I seem to have an affliction of taking on projects that require skills I don’t really have. Take jewelry photography for example. I took on the project not really knowing how to shoot jewelry, but knowing that if I provided some nice photos, I’d get money in return. Works for me.

I knew it was probably going to be difficult, and it was. Jewelry is shiny, which means it reflects everything: You, your camera, your dog. You name it. After a few shots to confirm the reflect-everything-shiny-ness (I was in denial), I promptly headed out and picked up a light tent.

A light tent is essentially a white fabric cube with one side open so you can shoot whatever is inside. You then point a flash at the cube, which creates a nice white surface for the jewelry to reflect. Sure, if you zoom in far enough, you might still see fido in the reflection, but it’s good enough.

After few hours of jewelry wrangling, I had my shots. Once I got them into my computer, I did a little voodoo photoshop work to produce what you see above. After the break, check out one more piece. (more…)