Lights Camera..... Prop!

One of the jobs that involve being an artist, any artist really is to take photographs of your work, be they paintings, sculptures, assemblage art or yes of course Jewelry. I mean  unless we take pictures and post them on blogs, websites & social media, there is no way all you amazing folks are going to know what we are upto holed up in our studios, are you? 

I am a metal artist but I make a lot of Jewelry, in fact that is what I gave been concentrating on for the past 5 years. 

Taking photos of art and especially Jewelry in such a way that they are shown in the best light and all the detailing & hard work that goes into it are clearly visible is not an easy job. Jewelry usually has subtle  textures, precious or semiprecious stones, intricate enamel work or some delicate wire work. Each of these details need to be clearly visible, this usually means having plenty of light, clean backgrounds & a whole bunch of props. These can range from blue tack to hold the piece of Jewelry up without being visible, to various textured papers, to third hands, fabrics and the list goes on.

Of course it goes without saying, you need a good digital camera like an SLR and a nice lens. Now I am no expert and this not a "how to take pictures " blog post so I am not going to get into details about cameras & lenses. 

 

Apart from the equipment I mentioned above I also have props that I put together out of the most unlikely of objects. 

For example I use this cut out portion of a paper roll to hold up my bracelets. 

Now I mentioned third hand and I do have one that I use both when I am soldering and when I need to hold up a background or support my Jewelry in some way. Besides this one I also have one that I fashioned myself out of some wood scrap, an old brush handle & a clothes pin. 

This contraption is not very sturdy but it does the job since most of my props are pretty light weight.