Re-Doing All My Online Jewelry Photos

Since my computer started freaking out about a year ago (not always booting up n the morning), I stopped turning it off at night.  Instead, I  just put it to sleep.  The problem with that is that it leaves  me the option of keeping numerous windows open… not dealt with or looked at, but there… waiting.

New habit:  I do not go to bed until I’ve closed every internet window on my computer.  If there’s a website I wanted to save or look at later, I can add it to my bookmarks to deal with at a later time BUT ONLY if I put it into the proper bookmark folder (I’ve got my bookmarks divided up into about 30 different folder subjects).

There.  Let’s see how long I stick to that. 

So the new photos are coming along well, so far.  Apparently I’m redoing 95% of the photos of my currently for sale jewelry items (read my last post).

I got the model shots done for the necklaces and rings.  I don’t have too many bracelets for sale anymore, and for earrings I use a paper photograph of a model (I don’t like putting earrings on a live model).

Yesterday I took care of all the “whole” or “back” shots (see part 2 of my up-coming tutorial on Photographing Jewelry for Online Sales).  Today I intend to go for the heart of the matter… the main shots, which will be my first impression shots. 

I’m going for an overall cohesiveness to my photographs.  Even if my jewelry is all over the place, I’d like a certain continuity to the photo layouts.

And as much as I like a rustic background (rocks, wood, earthtones, etc), my jewelry is in a different, more stark aesthetic.  So I’m sticking with grays, in all shades.  If I do gradient, I want it to be less severe than what I’ve used in the past.

I tested out my new DIY photo cube yesterday and loved it.  I’ve got photos that for the first time all I had to do was crop.  Not one single thing made the item in the shot look more true-to-life than the unadulterated, downloaded photo itself.

Not that I do too much anyway (not big on much photo-editing)… sometimes lighten up the shadows, adjust for white balance, etc (see part 3 of my upcoming tutorial).  Hate seeing jewelry photos that are hyper-contrasty, over-sharpened,  over “blinged”, or anything else that doesn’t represent the jewelry’s true identity.

With that said, I’m off to photograph.  TTYL!