How to take pictures of jewellery: soft light, a plain ground, a clean cutout

Jewellery is hard to photograph for the opposite reason to food or clothing. It is small, so every fault is enlarged, and it is shiny, so the piece shows the room, the lamp and the person holding the camera. The usual result is a dark, blurred ring with a white blob on one side. Most of the cure is done before you press the button: soften the light, choose a ground that separates the piece from its background, and keep the camera still. This guide goes through those for a phone, and then covers the one place software helps, which is when a shop wants every piece on the same background.

Say the limits first. getPNG removes a background; it does not sharpen a soft photo, remove a reflection or clean a dusty stone. Those are done at the table. The home setup of window light, a fill card and a steady phone is in how to take product photos at home, and jewellery follows the same rules with a few of its own.

Light: big, soft and indirect

Polished metal and cut stones reflect their surroundings, so what matters is not how bright the light is but how large and even it looks from the piece’s point of view.

• A window, out of direct sun. Put the piece on a table beside the window. A bright overcast day is ideal.
• Diffuse it again. Hang a sheet of thin white paper or a net curtain over the glass. A small, bright source gives a sharp white spot on every curve, and a large dim one gives a soft glow along it.
• Turn the lamps off. A warm bulb and a window together give two colours on one piece, and the camera cannot get both right.
• No flash. It is the smallest and hardest light you own, and it bounces straight back from metal and stones.
• Fill the dark side with a white card. A piece of white card or paper just out of the frame lifts the shadow on the side away from the window and gives the metal something plain to reflect. Product photography setup describes the fill card and why it comes first among the cheap upgrades.

The ground: white, black, or something in between

The surface under the piece decides how easy the picture is, and how easy the cutout will be later.

Two warnings apply to every ground. A glossy surface such as glass or polished plastic shows a mirror image of the piece, which looks like a second piece and complicates the cutout, so prefer matt card, paper or cloth. And a pure black cloth shows every speck of dust and every thread, so wipe or brush it before each piece.

Steady, close enough, and many frames

At close range the slightest movement shows as softness, and the part of the piece that is sharp is only a thin slice.

1. Prop the phone. A small tripod, or a stack of books with the phone leaning on it, is steadier than hands. Use the timer or the volume button to avoid shaking it when you press.
2. Tap on the piece to set focus. Tap on the part that matters, such as the stone, the clasp or the front of the ring, and check the result at full size on a screen, not on the preview.
3. Stand back and crop later. A phone lens very close to a small object exaggerates the nearest part, and the sharp slice gets thinner. Step back until the piece is sharp from end to end, and crop afterwards.
4. Take many frames and tilt the piece between them. A few degrees of tilt moves every reflection. Keep the frame in which the metal shows its shape without a hot spot.
5. Clean first. Wipe the metal and stones with a soft dry cloth, hold the piece by its edges, and remove dust from the ground. A fingerprint that nobody sees at arm’s length is a smear across a ring at the size of a screen.

Sets and angles

Buyers cannot touch the piece, so the set of pictures has to answer what they would ask in a shop.

• One clear front view as the main picture, the piece sharp from end to end.
• A close-up of the part that matters, such as the stone, the clasp or the maker’s mark.
• The piece worn or against something that shows its size, because a ring on a plain ground has no scale. Say the measurements in the listing in your own words rather than leaving the buyer to guess.
• Any flaw, shown plainly. A scratch, a chipped stone or a repair that is not in a photograph is a return waiting to happen.

When every piece needs the same background

A single piece shot well on a plain ground is a finished photograph. A shop is different, because a grid of listings looks careless when each piece sits on a different surface, and a marketplace may ask for a particular background. This page states no platform rule, because the rules differ and change. Check what the one you use asks for.

For a shop, cut each piece out of its ground and put it on the background you need. A transparent PNG keeps the options open: the same cutout goes onto white for a listing, onto a colour for a banner and into a layout for a catalogue. Product photos on a white background covers the steps and the usual pitfalls.

What to check in the compare view

Jewellery has more difficult edges than most products, and they are small. Open the compare view, zoom to full size and drag the divider along the outline.

• The gaps in a chain. The space inside each link is tiny, and a cutout may fill it with the old ground or lose a thin link altogether. Rub out any background that was kept and paint back any link that was removed with the brush.
• Earring hooks and thin wire. A wire a few pixels wide has a soft edge, and a faint stretch of it can disappear. Look along its whole length.
• Clear and pale stones. A clear stone shows the ground through it, so the cutout cannot tell where the stone ends and the table begins. Check the outline, and expect a clear stone to sit best on a ground you have chosen deliberately.
• Pearls and polished metal. Their edges pick up the colour of the ground, which leaves a rim of that colour after the swap. Clean edge colour takes the old background back out of the soft pixels at the edge, and the white halo guide explains why a rim forms.
• The shadow. A cutout removes the shadow under the piece, and a piece with no shadow can look as if it floats. The drop shadow option draws a soft one from the outline, and you set the strength and distance.

Leave the edge soft. The edge of a small piece photographed at full resolution is a gradient a few pixels wide, and getPNG keeps that softness rather than cutting it hard, so do not sharpen it back.

What a cutout cannot do

A cutout takes away what is behind the piece. It leaves the piece exactly as the camera recorded it.

• It does not remove a reflection, because the reflection is inside the outline of the piece.
• It does not sharpen a soft photo, or clean dust, scratches and fingerprints.
• It cannot show what is behind a clear stone or inside a pierced setting, only keep or remove what the camera saw there.

The honest order is therefore light first, ground second, a steady camera third and the cutout last, and only for a shop that wants every piece on the same background.

What usually goes wrong

• A white blob on the metal, from a lamp or flash. Soften the light, and tilt the piece.
• A piece that vanishes, from a ground close to its colour. Change the ground, not the edit.
• Everything soft except one corner, from a camera held too close or in the hand. Step back, prop the phone and tap to focus.
• Specks and smears, from dust and fingerprints. Wipe before every frame.
• A grey or yellow cast, from a lamp mixed with the window. Turn the lamps off.

A window, a sheet of paper, the right ground for the piece and a steady phone are most of what a jewellery photograph needs. The cutout is the last step, and only when a shop needs the pieces to match. A nail technician’s portfolio is the same problem on a hand, with a pose and a focus distance to add, and how to take pictures of nails covers them. If what you sell is not small and shiny but flat, soft or edible, the same window and card apply with a different set of cares, and product photography setup shows which upgrade fixes which fault.

The steps, in short

1. Clean the piece and the ground. Wipe the metal and stones with a soft dry cloth and remove dust from the surface. At close range every fingerprint and speck is huge.
2. Soften the light. Put the piece beside a window out of direct sun and hang a sheet of thin white paper or a net curtain over the glass. Turn the room lamps off and do not use the flash.
3. Choose the ground. A white or pale ground for dark metal and coloured stones, a black or dark grey ground for silver, white gold and pale stones that would disappear on white.
4. Hold the camera steady and shoot several tilts. Prop the phone on a stack of books or a small tripod, tap on the piece to set focus, and take frames at slightly different angles so that one catches the shine without a hot spot.
5. Cut it out only for a consistent shop. Drop the best frame on getPNG, check each gap in a chain and each stone edge in the compare view, paint back anything missing with the brush, then save a transparent PNG or a version on white.

Questions

What is the best light for photographing jewellery?

Soft light from a window, made softer still by a sheet of thin white paper or a net curtain over the glass. Polished metal and cut stones act like small mirrors, so a bare bulb or direct sun shows up as a hard white spot on the piece. The large, dim shape of a diffused window is what you want to see reflected.

Should jewellery be photographed on white or on black?

It depends on the piece. A white or pale ground suits dark metal, coloured stones and anything with a strong outline. A black or dark grey ground suits silver, white gold and pale or clear stones, which lose their edge against white. If you are unsure, shoot the piece on both and look at the two at full size.

How do I avoid reflections in the metal?

You cannot remove them, but you can control what is reflected. Put a sheet of white paper beside the piece so the metal reflects something plain, keep your own body and bright objects out of the line of sight, and tilt the piece a few degrees between frames. One of the frames will usually show the shape without a hot spot.

Can I cut a chain or an earring out of its background?

Yes, but a chain needs checking. The tiny gaps between links may be filled in or the thinnest links may be lost. Open the compare view, drag the divider along the chain at full size, and use the brush to rub out any background kept inside a gap or to paint back a link that was removed. A cutout keeps the full resolution of the photo, and nothing is uploaded.

Will a cutout fix a blurry or dusty jewellery photo?

No. A cutout removes what is behind the piece and leaves the piece exactly as the camera recorded it. Blur, dust, fingerprints and harsh reflections stay in. Clean the piece, steady the phone and soften the light first, and use the cutout last.

How close should I get to a ring or an earring?

Stand back and crop afterwards. A phone lens close to a small object exaggerates the nearest part and can blur the rest, because the depth that is sharp at that range is very thin. A step back, tap to focus on the part that matters, and a crop later give a sharper and truer picture.