Jewelry photography

[Former_Member]

Hello everyone!
I'm in desperate need of improving my jewelry photographs. The pictures I take always turn out very dark and colors are not vivid. (The lighting for the ones currently in my shops have been edited by photoshop to look brighter which is very time consuming).
I take them on a table beside a window at daylight but they're too dark still. I use a regular digital camera OR a macro lens DSLR camera, but I know zero about photography so adjusting the options always make things worse.

That being said, i'm wondering if buying 2 huge daylight bulb photography lamps would solve this lighting problem?
I would prefer not having to adjust the camera settings too much (unless it's very straight forward) as I'm really not an expert.

Any other suggestions are greatly appreciated!

[Former_Member]

Would any of these products be recommended?
http://store.tabletopstudio-store.com/lightsets.html

Thanks

[Former_Member]

Check the Lighting, Natural & Studio discussion right below your posting. There are all kinds of information there.

[Former_Member]

I took my jewelry photos using a DIY light box and two work lights I bought at Home Depot for 7 bucks a piece. Also, you can go to YouTube and find tons of videos on photographing jewelry there, with all kinds of great tips on everything, including equipment.

I hope this helps.

[Former_Member]

I just started reading this article posted at the Lighting, Natural & Studio discussion on this team and I love it.

http://www.graphic-design.com/photographic/studio/diffusion.html

ps: I hope I'm not 'overposting' here.

[Morninglightglass]

Sandra what a great link.. I could spend days there learning!! Thank you soo much!!

[Former_Member]

Thank you for the link Sandra. It's very helpful. I've watched some videos on youtube, bought a new camera, made a home made light box but still my pictures turn out dark. Thought maybe i'm doing something very obvious wrong.
(just saw the other thread)

[Former_Member]

great link. I'm trying to figure out a cheap camera to buy and a way to make a home set that will work for me. The photos I have now were taken by a friend and are beautiful. We used a bunch of rocks and wood I had as a set. HOWEVER, I am getting a lot of comments that suggest I make it much simpler to really show off the piece and not the environment. Trying to figure out an affordable set up that I can use myself.
Challenges challenges....

[MosswoodStudio]

The way to improve your photos is to learn about manual settings in photography. If your photos are too dark, open the settings up to get some light. It's only three settings you have to understand, it's not too difficult.

[Former_Member]

Looking forward to reading up on this!

[Former_Member]

Hi:

This is a battle I am fighting too. I just bought a tripod, three of the 30W trumpet top bulbs from TableTopStudio and built a light box this weekend.

Light box helped a lot, but I think a huge factor is using the tripod and setting a longer exposure time. I also tinkered with manually setting my white balance using the back of the light box.

Some things are looking a little over exposed so I don’t have all the answers, but I hope this helps.

Cheers,
Robbin

[RedOakImages]

Do you use any kind of photo editing program? Some of them let you lighten your photos without to much change to your pictures. I use PhotoScape which is free. You can get it here http://www.photoscape.org/ps/main/index.php

click on the download button that is at the very top.

[Former_Member]

how do you like it other than for lightening photos? are there other features?