Eyecatching Photography

As jewellery makers we often spend a great deal of time thinking about bead combinations, colour combinations, composition and design styles but when it comes to promoting our work it can be really hard to get the photos just right. I want to share with you some simple ideas that might help push your photography from good to great!

When we share our work online with a view to selling we lose the direct contact a customer has with a piece, they don’t have any tactile connection with our work so we have to create a visual connection and create that ‘want’ feeling. This makes the images we share all important, they need to communicate the story of the piece and make it desirable. 

Here are some bullet points to consider: 

• The background of the photo is as important as the work, it should be in neutral tones and not distract from the work.

• Any props should be appropriate to the jewellery, i.e Leaves for an antumnal feel, shells, small pebbles for a summery/beach feeling, soft coloured flowers for a romantic impression. Again these shouldn’t be distracting, if you are capable with your camera settings using depth of field can help props blur into the background slightly. 

The colours and props in this one are aimed for a spring time feel, pastel, peppermint, the twigs in the background are pussy willow in bud blurred using depth of field on my camera.

• Often what people will connect with will be colour combinations so its really important that when you edit your photos you try and match the colours as accurately as possible. 

• Consider how you are framing your jewellery, it doesn’t have to be straight on add and prop that allows you to hang earrings rather than laying them flat, or raise a section of a necklace to add visual interest. 

These earrings hang from two twigs from the garden, supported on two wooden blocks that are out of frame. 

When you are looking for a suitable background a great place to start looking is the hardware store, often you are allowed to take a small piece of wallpaper as a sample, these make 

great free backgrounds and often have interesting textures or patterns and come in a great range of colours. These are some I picked up recently. 

All neutral tones, some with texture, some flat. Avoid anything with sparkles or a shiny finish, they will reflect light and detract from your final image. 

I hope these give you some ideas for interesting photo backgrounds, why not share your own ideas in the comments section.