, not too very long ago, while helping inventory new stock for Happy Mango Beads, I happened upon little lampwork glass beads made to look like cupcakes and ladybugs and mushrooms and flowers and rubber ducks. And I thought, these are just so darn cute and, dare I say it, whimsical.
