New Blog Post on Photography for Jewerly or Small Items

[GalleriaLinda]

Along with designing jewelry, I am also an amateur photographer and one of the things I love about my jewelry business is taking photos. (Yes! I'm a nerd!)

Check out my blog post with tips for the amateur with inexpensive equipment. There are many challenges but what I love is the staging and styling of the photo. Maybe you will get some ideas.

http://gallerialindashowcase.blogspot.com/2008/12/photographing-jewelry-to-capture.html

[Maple Leaf]

Great tips and great blog, Linda!  :lol:
I can see you've spend many hours on photography and it shows! Your photos are awesome!
With so much good info on the web about photography, I always wonder why people sometimes post blurry, poor quality images. Even with a simple digital camera and a bit of Photoshop, it's so easy to enhance image quality. Anyway, thanks for sharing your tips!

[beadznthingz]

Hi Linda,

Your pictures are absolutely amazing and your photography tips are great. I have always struggled with my pictures and they are a constant learning curve for me. I will definitely be trying some of your tips on my new pics.

Thanks for sharing this article from your blog (which is great BTW).

[FireLilyJewelryGems]

Nice blog. I was browsing through the jewelry listings, and your photos definitely stood out!

[PillowThrowDecor]

Great blog Linda.

I would love if you could explain the whole white balance thing for me.

It is easier to keep it on auto rather than try and figure out the + or minus thingy.

Hey how about doing one tip a day for us. Another question can we post pictures in our posts.  I see the img button up there but not sure what to do with it other than click on it but nothing happensexcept all those letters in brackets at the bottom of this message.

Ideas anyone?

Christine

Code:

[list][list=][img][/img][url][/url][/list][/list]

[/u][/b]

[FireLilyJewelryGems]

I've tried about a zillion different backgrounds, props etc.

I just tried your idea of using stretched canvas as the background ... wow worked like a charm! I used the back of it, so I have the natural colour undyed cotton colour as the background.

I've created some other compositions that I really liked ... but they were really time consuming. Too impractical. The canvas background works well with my branding, and it's FAST to set up.

[FireLilyJewelryGems]

Great blog Linda.

I would love if you could explain the whole white balance thing for me.

It is easier to keep it on auto rather than try and figure out the + or minus thingy.

Hey how about doing one tip a day for us. Another question can we post pictures in our posts. I see the img button up there but not sure what to do with it other than click on it but nothing happensexcept all those letters in brackets at the bottom of this message.

Ideas anyone?

Christine

=============================

I found white balance a serious pain in the ass. I gave up on it, and instead purchased an 18% grey card from a camera shop.

I use photoshop to resize and stuff anyway. And photoshop knows what colour that 18% grey card is. So I make sure a tiny corner of that grey card is in the picture. Then in photoshop ...

- Open the photo in photoshop and blur a little square of that grey card. You want it to be really well blurred, cause otherwise the grey card's pixelation will cause problems with the colour correction later.

- then ctrl-L to open the levels toolbox. Look on the bottom right and you'll see three little pencil tips in a row. Click the right one on a point in the picture and you're telling photoshop that that particular point is WHITE. The left one is BLACK. And the middle one is 18% GREY!

So what you want to do is click on the middle pencil tip, then click on that blurred square you created in the grey card. Now you'll see the rest of the image shift colour ... that's because photoshop now knows that square you clicked on is 18% grey, and is colour correcting the rest of the photo based on that information.

This only works if the colours of the lights across the object are all the same. If one corner of the object is getting natural light from the window, and another corner of the object is getting flourescent light from your ceiling lights, then it won't work. Of course, then your white balance on the camera won't work either! I generally take pictures inside my light box where the lights is all uniform, so it's not a problem for me.

The directions sound a bit long and complicated ... well they did to me when I first found them on the net. But once you've done it a couple times, it's fast to do.

[PillowThrowDecor]

Hey great explanation. i think I'm getting it!

I bought the 18% card and it is  buried somewhere in my studio because my brain didn't make the connection why it was important.

i will have to read this 3 more times before it sinks in and then play with it.

Thank you thank you!

Christine
Pillowthrowdecor