When I started selling my jewelry online I realised that I need better photos for my pieces, because photography is the most important thing when you sell online. It’s the only way the customer can see your product and have an idea of how it looks like.

So I decided to invest in a good camera and great lens. My first camera 15 years ago was a Cannon G10, then I had a Cannon G16 and since 3 years ago I use a Cannon EOS 750D. Actually the two lenses I use more are my Macro EF-S 35mm, and my Ultrasonic EF 20mm, both with 1:2.8. I’m a big fan of Cannon but I’m sure there’re Nikon and other brands that have amazing machines. I’m also lucky to have a photographer for friend (Dario Rumbo @_dazzad_) that always helped me to choose the great combination of lens and camera.

On my jewelry I use a lot of gemstones, and since the beginning I realised that the best light to shoot gemstones was natural light. I tried several times to use artificial light and light boxes but I never got the photo results I got with natural light. If you are a professional with photography skills or have a great set up, maybe you can control the light and get amazing results. But, this was not my case, I’m jeweler and all I want to explain here is my experience as a no professional photographer.

I use natural light, with indirect light and a translucent white curtain depending on the pieces. The best hours to shoot are the morning and late afternoon, because the light colour is perfect and not so intense. The cloudy days are perfect to use natural light and also the best days to go outside for a photoshoot. The clouds mitigate the light and reflections and the jewels look great.

I’m not going to talk about the sizes and the format I use because it changes a lot depending on the photos. I usually shoot in big format and change it with the edition depending on what I need.

I use Photoshop for edition. I know that it’s maybe quite difficult for a beginner, I did some classes during my jewelry studies and then I learned by myself asking to some friends and looking tutorials. There are lots of photo edition tutorials on Youtube! I also use Lightroom CC app on my phone to edit photos. This app is very easy to use and it lets you edit your photos as good as Photoshop.

Here is my experience and I hope this can help you to make better jewelry shoots. Some weeks ago I discovered and amazing article from Etsy talking exactly about how to photograph jewelry. Here is the link to this article and it maybe will give you some more information and some tips and tricks.

If you have any suggestions or questions don’t hesitate to leave them in comments. So everybody can collaborate to grow this article with more information about it.

Now it’s time to go to shoot!