How to Shoot Jewelry on a White Background

Have you ever wondered how other jewelers get seamless shots of their jewelry products on a white background?

Do you envy how it looks clean, professional, and sophisticated with the subtle shadows that add drama to the image?

Photographing jewelry is tricky and challenging, but producing a final output that centers the buyer’s attention on your jewelry is achievable when you do it against a pure white background.

If you’re scouring the internet for DIY jewelry photography techniques, this page is for you.

Learn how to photograph jewelry on a white background with no-sweat tips and tricks below!

Why embrace the power of white background jewelry photography?

It’s time-saving.

White background photography simplifies the process of jewelry photography. It doesn’t require an extensive post-production process. The simpler the process, the more time-saving and economically efficient it is. Let’s admit, you don’t have the time to sit down and toil on the tricky process of jewelry photography. When you photograph jewelry on a white background, the time you saved could be allocated to other important aspects of your business.

Colors can influence your customer’s buying decisions.

They say all purchases are emotional. Color affects the emotional choices your customers make. White background photography can give your business an advantage in influencing your customer’s purchases. It facilitates a stress-free user experience and improves visual presentation as the color white generates a sense of spaciousness and clarity.

It helps build trust.

A white background makes your online store look clean, transparent, professional, and sophisticated. In return, these qualities help build trust with your brand. Trust is essential in online retail as customers cannot use their sense of touch when purchasing online. Hence, your means of visual communication should satisfy their needs and answer their questions.

White background heavily focuses the attention on your jewelry. It’s not distracting and doesn’t appear cluttered; thereby allowing the customers to inspect every detail of the subject. This could easily translate to the idea that you’re not hiding any flaw from them.

It helps increase the browser-to-buyer conversion rate.

Sixty-seven percent of consumers believed that clear and detailed product images are far more important than product descriptions and customer ratings. Photographing jewelry on a white background will help you achieve that level of quality and eventually, influence customers’ buying behavior and patterns.

How to Photograph Jewelry on a White Background: Materials You’ll Need

Lightbox or light tent

A lightbox, as shown below, is an illuminated translucent surface that provides light diffusion, eliminates glare, and softens the shadows. This jewelry photography kit is perfect for achieving perfect jewelry images as it supports easy soft lighting features and clutter-free and consistent background.

In this video, we used the GemLightbox to photograph a Tiffany & Co diamond and pink sapphire heart pendant necklace. Since the lightbox is specially designed for jewelry, it has a built-in light source with a light temperature that’s perfect for diamonds and gemstones. Achieving a white background using a jewelry photography kit like this makes the job relatively easy.

Some lightbox comes inexpensive but be wary when you buy one as not all light boxes are designed to capture jewelry images.

If you’re still learning, you can DIY your own jewelry lightbox, but there are some downsides to it. For example, achieving the proper lighting source and position.

White background alternatives

If you’re photographing jewelry from home, you can use some white background alternatives such as white paper rolls or matte finish vinyl backdrop. Unlike the former, the latter doesn’t wrinkle. It also saves you some money, especially, when you photograph jewelry regularly.

Light source

If you’re using a light tent, you may need a separate light source positioned almost similar to your camera’s position, so it directly illuminates the gemstones and diamonds. Avoid using ordinary light as much as possible as this light source may only generate glare and unwanted spots. Look for light bulbs that are specially designed for photographing diamonds and other precious stones. This type of light will add sparkle to your jewelry.

Do not mix different light sources at once as it can cause real problems to your final output. Some lightboxes come with built-in light similar to the one we used above. However, not all are equipped with the right color temperature. The GemLightbox above is built with 5000+K color temperature – the perfect color temperature for photographing jewelry.

Camera and tripod

Use a camera that will allow you to configure its settings. This will come in handy when you dive into the process. Configuring camera settings such as ISO, aperture, and shutter speed will help you take the best jewelry product images. You can manipulate these three settings to reduce camera shake when photographing your jewelry.

For others, a tripod is a piece of optional equipment. However, this is one key to capturing sharp images as it prevents unnecessary movement that could lead to blurry jewelry images.

One popular misconception when photographing jewelry is the need to use an expensive DSLR camera. Through years of working with small and big jewelers worldwide, we can assure you that you don’t need expensive camera equipment to capture a perfect-looking jewelry image. In fact, you can take professional-quality jewelry images using only your smartphone! See our video above.

You can achieve high-resolution images through these smartphone photography tips.

A photo editing software

Nothing comes out perfect naturally, especially if you went through a DIY process, so look out for free photo editing software you can use for your post-production process.

You have two options to go through your editing process:

• Outsource it to professional jewelry photo retouchers; or

• You can DIY. Check out this basic step-by-step photo retouching process. You’ll be amazed at what you can achieve.

Post-production processes like photo retouching can help perfect your jewelry images by removing harsh shadows and reflection and adjusting lighting and contrast. You can convince potential buyers that your jewelry is worth the money by simply elevating the quality of your jewelry images through these processes.

Practice makes perfect!

When it comes to online retail, a white background is king. Its power to influence buyer’s decisions and its massive impact on your overall visual presentation has been proven several times that even e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon have required sellers to present their product listing images using a white background.

Jewelry photography can often be a trial-and-error process. Don’t give up on the first try. It may appear overwhelming in the beginning, but with continuous practice, you’ll ace the process. Don’t forget to document your configuration settings to ensure consistency and never be afraid to explore. Remember, the universe rewards the brave!