Photographing Jewelry - Taking the Picture

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The whole purpose of setting up a good lighting system is to eliminate glare and avoid the need for a flash.  When you use a flash to photograph jewelry your pictures will be washed out, flat and filled with glare and hot spots.  You should never use a flash when taking pictures of your jewelry.  There should be an option on your camera to turn off the flash so even if the lighting it low your camera won’t automatically use the flash.

Cameras often under expose photos when you shoot dark objects against light backgrounds.  This means that your photos will come out too dark.  Your camera should have a built in setting that will help you to overcome this.  This setting is typically called the EV (exposure value) setting and will allow you to manually adjust the exposure of your photos. You will need to refer to your owner’s manual for your camera to find out how to adjust the EV setting on your own particular model. If the EV is too low, your photos will come out too dark and gloomy looking, and if it is too high your photos will be flat and washed out. 

To get this setting right, start with a mid-level setting and take a photo to see how it looks.  If it is too dark increase the EV setting.  If it is too light decrease the EV setting.  When you have the setting correct your photo will just “look right” to you.  There is a great visual reference and explanation of adjusting the EV setting here that will give you a better idea of what you are striving for:

Adjusting the EV Setting on a Camera