We’ve highlighted tutorials on various kinds of photography, such as Landscape Photography and Flower Photography, on this blog.  One we haven’t covered is Jewellery Photography.  Jose Antunes brings just such a how-to for beginners on Photo Tuts+.

One good thing about photographing jewellery is that you don’t need space – a tabletop will do. 

What you will need – and all you really need to get started – is a light source (a window), a macro lens, and some or another kind of reflector, which is easily found or constructed considering the tiny scale of the subject, and you’re good to go.  

Antunes writes: “light has color, and that light changes. If you’ve a red wall in the background its tone will probably influence everything around.”  Look at the four photographs of the same ring against different backgrounds near the top of the webpage.  Note how the colour of the background is reflected in the band of the ring but, more than that, imparts a tint to the hue of the stone.  You can use this fact to your advantage by simply trying reflectors of different colours.

“The goal for most jewelry photography is to create soft even light with very little shadow,” writes Antunes and his image of a pendant is a lovely example.  However, he also writes, “You can also use flash, . . . . One flash will be enough, two will be great, . . .”

If, instead of creating soft, even light you want to produce a dramatic, mysterious effect with highlights, pronounced depth, and hard shadows, you’ll need flash.  (Or, if you’re sufficiently advanced or ambitious, an appropriate lighting setup.)

As the tutorial says, “When shooting macro photos, your depth of field will be very shallow due to the small distance between the object and your camera. Because of this, it’s not uncommon to use apertures above f/11.”  What this means, in turn, is that unless you use flash (or a high ISO, which you don’t want to do) you can’t handhold your camera.  And so, a tripod is not only a nice-to-have, it’s almost a must-have.  Instead of a tripod, a minipod tripod (not monopod) or tabletop tripod may be a better idea for this type of photography.

After all’s said and done, light is surely the most critical ingredient in Jewellery Photography.  Look at the last pair of photographs on the webpage.  They are meant to show how different the same ring looks when shot on an opaque black surface and when placed on a mirror.  But look at how radiant, translucent, and captivating the stone looks in the second photograph and how dull and filmy it looks in the first.  That’s light talking, and this last pair of photos is the compelling argument to ‘let the light do the talking’.