Gemstone Necklace Photoshoot

This beautiful blue gemstone necklace photography class is the first in a series of jewellery photo shoots.

This class provides a detailed explanation of the entire process, from selecting and creating backgrounds to testing lights and adding interesting props. Karl also explains a few common mistakes when it comes to jewellery photography and how you can overcome these.

Using just three lights, he combines a graduated ambient light with a few extra light sources to make the gems sparkle. He then experiments by adding small black stones for a more interesting final shot.

In this class:

  • Product photography: How to photograph jewellery
  • Jewellery photography tips
  • Common mistakes when photographing jewellery
  • Lens choices for jewellery photography
  • Studio lighting setups for jewellery photography
  • How to make jewellery sparkle
  • How to photograph juxtaposing textures

Questions? Please post them in the comments section below.

Comments

  1. Why use acrylic instead of diffusion?

    1. Hi, Acrylic is relatively rigid which means you can lean it easily at an angle. You can do this with diff material if it’s in a frame but then you may have the frame reflecting in the jewellery too.

  2. Hello,
    I’m having a really hard time sourcing slate textured plastic. Any ideas where I can find this? Thanks!!

      1. I have but sizing is limited to small (12inx12in) not to mention the cost and weight. I’ll keep looking. Thanks!

  3. Hi Karl & KTE Team,

    I have a question about the acrylic squares. Do you usually buy the square/board already painted or do you paint them by yourself (matte and glossy)?
    In case you paint them: do you start with a transparent board or a white one? and the result could be perfectly smooth and without lumps with spray paint?

    Thanks so much for your time and for sharing your knowledge and experience

    1. Hi Marco, the acrylic board in white, black, grey, matt or gloss we buy directly from Sign Service companies that use lots of different plastic materials for their signs. Or if you are buying in bulk you can go directly to a plastic supplier company like this https://barkstonltd.co.uk/ there are plenty to choose from across Europe and the world.

  4. Hi Karl,
    Great tutorials again,
    I have a question regarding photographing Swarovski Crystal figures etc,
    I often focus stack when taking these shots, I use electronic focusing rail made by MIOPS i.e.they call it the Slider rail, which works great and the stacking I can perform OK,
    Over the years of shooting all things shinny and reflective , can you please advise me on the best way to tackle the lighting set up, I can use a twin light macro set on the lens, I have a type of light tent, I also have some studio lights , soft boxes and the like, but with so many facets reflecting the lights, I am running out of ideas, or is the only answer to calm down the multiple reflective glare in post, any help regarding set up or post would be very appreciated
    many thanks
    Barry Amos

    1. Hi Barry, I’ve done a number of diamond shoots in the past but not focus stacked. My technique is very similar to the one in the rings tutorial on this platform (where I did use stacking) and that is to surround the object with largely flat soft light and then introduce one or two point light sources for sparkle but I always find that these sort of gems still need post work to add more sparkle and selected contrast.

      1. Many thanks, Karl I think I have been using to many bright light sources around the subjects,
        I will soften everything right down and then add some tiny spot light with my projection light modifier to give more sparkle where I think it needs it, then some post work after that,
        many thanks
        Barry A

  5. Hi team I have just been watching a gem stone shot and I am just wondering as you are using your Hasselblad H6 with a 100MB capture, is it necessary to use that amount of resolution for each test shot, as you may take sometimes 15-20 tests while composing your lights etc, is there any reason that you could use say, set the camera to a smaller size , say 20Mb for the test shots, then reset to 100MB when you are ready to go, would it make that much difference to the assessing the capture, apart from the very large amount of memory on the computer while you are carrying out the test shots,
    I suppose it depends on you computers capacity.
    Barry Amos

    1. Hi Barry, as far as I’m aware you can’t make the H6 take lower resolution images, it always shoots the full resolution you can only make it export lower resolution files from the RAW file. I generally have enough space on my drive or I have my computer connected to an external drive for extra storage.

  6. if there is a black cast on subject, is it confirmed to use white paper in one shot and merge it to another shot with original black background? or it seems unnatural look.
    would you please advise?

    1. Hi Reza, It’s similar to my recent live motorbike shoot (you can watch on replay in the live section) you’ll see me occassionally use grey card so it looks more natural.

    1. Hi Warren, they usually come as a set of three (try Kenko extension tubes) the thinnest one is the one I use most often

      1. Hi Karl,

        Thank you for your response. Kenko’s set of extension tubes are great value but I’m using a Hasselblad and they’re only available for Nikon, Canon lenses. So I’ll assume from your
        answer it would be the 13mm tube which is the smallest for Hasselblad lenses.

        Great stuff Karl!

        1. Hi Warren, sorry I didn’t realise you were on medium format, I have the set of three and I purchased them as a set but I mostly use the thinnest one and occasionally the medium. I’m not sure I’ve ever used the thickest one.

          2. Hi Karl ,
            Which extension tube do you recommend to use on 80 mm 2.8 lens ( h System) for jewellery shots?
            I only have a 80mm lens .

            Regards
            Saeid

          3. Hi the one’s I have are a set of three and 90% of the time I’m using the thinest one and only occasionally the middle size.

  8. Hi Karl. Great tutorial as always. Just wondered where you got that state effect board from as I’m struggling to find something similar?

    1. Hi Jason, I think that was Anna’s from a food shoot, she had it made by a plastic supplier but you can buy slate slabs at stone suppliers and then spray paint them to look better.

      1. Thanks Karl, I did give up on that idea and bought a couple of slate roofing tiles and sprayed them, they came out great. Thanks Karl.

  9. Hi Karl

    When shooting jewelry with lots of diamonds and gemstone, will it be better to first take care of the lighting on the stones and then bring in the broader fill light?

    Amit

  10. Hi Karl

    When shooting these type of jewelry with gemstone and diamonds, will it be better to first light up the specularity and sparkle on the stones first using smaller lights and then introduce the broader fill light?

    Many thanks.

    Amit

  11. Nice tutorial but not all has that kinda equipment and assistance. May be these tutorials are only for already established professionals?

    1. Hi for studio photography you obviously need lighting but I could have done this shoot with speedlites if necessary, the rest of the stuff was mostly home made. You must try to think about the techniques rather than the gear and understand the first 15 chapters in our portrait section on lighting theory.

  12. Hi Karl,

    i try too make similar photo of aquamarine necklace but when i shoot from other angle then right from the front, there is no drawing cut in the stone. Try many position of lights or camera and only way is direct front shot. Stone have very beautiful cut so necklace is no problem. Any idea about my mistakes? I know its hard via text but maybe… :-). Many thanks for any idea.

    Greetings from Czech republic ( srry for my poor grammar )

    1. Hi, I’m sorry but you are right it is not possible for me to understand from the text what exactly the problems were that you were up against? In many ways we would need to see the image but I’m not sure this would help as it’s the 3 dimensionality of the object and how it interacts with light that will ultimately dictate the exact reflections from the stone. All you can do is systematically apply each light at a time and have an assistant move the light until you see the resulting reflection necessary.

  13. Hi Karl,

    Do you have any tips for photographing pearls? I am realizing soft light is making them look really flat… so I am thinking hard light. Any tips would be wonderful!!

    Thank you for this resource to constantly learn 🙂

    Best,
    Anastasia

    1. Hi Anastasia, I would still go with a scrim and gradients but I would consider putting the bare light much closer to the scrim to create your harder light or using a standard reflector like the P70 on the light to harden the gradient. Check out the latest live show on shooting glasses, some similarities there with a pearlesque material when I bring the scrim lighting in from the right.

  14. Hello Karl
    Do you notice any big difference in the luster when photographing swarovski crystals or cubic zirconia as opposed to precious gems? I’m looking at creating a jewelry portfolio but I don’t have access to this sort of high end jewelry. Thanks in advance.

    1. Hi Tim, I don’t think there would be a huge difference and certainly you’d be able to sparkle it up in post.

  15. Thank you for the tutorials on photographing jewellery! It would be nice if you also explained how to photograph earrings 🙂
    I have trouble understanding how to make them stand on the white acrylic to have the shadow beneath them like in regular pack shots.
    Thank you!

    1. Also, why do I keep seeing my e-mail as display name, even though I changed my nickname in the account settings?

      1. No, as they are chandelier earrings. Unless, to hang them on the string. Otherwise, they will fall.

        1. If they lay flat on a surface in an attractive form then it sounds like you could use the same lighting as here for the necklaces?

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