Photos of Jewelry in Natural Sun Light

Since I moved to Colorado, I have many more opportunities to take photos of my jewelry in natural light.  My key light sources through windows are to the east and to the west.  Both are good, but in different ways.  When I lived in St. Louis, I took my photos for my shop, Plum Beadacious, in the basement with a homemade lightbox and artificial lights. I had everything set up for me to place my jewelry for the shot.  I did occasionally change background surfaces, and programmed my camera for the type of light I was using.  I think I got better over several years at doing this, but the pictures still had a harshness to them that I never did eliminate.

Now I have been playing with taking pictures in natural light.  I can get fresh crisp color that is not harsh, but I can't get it consistently.  The light changes from hour to hour and day to day.  Take a look at the pictures of a beaded id lanyard I made for a special order.  These pictures were all taken about 5:30 PM after I got home from my day job.

The first picture is one that was taken in my east window, somewhat shady at 5:30, but it has been a beautiful sunny day.  I placed the lanyard on the white painted window sill.  The blinds were lifted to allow as much light as possible to spill through the window.

Nice, but a little blue looking.  This is because of the shade at this side of the house at 5:30 PM.  However, by adjusting the lighting level on Photoshop Elements, I can improve this picture dramatically.  I do this by using the Full Edit function and going to 

• Enhance
• Adjust Lighting
• Level 

There you will see some icons that look like eye droppers.  I clicked on the white one and then moved my cursor over my photo to a place on the white background that is closest to true white and is not too close to the item or any shaded areas.  I then clicked my mouse, and magically the entire picture lightened up.

I then went to 

• Enhance
• Auto Sharpen

This provided crisper edges to my jewelry photo.

Next I selected the crop tool and cropped the picture to a square.  

Once I do all of this, I select File, Save for Web.  This allows me to tell the program what size picture I want.  Since Etsy recommends 1000 pixels, I type in 1000 pixels, and since the picture is square, and it is constrained to proportion, the picture ends up being 1000x1000 pixels.  I can then save it into my pictures folder in Windows.  It is ready to post on Etsy or anywhere else I would like, such as this blog.

Here is the edited photo - same one as above.  It is much brighter, but is it the best it can be?  Not really!

Let's take a look at a photo taken minutes later at my west window.  The sun was quite intense there at 5:30 PM.  I lowered my nice honeycomb blinds about 2/3 of the way, and I placed my item on a table about two feet away from the window sill.  The light was more intense than the east window, but not glaring.  I also used a soft decorative floral background.

Look at the first picture here taken at the west window, unedited.  Notice the crazy angle.  This is how I took the picture.

Now look at the edited version of the same picture.  I changed the orientation by going to

• Image
• Rotate
• 90% right

Then I did the same edits with the lighting level using the white eye dropper, and auto sharpened.  Don't you think it looks much better?

These edits are quicky fixes to immediately enhance your photos.  There are more sophisticated techniques to make them even better.

Natural light is my friend for my jewelry photography, and besides that my life is definitely enhanced by taking pictures in the wonderful sunshine instead of a dark basement with artificial light.

I invite you to share your experiences with photographing your jewelry, whether done in natural or artificial light.  We can all learn from one another.  I hope this is helpful to some of you.

More about Beaded Lanyards

Handmade Spark - You Gotta Love It!

I can't prove it, but I think Handmade Spark is one of the best things going for Etsy sellers!  I joined Handmade Spark on July 29, 2010 paying only $6.00 for a month's membership.  This site allows an Etsy seller to have a mini-site on www.handmadespark.com.

This site has good articles and SEO, which means it gets traffic!  So....

I signed up on 7/29/10.  At that time I had sold 23 items on my Plumbeadacious Etsy site in two years.  I have been listing/relisting about five items a day for several months, and my last sale was on July 15.

DRUM ROLL PLEASE! I sold three items to different new customers from the time I signed up on 7/29 through yesterday, August 1.  Hooray!

Take a look at what I sold.  Each of these items has been listed on Etsy for a long time.

Yellow Millefiori Bracelet sold on July 30

Under the Sea Earrings sold on August 1

Pink Flower Violet Leaf Earrings sold on August 1

Sunshine Inspired Earrings

What a fabulous day this has been!  It is one of those at home days where I got some things done around the house and found time to create some new jewelry.  Here in Colorado, we often have breezes even when the weather is hot.  Such was the case this afternoon.  One of my favorite activities is to take a beading project out on the deck and create beautiful jewelry while I enjoy the beautiful weather.

The lampwork beads in these earrings have been sitting in my collection since early last fall.  The black eyed susans and shasta daisies blooming in our yard inspired me to create my own sunny garden earrings.  These earring are spicy hot, with fabulous movement in the way the crystals dangle beneath the lampwork beads.  

Enjoy the eye candy!

Spicy Yellow and Orange Lampwork Earrings

Sugar Plum Delight

I totally enjoyed designing and creating this necklace.  For those of you who enjoy creating jewelry, this type of necklace is a great way to improve your wire wrapping skills   Each of the sweet plum colored Czech crystals are individually handwrapped with sterling silver 24 guage wire and dangle from a strand of delicate pink seed beads.

For more information and to purchase  - Sugar Plum Delight 

Crystal Dreams - Very Vintage and Victorian

I made multiples of the earrings below.  They are just so Victorian and vintage looking to me.  I call them Crystal Dreams, and I posted them today on Etsy.  Hope you like them!  Happy Independence Day!

Black and White Twist

Here is one of my new creations.  I went outside of my normal comfort zone and style to create this bold chunky necklace from some lovely white howlite nuggets.  The nuggets are streaked with gray, and I decided to do the black and white theme.  When I made this I tried to offset the nuggets on the three strands so they lay well on the neck.

Copper Glow - Summer to Fall

Most of us are looking for accessories that we can wear for multiple occasions and across the seasons.  I am so pleased with this necklace and earring set.  The copper is great with clothes in summery yellows, oranges, pinks and reds.  Then the copper is equally good for fall browns, golds, rust and plum colors. It all hinges on these warm glowing shimmery square Czech glass beads.  These are square and backed with a bright copper metallic color.  The top of these beads are glass so the copper shines through and just glows.

I chose soft white shimmery freshwater coin pearls to compliment the coppery glass beads, and then added champagne and amethyst color faceted Czech crystals to give a touch of color.  Wear this necklace with a dress or shirt with a scoop neck, or place it over a sweater in the fall.  The earrings can go with just about anything.

I must admit, I am not always thinking about this type of versatility when creating a new design.  If you are a jewelry designer, do you try to create items that are versatile either regarding colors or transitioning seasons? From a marketing perspective, do you prefer to create lots of neutral pieces or do you design mostly with colors that are trendy, fashionable, etc.?