Choosing a Background
You might be asking, now that I have my lightbox, my lights, and my earring prop, what should I use as my background? Well let's take a look at what some of the major jewelry retailers use for their pictures.
Tiffany's
Zales
DeBeers
Museum of Art and Design
What is the one thing that you notice about all of them? There is an obviously lack of vibrant colors. This is done for a very good reason. When someone looks at a picture of your jewelry, what is the first thing that you want them to see? Your jewelry, of course. When someone looks at any of the above sites, the first thing that someone sees isn't the black or white backgrounds, it's the necklaces, rings, earrings, etc. I digitally altered the photographs below to prove my point. The bright blue background might be a lovely shade, and it screams Tiffany, but even Tiffany knows to reserve it for their boxes and not their photography. The necklace stands out much better on a plain white background.
Does it matter then what material you use for your background? The answer is both yes, and no. The first thing you need to figure out is what look you're going for. Whatever you choose to use, make sure that your background has little to no texture and will not wrinkle easily. Papers work very well as do natural stone tiles, and black and white acrylic. If you're final plan is to superimpose a fake background using editing software, pick a background that is closest to the one you will be editing. It will make for smoother edging around your piece. Most fabrics will wrinkle when stored and have a texture or sheen that will detract from your jewelry, or at the very least are hard to keep flat and tend to look best with some gentle folds. I've found faux suede the least likely to crease, but the texture can cause problems, especially in black. I personally prefer using paper behind items that will hang when shot. Paper is cheap, easy to replace if I need to and really fades into......well what it's supposed to be.....the background. Most hobby shops will carry poster boards in an array of gray, white, and black shades. Tiles with a reflective surface and acrylics create a nice shadow for items that you will shoot in a laying or erect position. That shadow can be brought into a superimposed background and help give dimension to your picture.
Now, what about props? I'm sure the majority of you have seen the typical ad found at online handmade markets. They usually have a background of pretty scrapbooking paper and a flower, glass, large stone, etc., perhaps even several. They're visually pretty images with lots of interesting things to look at, but that's the problem. You're not selling a flower, a glass, and a rock. You don't want lots of things to look at......you only want your customer looking at one thing, your piece of jewelry.
Artfire even states in their help guides that you should "set the stage" for your items. They use the example of soap. They explain that a customer doesn't get emotional about a bar of soap, so setting the picture up to look like a spa environment gives your customer an idea of what your soap will make them feel like. That's all well and good, but we're not selling soap here. Soap doesn't have a lot of detail and I don't know anyone who has purchased a bar of soap because of the way it looked in a picture (unless it was crazy shaped). Soap needs the scene to be set; jewelry does not.
Keep the background and props (if any at all) simple. Keep the focus of the picture on your piece. You want your customer looking at your jewelry and only your jewelry. Sometimes props aren't needed at all. Here's a picture from my original picture set. The rock and fabric are so distracting, that the bracelet is almost an afterthought. But the picture on the right highlights the bracelet and brings out the detail of the handpainted scene.
Or take this picture of the earrings below on the left. When I showed my mother this photo the first thing she said to me was, "Katrina, what a pretty wooden bowl, where did you get it?" I think that says it all. The photo on the right highlights the earrings. Good thing that bowls are useful in other ways too!
Pretty rocks and fancy props are nice to look at. They make for a lovely picture, but since this isn't a competition about what looks the most interesting, it's much better to keep things simple and to the point. I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial and have learned how a simple change of colors and less props will actually do more to help you sell your jewelry.