Photographing jewellery

Hugh_C

Hi All,

Just photographed some jewellery for a client using Nikon 105mm micro, D700 and a light tent lit by two strobes, one from upper left and in front, about 45/45 and the other about 1/4 of the power of the front light, from behind on the opposite side. No issues with focus or exposure, but the client is unhappy with the result and claims all the best jewellery photography is done using daylight.

To me, the pieces look great, but to the client, they suck.

Has anyone here any experience with jewellery photography? Can't show either the pieces or name the client for obvious reasons.

Should I just stick to people and mountains?

Thanks, Hugh

nicknackgtb

Hugh_C wrote: »

Hi All,

Just photographed some jewellery for a client using Nikon 105mm micro, D700 and a light tent lit by two strobes, one from upper left and in front, about 45/45 and the other about 1/4 of the power of the front light, from behind on the opposite side. No issues with focus or exposure, but the client is unhappy with the result and claims all the best jewellery photography is done using daylight.

To me, the pieces look great, but to the client, they suck.

Has anyone here any experience with jewellery photography? Can't show either the pieces or name the client for obvious reasons.

Should I just stick to people and mountains?

Thanks, Hugh

Not a jewellery photographer but very hard to answer that question with no examples man! I know you can't obviously upload but I'd say it will be very hard to answer for a lot of people!

Jonnykitedude

I know Davd Cantwell uses lights for pretty much all his Jewellery work,
http://davidcantwellphotography.com/Jewellery-photographers.htm

sineadw

I used strobes. Is it a wb issue do you think? Maybe you could warm the images a bit, see if the client prefers them? There's a big difference sometimes between what's correct and what the client wants..

PopeBuckfastXVI

I helped a friend set up a jewellery shoot for his wife's shop, we used a pair of elinchrom d-lites (400) one with softbox above and to the right, the other into one of those light tents underneath a perspex sheet to give a blown out background. The shots looked fantastic.

Why does he think daylight is better? Has he said what he thinks the shots lack? Sparkle or something maybe?

Hugh_C

Yep it's a weird one all right, I re-shot this morning using diffuse daylight only and to me ... well they just look dull and insipid, even after correcting for exposure and white balance. As far as I was concerned, using small diffused strobes through a light tent (yesterday) gave more sparkle to the stones and more defined specular highlights. I have yet to hear back from the client.

Borderfox

If they don't like them shoot tethered or show them a jpeg early on to gauge interest, I did this for all my product jobs and worked a charm :-)

Some clients need to be guided in the journey from dreams in their head to actual shot. For guided also see "dragged"

mehfesto

I did a shoot for bags of dried fruit recently.
The client insisted I use "high key lighting" and that all the images be clean and bright and "you know, lit from different angles". I did just that and sent them back, happy with the work I'd done.

He complained that the bags had reflections on them. I told him that they were just accented lights, on the edges and that they didn't affect the reading of the brand or hide any of the bags contents. I also said that they were plastic bags and that they would tend to reflect light, but I'd give it another go.

After adjusting the lights, spraying the bags with hair spray (reduces reflections, allegedly) and photoshopping three images together to make one unit, he was then unsatisfied that "you couldn't tell the bags were plastic".

He refused to pay and took the shots himself. The images have MASSIVE yellow casts on them, you can't read the bags packaging and they're all lobsided and tacky looking.

Sometimes you can't win.
Because sometimes the client is a moron.

pullandbang

Plastic bags are a nightmare to photograph, especially when the plastic bag is the subject! You need to get some light reflecting to show the surface and they're not exactly sexy products - http://www.discountpackaging.ie/polythene-bags.html - some of mine

Jewellery though is a different matter and it's all about the light. That chap David Cantwell that Jonnykitedude mentioned, said he spends most of his time cutting out and blocking light when he's doing product shots.

Hugh_C

Client prefers the more diffuse daylight and has gone for that. Happy client, relieved photographer All I have to do now is photoshop out the flaws :cool: