✦ Live Video with Etsy Admin - Mar.16 @ 11:30 a.m. ET: How to Take Great Photos with Your Smartphone - Jewelry Edition

[#1]

Subject: How to Take Great Photos with Your Smartphone - Jewelry Edition
When: Monday, March 16 at 11:00 a.m. (ET)
Where: http://etsy.me/labs316
Who: Etsy Admin, and YOU!
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Photography is a key element in grabbing your buyer’s attention.

Join me in Etsy's Online Labs - http://etsy.me/labs316 - on March 16 at 11:00 a.m. (ET) to watch a live demonstration on how to take great photos on your smartphone. For this session we’ll focus on jewelry photography.

Online shoppers can’t always tell the difference between dull jewelry photos and dull jewelry. As the saying goes, "seeing is believing."

Please note that there are no sign-ups or automatic reminders for this session, so be sure to mark your calendar or check out this handy Etsy calendar; http://etsy.me/Cal315. If you are unable to attend, we will be posting an archived version of the video in this thread the day after the live session. Please note that if you would like to participate in the live chat, it will be available only during the live session.

➽ In the meantime, to participate, ask your number one question or share your best piece of advice about jewelry photography in the thread below. We will be highlighting some of your comments during the live event.

[Thenewyorkhorse]

Hi Clare,

Can you do a bit about "Reflective Surfaces" please - i make 1" Badges and its insane trying to stop any light from shining off the front of the badge at any angle when i take my pictures.

Looking forward to your demo.:) Max.

[RiverValleyJewelry]

Looking forward to this, thank you!

[Former_Member]

I look forward to Monday- I take all my pic with my phone so I hope I can get some good advice and tips.

Thanks

[AntiqueDecoRingsShop]

One thing I found important when selling jewellry is giving the dimensions.
Usually in mm.
As you just can't tell in a photo.

[ForgedMettleJewelry]

Great, I'll mark my calendar!

My question is, since I make silver jewelry that usually is highly polished it tends to reflect the background, no matter what color it is, and tends to blend in with it instead of popping out like I want it to. How does one go about compensating for this?

Thanks!

[kyleemaedesigns]

I have a lightbox to take my jewelry photos, but I am always perplexed by the lighting issues. I use daylight bulbs - one on top and one on each side, but sometimes my pictures turn out over saturated. I would love some advice on how better to handle lighting issues.

[BellaCleoJewelry]

Hi! Picked this tip up in the etsy team forums, free photo editing software called Pic Monkey! :) It's really easy to use, it was easy for me to use right away. It has helped me brighten up a lot of pictures that were too dark, and made my work look dingy, like your comment about dull pics vs. dull jewelry. :) Just using the brighten feature, cropping, and a touch up here and there and it makes a big difference! Hope someone else can use this information, of course there are other programs but this is the one I chose to try. I'm using it on every picture I post now, rather than just uploading it the way it happened to come out. It seems particularly helpful if your pics have this overall dark or dingy appearance, but otherwise are in focus and well framed.

Will look forward to seeing how you all do it, there is no one right or wrong way, and glass jewelry is particularly glaring and tough. But just brightening up some pictures made a big difference. thx!

[Cutefinds4U]

I recently found that I'm not able to have good focus when taking very close photos with IPhone. Any suggestions?

[LaughingDogStudio]

Looking forward to this webinar and constantly finding new ways to improve my shop.
Thank you!

[Former_Member]

I'm new to selling on Etsy so I'm excited to see this! So glad I found this thread!

[Former_Member]

I don't have a Smartphone. I take photos of the things I want to sell with either my Kodak EasyShare CX7430 or my Nikon COOLPIX L320. Will there be any info in the webinar/seminar to help me take better pictures with these cameras? I'm mostly involved in selling glassware, which is particularly hard to photograph. Some pointers on that subject would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[Former_Member]

I'm definitely marking my calendar. I have a tough time with shiny jewelry and pearls and have been unable to post the amount of jewelry I want because my photos with either,mprofessional camera and smartphone aren't as great as I want them. Thank you, thank you!

[Former_Member]

I just tried the link but it is not working, would it work on the day of the webinar?

[thelonebeader]

I use a real camera to take photos of my beadwork. The camera on my phone would never capture the detail..

[Former_Member]

I am really looking forward to some tips on how to photograph without a model!

[Former_Member]

I'm currently setting up a dedicated space for photography of my purses and pouches. Although I'm not a jeweler, I hope a few questions can be answered.

I'm vacillating between camera options. I have an older Cannon Sure Shot A80 that is only 4 megapixels, but has 3x optical zoom. I also have an iPhone4 and a HTC One (M7). Which is best for my purse photos? I can leave the Cannon set up in the studio as I don't use it for much of anything now that I have smart phones.

[Former_Member]

My biggest question is how to effectivelyy photograph engraved shiny jewelry so that the customer can both see the detail and not be confused as to whether the item is silver or black. I either get too much light bouncing off the surface (which makes the image too light to see the engraving) or I get too much shadow which results in the item appearing to be black.

Thank you!
Elizabeth

[NewMexicoStyle]

What is the best way to show actual size in a photograph of jewelry (especially earrings). Any close up makes them look much bigger than they actually are and I don't have a model or mannequin to work with. Thanks!

[Former_Member]

i would like to know what type of pucture you could get of stained glass or some fused glass

[HAWKHOUSE]

I apologize ahead of time if this question has been answered previously.

I have been shooting photos in the corner of two large windows (lucky rental) on overcast days, mid afternoon and been having good luck.

my main problem is my crystals always get so washed out when I am trying to whiten the background. Is there a way to set a white meter on an iphone? Any good tips on not washing out clear-light objects?

thanks!

[MagnoliaTreeandCo]

Love the ease of using my smartphone to take photos - I struggle with lighting and reflection even though I have created a white photo box. Would love any tips! Especially on how to get the front items in focus and back items with a slight blur to them.

[MartaDalloul]

This is great! I marked my calendar :) I'd love to see some tips on how to photograph shiny jewelry, like my glass jewelry that has a rounded shape, where the light bounces off, making difficult to see the details.

[NocturnalBlue]

I would love to know whether is possible to get a bokeh effect from my smartphone and how to do this. Jewellery photos with this effect look amazing!

[Former_Member]

What do you think of photos with an LG phone? I know most have an iphone but I have been given a LG and I love it. I have yet to activate it but will. I am the type of person who gets a new phone when it breaks down.

[ArtByDoreneStander]

I am really looking forward to this, because I have several great pieces of vintage jewelry that I have not been able to get even decent pictures of with my iphone.

Specifically, I have some earrings with light green (the color of peridot) crystals, and I haven't been able to get the true color of the stones in the pics - they look like they are clear. There are many small light green crystals set in gold. I have tried putting them on different color surfaces (white, black, ivory wood, brown wood). Thanks!