Better Beadwork Photos

 Hi everyone!  I am very excited to start my first thread in the Beading Daily Forums.

I have been working with Michelle Mach, BeadingDaily Editor, who has graciously given me the opportunity to write an article on a subject that combines my two favorite pastimes...beading and photography.  Thanks, Michelle!  My article, "3 Simple Steps to Better Beadwork Photos", is slated to post in Michelle's blog Monday, June 30th.

I am a self-taught amateur photographer of all things bead related, and my only "credentials" are my photographs...I let them speak for themselves.  I have learned a lot over the last two years of experimenting with different lighting, backgrounds and props, using only my digital point-and-shoot Fuji.

I handle the Marketing at my family's small chain of bead stores and know how important a good photo is when you are trying to sell your jewelry or get people to sign up for a beading class.  I hope my article helps the readers at BeadingDaily to create better photos of their own beadwork.  I will be checking back here from time to time to read replies and do my best to trouble shoot problems and answer any questions not covered in my article.  Don't be shy!

 Hi Kirsten!

First of all, thank you for the great article!!

This is the first time that i'm writting in this forum... i make handmade jewelry and urban crafts and i also have a webstore for craft supplies, so i know how hard is to take good photos...

I need to have all the background in true white color because of my layout, but this is very hard!!! I bought a cube for helping me with this... i use my digital camera in macro mode and the white fabric from the cube to make the backgroun, and i use artificial light or sun light. But everytime i take photos most of them have a grey or yellow background... i know that the lighting is very importante, but here in my country (Portugal) i cannot find the lights bulbs that are available in other countries... i also use a photographic software to transform the grey background in white, but in white, silver and pastel colors sometimes the piece vanish in the background...

Maybe i try to use direct light from the backgroun of the piece? Do you have any sugestions?

Best Regards,

Dalia
www.petit-bijoux.blogspot.com
www.artibolas.eu

 I'm having the same problem.  Even though I have a cube and the special photography lights, use a white background, and do a white balance on my digital camera the background still comes out grey or blue.  Any hints would be greatly appreciated as I've struggled with this for some time.

 Alo Dalia!

Thank you for your post.  You are on the right track, and after looking at your blog photos, I have a pretty good guess what is going on, so I'll try to help.  What you are doing is something I did for a while as well.  It looks like this is a matter of using the "brightness" or "exposure" levels in your computer software to brighten the background as white as you can get it.  Unfortunately, it does the same thing to your jewelry image and will fade the lighter colors.  Instead of trying to brighten the photo in the later part of the process in your software, have you tried using the exposure settings in your camera?  You should be able to let more light in that way while still keeping a good image of the jewelry.  The grey and yellow cast are almost always linked to the type of bulbs used, especially when you mix different types, or mix sunlight with lamplight.

 It took me a while to realize myself that even though I was using the tent and the special lamps, that I needed to shut off the other lights in my room and ONLY use the lamps...mixing the sources made my photos grey.  Another reason for grayness is when people use foamcore to build their own cubes...not all whites are truly white.

Blue casting is typically from an ott lite, or, if your camera's white balance is set to incandescent when you are actually shooting in daylight or daylight simulated lamplight, so be sure to check what your camera is set to.  Hope one of these helps.

 Your posting is very timely.  I have been trying to photograph rings and the mask that I made (my avatar).  I find taking things outside to shoot help for clarity, but there's got to be more useful indoor techniques, especially when I'm trying to finish up my documentation at midnight!

Thank You for the article-three easy steps for better bead photos.  I like to take pictures of my work and appreciate Your help in taking better photos.

I loved the bracelet in the piece.  Is it possible to get the pattern?

Thank You,
Delores Rogers
Joplin, Mo. 

 Hi Martha!  Thanks for the feedback.  Maybe Michelle will let me write a "sequel" to my article just for us night-owls!  The reason for my focusing on daylight photography is that there's nothing "Simple" about indoor (and I'm talking pitch-dark-room-indoor) photography.  For now, here's what I can offer....night photography definitely requires a lightbox or some diffuser for the harsh lamps you will need to light up your set.  You will need 2 or more lamps of the same type bulb...even if you only have household flourescents, you can adjust your camera white balance, but the best is to have a daylight-simulating bulb and one that stays cool.  My bulbs are 30 Watt Full Spectrum Daylight Compact Flourescent Lamps with a light output of 2000 lumens.  The regular lights in the room MUST be turned off during photo taking so you don't mix colors...that's almost impossible to fix in the editing software!

Aside from this, there is much education ahead of you to master the lighting angles, avoid reflections and shadows, prop up your pieces, well, you get the picture.