Preachdude Loc: Geneva, OH

Professional quality results means ideally putting the jewelry on velvet and lighting with a ringlight on a macro lens.

jeryh Loc: Oxfordshire UK

The biggest problem you will have is Lighting; Any prime lens will suffice, but its the way you light it where you will have the problem, specifically front, or side lighting. As you are probably aware, jewellery has facetted surfaces, diamonds etc, pearls are smooth, costume items can be anything under the sun. Background is extremely important as well.
Whatever you do, don't be tempted to do it without a LOT of care; its' your reputation which will suffer if you get it wrong !

MTG44 Loc: Corryton, Tennessee

I have been manufacturing custom jewelry all my life and getting good photographs is always difficult. Diffused light is very important and also using props helps with getting the feel for size. Also using colored cloth ,paper or props that compliment the stones helps a lot. Take lots of shots with different light intensity and angles.I have used plants ,rocks,fruit, etc,as props. Hope this helps. Any questions just call would be more than happy to help.

bbrowner Loc: Chapel Hill, NC

some 30 years ago, I photographed a lot od jewelry pieces for my wife's lecture. They were all slides. No matter how careful I was... dust so frequently showed up on the background. Dust that I sure didn't see when shooting. What a problem! Today with digital photography... redoing is easy.

Be careful of what's on the background!!

Bazbo Loc: Lisboa, Portugal

Zeiss 100mm Makro. Pricey, but well worth it.

greg vescuso Loc: Ozark,Mo.

I agree a macro is the way to go. I have found it easier to control lighting problems by using a led light that has a temperature control on it, this works really well on gold to bring out the color.

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

I assisted a photographer who shot for a national chain (8 x 10 film).
He used diffuse light in the form of a big softbox- close and overhead with a larger diffusion panel in between and a few small spotlights in strategic places to add some spectral highlights.
Those small spots gave the jewelry life made it sparkle.
He shot double-spread full-page images with several jewelry pieces, so if you're doing only one at a time you may not need more than one or two spots.

What kind of lights do you have to work with?
There are softboxes made for speedlights and a lot of DIY that would suffice.

PhotoshooterNJ Loc: NJ

:thumbup: :thumbup:

TLCarney Loc: Englewood, Florida

Goofy has a great point, lighting is key here. You need lots of light to give you the option for a deep depth-of-field if you prefer.

Also remember most jewelry is reflective. You and your camera could be reflected in the picture. You need, not only a good background, you also need to control the area between the subject and the lens. Check out light tents as an example. They have become popular for the DIY eBay shooters.

ole sarg Loc: south florida

I would go to the bank and take out a note on the house and buy all the stuff suggested. After all no favor can go unpunished!

alfeng Loc: Out where the West commences ...

FWIW/IMO. This particular photo "shoot" should not be your venture into "catalog"-or-"close-up"-or-"fashion" photography ...

So, in the next few days-or-weeks, test the limitations of your current equipment ...

.....PLUS (as others have mentioned), your skill in lighting small objects ...

.....I recommend you consider diffuse lighting, too ...

..........Think "North Light" ...

BTW. A MACRO lens is obviously preferred when you are taking pictures of an object which is FLAT and you want to maintain any rectilinear characteristics which the object may have but is otherwise probably not necessary other than for the convenience of continuous focusing ...

You may want to consider a simple set of CLOSE-UP lenses which will fit on the front of your lens(es) rather than a set of (expensive?) EXTENSION TUBES if your current lens does not allow you to frame-and-focus as closely as you want-or-need.

jimmya Loc: Phoenix

I would agree with peterff, it's all about the light. I'd use my studio type lights, not flash, from 90-degrees opposing each other.

sirlensalot Loc: Arizona

Suggest a macro for sure. I would look at the Canon 100MM or the Tamron 90MM.
If this will be a regular part of your photography, suggest a light box with lighting (you can purchase as a kit) or maybe a ring flash. Really depends on how much of this you plan on doing. Maybe a piece of black or grey velveteen for background(s). Good luck!

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

That is one solution, but only one of many, and not necessarily the most versatile, cheapest, or easy to use.

As many people have confirmed, lighting and backgrounds are critically important. Velvet can be good, but dust can be an issue if within the focus zone for dark or colored backgrounds.

Flash is much harder to use than consistent studio lamps. With flash of any kind you only see the results after the fact. With studio lights - which can be much cheaper - you can see the results while composing the image.

Ring flashes have limited use and are expensive. If you want directional light then they may not be the best approach even though some have some programmable capability to give some directional effect. They tend to be the most expensive of course, such as the Canon Ring flash Speedlites.

Then what do you do with models? They present a different challenge from a lighting perspective. As has been said, the accent needs to be on the jewelry, not the model - face, neck, hands, or whatever other part of the anatomy the jewelry is designed to enhance.

Then there is the question of what concept the photographs are supposed to convey. If it is creative work to stimulate demand - advertising, glamorous, a sense of lifestyle - then atmosphere becomes important.

However, there will usually also be a need for accurate, descriptive photographs so that potential customers can get a very clear impression of what they are buying. The more expensive the product, the more important that becomes.

I would suggest that researching the catalogs of some of the major auction houses - Christie's, Sotheby's, Bonhams - would be time well spent, since they have to document both desire for the item and authentic representation. http://www.bonhams.com/departments/JWL/?keep_login_open=1

Other than the lighting, I think you already have most of the equipment that you need, except for the possibility of some inexpensive extension tubes.

A few hundred dollars on lighting - say $200 to $400 - would give you a very versatile capability beyond this project, and that is far less than a macro lens and a ring flash.

However, there are many approaches to this project, and only you can choose which is best suited to your needs.

Kuzano

It is absolutely all about lighting.

Furthermore, it is one of the questions that gets asked over and over in the eBay community and forum sections, because of the need to light jewelry in a way that best displays on the computer screen for listings for auction on eBay.

Second to lighting technique is background display. I teach eBay and one of my students asked me to look at her listing on eBay and gave me the listing number to do so.

I looked at the listing, and after a few seconds realized I was spending more time trying to figure out what the details were on the indian blanket she used to rest the jewelry on.

BIG Faux Pas. I eMailed her about that listing and said, "Great blanket in the background. How much do you want for the blanket?" She got the point.

Follow the strict rules of emphasizing the product, not it's surroundings, and lighting it appropriately with diffuse lighting, no harsh specular effects, etc.

Here's just one example of a search link from googling "lighting jewelry for eBay":

http://www.sigma-2.com/camerajim/cjgjewelry.htm