Jewelry Photography Basics

Jewelry photography is a specialty style of photography. Most people will use a lightbox, or tent which is simply a cube that is build up of translucent material shaped in a cube. The translucent material is used to diffuse hard light to avoid harsh shadows. But usually what you end up with is super low contrast flat lighting. This style is most popular with catalog style photography. But if you are looking to create a stunning photo of a piece of jewelry you are going to have use a different method to create a "beauty" shot as they call it in the industry.

Chose a background color, or texture to enhance the photo. For the color you can use a contrasting color from the stones. Avoid similar colors and tones as the stone or color of the gems. For texture, a granite tile works pretty good. Or some stones, bamboo, and even some props can help enhance the photo to create a scene and something more visually appealing than your boring white background.

Instead of using all softbox light, throw in some hard light to hit stones and make them really pop. A photographic bling if you will. Mirrors or silver reflectors can be used as your hard light source as well.

The second most important part of jewelry photography is depth of field. You want to get the most focus out of the shot as possible. Usually using a small aperture will do the trick. Remember not to zoom too far in as that will also kill your depth of field. More than likely you want a lens that has macro capabilities. This way you can get as close as possible to the object with your camera, keeping you from having to zoom in and lose your deep of field (dof).

White balance is another big concern when it comes to jewelry photography, especially with gold. If you don't have your white balance set correctly your gold will more than likely come out a brownish color and tone. If you come across this issue you know that you have too much blue or green in your color, and should adjust accordingly. Usually setting up a white card in the beginning of the shoot is a good idea. And you can reference that for you source of white point. Exposure is also important to keep your gold jewelry from turning brown. Check your histogram to make sure you are at proper exposure.

Craig Smith is a Dallas Jewelry Photographer. Specializing in advertisement style photography, and shoots product photography in Dallas for catalogs, retail, online stores and more.

Mother's Day Portrait Tips And Ideas - How To Be Creative

I wanted to share some portrait ideas and tips for Mother's Day. Believe it or not, Mother's day is right around the corner and choosing the perfect gift can be extremely difficult. I always tell photographers to plan ahead and to plan this at least a few weeks before the occasion. If you can plan a couple of months ahead...that's even better. I know where talking about Mother's Day here, but this applies to any Holiday or special occasion.

Let's be clear about something here

Your job as a photographer and a marketer, is to help your clients find that special gift by offering them a unique portrait session and with Mother's day near as I wrote this...we'll use this as our example. Always remind them that this is guaranteed to be the most favorite gift she'll receive and it will last longer than a bouquet of flowers!

They can choose from a generation portrait, a family portrait, a Mommy and me session or simply just photograph the children by themselves. A beautiful portrait that captures a moment in time is a gift from the heart and will be treasured forever. But...you already know that.

Here's a couple of unique portrait ideas for inspiration!

Take a photograph of the Mother and child's shoes or capture a close-up of them holding hands. Find a meaningful quote and personalize the portrait using Photoshop or create a unique personalized collage.

Photograph a little girl playing dress-up in her mother's or her grandmother's clothing or wedding gown. The client can help you create this family heirloom portrait by bringing along their mother or grandmother's wedding gown. If they don't have a gown, they can bring a favorite dress or outfit and shoes. You can also ask them to bring any vintage hats, old family photographs or other special mementos to personalize their portrait.

Children will have a ball playing dress-up! Using their mother's or grandmother's clothing, photos and mementos makes it extra special. I recommend using a vintage trunk that the child can sit on or they may even want to climb inside. A few years back I created a portrait of our daughter wearing her great-grandmother's nightgown and was admiring her old black and white wedding photos. As you can imagine, her great- grandmother was absolutely thrilled when she received this on Mother's Day. This unique gift idea is sure to be a hit and will be cherished for generations to come.

So...I hope this gets you thinking of the possibilities that can be created by using some simple props and classic portraiture. Don't over complicate things when creating these special portraits. Just keep in mind that the Mother/Grandmothers will be thrilled to have a keepsake from their child or children.

Scott Voelker is the creator of NewPortraitBiz. He has taught 1,000's of students how to start a photography business. To receive his Free video lessons and Blog posts visit New Portrait Biz Blog.

You should also check out this Digital Portrait Idea he posted that shows you a simple technique you can use for inspiration.

Easy Tips For Taking Better Pictures Everyday

Photography is a difficult art, it takes and master to achieve awesome results, but it's not difficult to take great photos and improve our technique. On-line you can find a lot of guhdes that will teach you how to use the camera, capture the light, compose the picture and so on. All those advices are very helpful, but I wanted to help by adding my ten tips that have helped me become a better photographer every day:

    Don't buy a new camera: Yes, everybody says you need a fancy camera, but trust me, you don't. The reason is tip number 2, you need to use your camera as much as possible, so what happens if you lose your fancy new camera? And what if you forget somewhere that old one?

    Take pictures: Yes, it might sound stupid, but it's not. You must take pictures everyday, and not just one. Use your commuting route as a way to focus on your environment and take pictures of it. As many as you can.

    Select your best pictures: Spend 20 minutes every day to download your pictures, look at them and choose the best three.

    Analyse your best pictures: What makes those three nice? What did you do to make them so good? Analyse your "success" so you can apply it the next day.

    Share your pictures: Take part of an on-line community and share your pictures there. Ask for critics, advice and comments. The users are your jury and you will learn much from them.

    Use the composition: Play with the pictures composition to distort the view and show what you found interesting in the spot you are picturing.

    Use the light: The light is a wonderful way to hide and show objects. Play with it so you can make the interesting points stand out and hide what is meaningless for the photo.

    Use a tripod: Tripods are good to hold the camera and give you time to work with your composition and lights. If no tripod is available find a spot were you can stand the camera still.

    Wake up early and go to bed late: Sunshine and sunset are the best times to take photos, the sun is not up and shadows are amazing. Take advantage of it so you can play more with the picture and make details stand out.

    Work, work, work: Keep focus and remember to take pictures everyday. Your technique will improve with time and you will find more and more difficult to choose your best pictures.

I really hope this tips are useful for you and that you grow, day by day, to become a better photographer. Thanks for reading!

I'm John Scott-Adams, I love pictures, mines and from others. So I choose daily a city picture to share with the readers of my blog thecitypictures.net.

Professional Photography Backdrops

Titanium and Platinum backdrops add quality and flexibility to your photographs. The light- weight materials make it easy to photograph people in any location desired. With the ability of being portable and having the quality of professional looking images, titanium and platinum backdrops gives you that essential attractive look that is a hundred percent complete. Being able to transform one room to look completely different with these backdrops gives you the freedom to make any look and feel you are going for a success.

These titanium backdrops are made of fleece materials with a non-fading quality so you never have to worry about the light absorbing your image or design chosen, the platinum backdrops are made of muslin materials with the same non-fading quality and both choices are washer and dryer safe. That makes it perfect for situations that may happen if for any reason your backdrop gets dirty you have the option of cleaning it in your own home, not only is that a time saver that you can do in off hours but it is also a good money saver for the simple fact that you do not have to take your backdrops to a professional cleaner. It also prevents having to throw your backdrops out because they are no longer able to be used.

Titanium and Platinum material made professional photography backdrops is the idea backdrop for anyone who would like to order a wide variety of colors, designs and images, they are easy to fold up and store where ever you would like. Placing them in a bin that had a lid to keep them out of moths and bugs way (considering they are made of material), a bin can be easily stored in your storage or coat closet or garage wherever you choose to keep them is all up to you.

Shopping around you will find that material based backdrops are a little pricy but if you stop to think about the quality of non-fading machine wash and dryer safe easy to store backdrops right at your fingertips that not only give you the ease with ownership but fantastic professional looking photographs is well worth the purchase.

Let's say you decide to go have your picture taken by a photographer that owns a studio down town, what would you rather sit on if you had to pose on the ground, a backdrop made of thick canvas paper covered with a sheen or a soft piece of material that still has the same sheen to it but not the same uncomfortable texture. Material based backdrops can give you that comfort and still keep the same professional looking sheen and style that you are going for.

All I can tell you to do is shop around before deciding what type of backdrop you would want to sit on or have your picture taken in front of and then examine if you feel your customers would want the same. Sometimes it's good to try something new, this might just be that good thing you have been searching for.