Samples of my Jewelry photography can be seen here

GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT MY JEWELRY PHOTOGRAPHY SERVICES (top)

Jewelry is one of the most difficult subjects to photograph. If you don't know what you're doing, the highly reflective nature of many pieces can drive you absolutely crazy. How does one photograph a mirror anyway? And even if you get that one figured out, things like dust, clear subject focus, background and subject lighting, background choice, camera mountings and position and lens choice will prove to be equally problematic. Unless you're a glutton for punishment, you should seriously consider hiring a professional like myself to handle this task.

I have been photographing jewelry for many years and have worked out solutions to the many problems involved in this type of photography. I have the proper lighting, cameras, lenses, backgrounds and dust-control systems to make great looking photographs possible. Even my computer is set-up to help me make the best possible images of jewelry.

It is also important to have professional photographs of your jewelry if you're applying to the top juried craft shows. Judges will quickly reject applications containing photographs that don't show your work clearly, or are not good enough for the show's website or advertising materials. It is also important to realize that the most successful jewelers will be submitting professionally photographed images. These denote a certain level of professionalism that you need to emulate.

Professional images of your work are not just a necessity, but also a great investment. They can be used for postcards, your website, advertising, display prints in your studio, catalogs, business cards and many other uses. Why populate all these materials with really bad images? You don't want to waste your hard-earned money on negative advertising do you?

PHOTOGRAPHS OF JEWELRY FOR JURIED CRAFT SHOWS (top)

Most shows ask for five photographs of your jewelry and a booth shot. If you don't have a booth yet, you'll need to create one that can be photographed.

Be very careful selecting the pieces you want to show. It is extremely important to show a very distinctive personal style if you can. The judges will be looking at lots of similar-looking jewelry. Select jewelry that stands out, is different, unique or unusual but works together with each of the other pieces in your submission. Don't crowd too many pieces into each shot, they will appear too small when projected or viewed on a computer by the judges.

Many jewelers send their work to me for photography. If you decide to do this, I'll need a way to know roughly what you want in terms of a layout. For each shot, put all the pieces for that shot in a baggie and attach a rough photo, drawing or copier scan that I can refer to. When I get your work at the studio, I'll lay it out according to what you've shown me with your sketch or whatever and I'll shoot a digital test photo of this and email it to you. Once you get it, let me know what you think and what you like and don't like. You can do this by phone or via email. It will take a little while and several test photos to figure out what you want and how to get there, but eventually we'll be thinking along the same lines and I'll be able to create a final image that meets your expectations. Once you've received a copy of this final photo and approved it, I'd move onto the next subject to be photographed.

If you are going to send work to me, you'll need to be near a computer during the shoot so I send images and get a reply without too much of a delay. You can be doing other things too, but I'll need responses quickly or the shoot can take far too much time.

Pricing to shoot 5 pieces of jewelry for a show submission - $500. Price is for work sent to the studio with web proofs as described above. You'll be provided with a CD that has Zapplication files, eJury files, 300 dpi 5x7 Jpegs and 72 dpi,7x9 jpegs for websites or emailing. Provide your username and password and I'll upload your Zapplication and eJury files to both sites for $20. Additional works photographed are $90 each.