A couple of weeks ago, I polled my subscribers to find out what they wanted to know about taking better pictures of their jewelry, and then I had a chat and interview with Imelda from Sunset Shutterbug Studio. Imelda is a product photography coach and all-around encouraging person to walk you through improving your jewelry images.
We had a long session where she gave me feedback on one of my existing images and I shared with her my extremely basic photo set up so that I could understand how I can use it better.
I meant this to be a 30 minute conversation and we kept going over so many details! Imelda was full of tips for how I can think of my photos and structure my process in a way that helped me so much.
I also asked her some of the questions posed by my subscribers and we talked about what photos you definitely need to have to sell jewelry online.
I love Imelda’s down-to-earth approach to product photography – she emphasized for me that it was less about the equipment, and more about understanding how to use light, your branding and your skill.
We had a wide ranging conversation about what even is the best photo set up (hint – it’s likely the one you already have).
Key takeaways:
There’s no need to buy lots of fancy props, or even a new DSLR camera – your iPhone could be perfect for the job. Even a basic digital point-and-shoot camera can take decent white background images with the right set up.
It saves you so much more time to ensure that your images have the lighting and tone that you want and that the piece is in focus than it does to Photoshop it all later.
Your vision and your skill with the tools are more important than the tools themselves.
Focus is important, and we provide a couple of ways to get decent focus with a phone camera or a point-and-shoot digital camera.
Also, we don’t assume that you know everything! Imelda and I go over a couple of basics – how to focus with an iPhone, how to focus with a point-and-shoot – that maybe you didn’t know before.
I admit right in this video that I don’t use one, and by the end, Imelda had me convinced that I should use one from now on.
I appreciate how encouraging she is about my ability and yours to learn all of this. She was an excellent coach and I came away feeling like I know what I can do better next time, and how I can hone in on my personal brand in photography.
And if you want to know how to go straight to the answers that are relevant to you, I set up chapters on this video so that you can pop in to the parts that will help you.
What questions do you have? Drop them in the comments below!