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How to Take Jewelry Photos with Beautiful Reflections or Shadows Using the GemLightbox

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Do you know how to take jewelry photos with beautiful reflections or shadows in seconds? You can make your jewelry products stand out online if you know how to use either of these two to your advantage. Read through below and watch our 2-minute jewelry photography tutorial using the GemLightbox.

“High-quality product images make shoppers feel like they’re having a love affair with jewelry.”

Jewelry photography requires appropriate lighting, pleasing shadows, and attractive reflections to come out breathtakingly worth your shoppers’ money. Some product photographers might perceive shadows and reflections as unnecessary – a nuisance element to your images; but with a little bit of attention to detail and skillful control of light, you can add pleasing shadows and reflections that’ll make your jewelry products distinguishable from others. It’s one of those “wow factors” you need to stand out from the competition and silence the noise, so your shoppers’ hear what your jewelry products are trying to say.

In this post, we’re going to show you how to capture natural shadows or reflections in just one click using a smartphone and the GemLightbox. Continue reading below or directly watch the jewelry photography tutorial video added at the end of the page.

Let’s begin!

Why add reflections or shadows to your jewelry product images?

Your jewelry product images look visually appealing with proper reflections or shadows. Here are some of the reasons why it’s a dominant eCommerce product photography element.

1. Shadows or reflections cast by your jewelry make the products appear realistic.

2. It adds depth to your jewelry photos; thereby making the subject pop and stand out from the background.

3. Realistic and natural jewelry product shadows keep your shoppers’ attention on your product. It’s not distracting.

4. It elevates your jewelry images from amateurish to professional, which can increase sales given enough consistency.

Achieving natural, realistic shadows or reflections can be a pain for others, especially, if you’re not a professional photographer as it requires skillful control of light, so your jewelry is adequately illuminated. If you’re unable to create realistic shadows or reflections using natural or artificial lighting, you can add it using Photoshop, if that’s your forté or have professional post-production experts, like Picup Media, to do it for you.

The process of adding natural, realistic reflections or shadows sounds like easier said than done for some jewelers. Thankfully, you can do it now in seconds; no need to sweat it out just thinking where to position your lights to get the results you desire. See how we did it below.

Equipment and Props Used in this Jewelry Photography Tutorial:

1. The GemLightbox kit

2. A smartphone (or DSLR)

3. A ring

GEMLIGHTBOX kit accessories
The GemLightbox and its components included in the box upon purchase

This is the GemLightbox in action.

how to take jewelry photos with beautiful reflections-1
Source: Jewellers Keith & Molly, Sydney, Australia

How to Take Jewelry Photos with Beautiful Reflections or Shadows Using the GemLightbox:

The Reflection Shot

how to take jewelry photos with beautiful reflections
This reflection shot was taken using the GemLightbox and a smartphone. No retouching was done.

1. Remove the reflector and slide-in the Reflector Table.

2. Place the ring ( or whatever jewelry piece you want to photograph) in the center.

3. Place back the reflector front cover.

4. Clean your camera lens to ensure no oil residue or other possible dirt is left on the surface. An untidy camera lens can quickly undermine your effort of capturing beautiful jewelry images.

5. Tap your screen to focus and adjust the brightness according to your liking.

6. Capture.

As you can see in the reflection shot result pictured above, the reflection table was able to create a subtle reflection underneath the product. The reflection table helps reduce the amount of your time allocated to post-production process due to the already existing natural, realistic shadows.

The Shadow Shot

how to take jewelry photos with shadows
This pleasing shadow shot was taken using the GemLightbox and a smartphone. No retouching was done.

1. Remove the reflector front cover and the ring.

2. Put the shadow table in, followed by the ring or whichever jewelry you’re photographing. Remember to place back the reflector front cover.

3. Again, ensure that your camera lens is clean.

4. Tap your screen to focus and adjust the brightness depending on your liking.

5. Capture.

As shown in the jewelry photo above, the shadow table created a pleasing and subtle shadow underneath the jewelry piece. The shadow table is the most commonly preferred option, especially if you’re photographing multiple subjects at once or taking group shots of your jewelry pieces. The reason being is that the reflection table will create different reflections and different sizes of reflections for different subjects which may overpower your product. It defies consistency and is, therefore, distracting for your shoppers.

Do you think you can carry it out?

Of course, you can! Watch the 2-minute video below to see how we achieved the results above, with no retouching done, in seconds using only the GemLightbox and a smartphone.

Do you know other techniques on how to take jewelry photos with beautiful reflections and pleasing shadows? Feel free to share in the comment section below!

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