Photographing Jewelry

light boxes, tents, and backgrounds

© by Elaine Luther; all rights reserved

I have tried a few different photo light boxes in the past few years. I've posted on them extensively on Orchid and have written articles that have appeared in the newsletter of the Chicago Metal Arts Guild and The North American Felters Network newsletter.

Elaine Luther's original setup for photographing jewelry

Shown in the picture is my original set up, made of foam core. My current favorite lightbox, for size, ease of use, ease of assembly, and presence of a back drop clips is the Patterson Medium Light box.

It was $44.00 when I bought it, I think it's up to $47.00 now.

You can find it in the "studio" section at B & H Photo Video, then go to "light domes and tents".

It's a good size, so you don't have to worry about running out of backdrop room if you make something big. The backdrop clip is awesome. After years of using jerry rigged systems, I really appreciate this set up. Yes, you could build it yourself for less, but boy they've done a nice job for a reasonable price.

To go with that, you can buy seamless background paper in a number of colors from most any large photography supply place. If you want gradient gray, you can by that in small, affordable pieces from Set Shop.

Other folks recommend printing out your own at home using Photoshop and photo paper.

At a recent meeting of the Windy City Chapter of the PMC Guild, many of us brought our photo light tent set ups to show and for members to try out. People brought jewelry and took test shots.

One of the systems a member brought was the American Recorder "Photo Studio in a Box". One place to buy it is Smith Gear.

This is apparently one of those products that came out to meet the needs of the eBay seller. I was very impressed with how it truly folded flat and also takes less than a minute to set up. It would be more accurate to call it Photo Studio in a bag. The whole thing is in a "bag" the outer parts of which are also it, the light tent. You unzip and unvelcro it, pop out the sides and ta-da! You're in business!

That it comes with lights and is only $99.00 is incredible. If I needed everything, I would probably get this one. When we used this at the Guild meeting, we added a "ramp" of foam core underneath the background.

Author Elaine Luther of Creative Texture Tools provides hard to find tools for metal clay; silicone texture plates (TM), photopolymer texture plates, perfect for metal clay and polymer clay, all designs sized just right for jewelry.

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