What's better for taking pictures of jewelry a scanner or a camera?
By lilnono
@lilnono (228)
United States
March 14, 2009 4:18pm CST
I want to redo my website with some better pictures. I have a digital camera but a lot of the pictures just don't do the pieces justice. I read somewhere tat it was easy to get good pictures of jewelry using a scanner. Has anyone else tried this.
4 responses
@joyoustreasures (185)
• United States
14 Mar 09
Some people have had some success with scanners, but I don't recommend. You probably just need to understand how to take the pictures with your camera. I have a website at joyoustreasures.etsy.com (not trying to promote here) you can go there and take a good look at the pictures. While most of those pictures are not jewelry, the same technique I used can also be used with jewelry, as I have done it with jewelry before.
You can use a lightbox, or, if you want to do it really easy, hang a white bed sheet over a bright window, and photograph your jewelry beside it. Use a tripod and self timer so your camera will be perfectly still.
Notice how I used props in most of my pictures. You can do the same with your jewelry. Use flowers to drape your jewelry over, or other objects such as a wineglass. I also use paper for my background. White printer paper works great, that is what I use most often.
Hope that helps you with your picture taking! If you have any questions, feel free to contact me, I'd love to help if I can!
@ihearttinytim (614)
• United States
14 Mar 09
Also, after you download your photo to your computer from your camera, it is a good idea to edit your photos so that there is an identifying watermark so that whoever wants to steal your images will think twice. For instance, you may want to put your website addy across the image as a watermark, but do it in a way so that it doesn't detract from the pic, but also so that someone stealing the image can not alter the photo themselves (by cropping, etc.) to erase the watermark. Below is a link to an example of a watermarked image:
http://bytescout.com/images/examples/watermarking/batch_watermarked_images.png
@Davidarich (985)
• Australia
16 Mar 09
Flatbed scanners and document scanners in general are not suitable for the task. They can only handle 2 dimensional objects effectively, and offer very little control over the final output.
Getting good photos of jewelery is not so hard. I have an article with all the details at http://www.qassia.com/photographing-jewellry-and-similar-objects
which should solve any problems you have.
Let me know if yo find it useful.
@shakadoodoo (737)
• Dallas, Texas
15 Mar 09
Scanners are not very good for jewlery because they are not flat so light gets in and messes of the quality of the pictur (Unless you have one of those very expensive scanners - ZScanner 700 PX laser scanner - which is a 3d scanner. Put if you do not have one of those it is best to do like the first peoson on the discussion sait - She is right on point! As far as a watermark - I dont think that is necessary for pictures of jewelery. Now if you are a Artist, Photographer, or a profession that you make money on the picture itself - a watermark is mandatory. So, what would someone do with a picture of a jewlery that they do not own and were not selling - One thing I would add... If you can take them to a program like photoshop - you can edit the picture to maks sure it stands out like you want it and get the objects as sharp as possible - Then I would put my website url on the photo (very small at the bottem of the pic) just for branding purposes.
