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Jewelry photography with pure white background using plexiglass questions

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RC62

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Hi Everyone,

Its my first post here.

Reason for my post is that I will be selling jewelry on Amazon, and as everyone knows, Amazon requires products to be on a white background so I am trying to learn to take photos of my products on my own. I have hundreds of products I need to shoot so I am trying to find the fastest way to do it.

So I researched the web for getting pure white backgrounds for jewelry photography, and after many reads, my understanding is that to get a pure white background with minimal post editing, it is best to shoot the piece of jewelry on a frosted plexiglass that is lit directly from below or on a clear plexiglass suspended a few feet away from a white background that is lit from its own light source separately from the main product light.

I already have 3 cfl continuous lights with 20"x28" soft boxes, 2 on a stand and 1 on a boom that I used for other things, so I do want to utilize these as my light source since I already have these. Here is the one I have from Amazon. I can get more lights if needed.

I am also planning to DIY my own shooting table with PVC pipes as the frame (similar to something like this ) and a 24"x36" plexiglass on the top.

Now my questions are:

Which approach gets the best looking result for Jewelry photography, using frosted or Clear Plexi?

Suppose I am going with the clear plexiglass route... I do plan to take some overhead shots of the products too, with the product flat on the plexiglass and the camera shooting straight down, but how do I go about positioning the white background? Do I lay it flat on the ground parallel with the plexiglass? How do I angle the lights to overexpose the background? Whats the optimum height I should build the DIY shooting table to get enough distance between the product and background?

With the clear plexiglass method, so far I've only seen tutorials explaining this method when shooting at a forward down angle but not from a overhead angle.

Using frosted plexiglass seems to be more straight forward right? I can just place one of the soft box lights under the plexiglass facing up directly against the bottom of the plexiglass?

I think that is it for now. I will appreciate anyone that can help me out. Thank you!
 
The fastest way is to setup a shooting station on a desk, table, or even on the floor. Camera on a tripod. Then you just swap the jewelry pieces.

You didn't say what kind of jewelry. Some people like to have earrings dangling down, hanging with clear invisible threads. Rings and bangles and such are ok laying flat on the plexiglass. For necklaces, you may also like a white necklace display stand, especially if they have lots of loose elements and look better hanging down.

I find the lights from above a frosted plexiglass works better than lights from below a clear plexiglass, give the jewelry better dimension with better reflection. Straight-down shots are OK but you probably shoot hand-held, 45 degrees angle down would work also, angled-down you can setup a tripod.

If you already have 2 softboxes, put them on each side above the jewelry pointing down at about 45 degrees. Buy 1 white foamboard for the back, or a large piece of white fabric.

If you only have one flash, buy 2 additional large white foamboards to make a "box", 2 on the 2 sides and one at the back of the plexiglass (or the white fabric), they act as light reflectors, fire the flash from the front. Make sure the boards are large enough over your plexiglass so you don't see them in your shots, especially you don't want to see any of the edges of the boards. They are fairly inexpensive at Walmart or Target (I'm assuming you're in the US), also your local art supplies stores but probably a bit more money.
 
Last edited:
nightstreet said:
The fastest way is to setup a shooting station on a desk, table, or even on the floor. Camera on a tripod. Then you just swap the jewelry pieces.

You didn't say what kind of jewelry. Some people like to have earrings dangling down, hanging with clear invisible threads. Rings and bangles and such are ok laying flat on the plexiglass. For necklaces, you may also like a white necklace display stand, especially if they have lots of loose elements and look better hanging down.
Click to expand...
Thanks nightstreet for your input. I am doing mainly fashion jewelry. Most of the pieces, necklaces, bracelets/bangles, earrings, I will be shooting them laying flat on the surface at an angle or overhead.
 
RC62 said:
nightstreet said:
The fastest way is to setup a shooting station on a desk, table, or even on the floor. Camera on a tripod. Then you just swap the jewelry pieces.

You didn't say what kind of jewelry. Some people like to have earrings dangling down, hanging with clear invisible threads. Rings and bangles and such are ok laying flat on the plexiglass. For necklaces, you may also like a white necklace display stand, especially if they have lots of loose elements and look better hanging down.
Click to expand...
Thanks nightstreet for your input. I am doing mainly fashion jewelry. Most of the pieces, necklaces, bracelets/bangles, earrings, I will be shooting them laying flat on the surface at an angle or overhead.
Click to expand...
I agree with the previous poster that items which are normally worn hanging look better if displayed hanging. While I have never used them, you could purchSe an inexpensive light box which should give you nice presentable photos.
 
Not jewelry, but I started out with multiple strobes and purchase an inexpensive lighting table from Amazon.

I graduated to more sophisticated lighting but regular speedlights work just fine and I would imagine that continuous lighting would also.





My lighting set up
My lighting set up



Results using the lights
Results using the lights
 
Whenever anyone asks about photographing jewelry I always suggest they hire someone who does this regularly. Unless you're already a highly technically proficient photographer (shooting, lighting and post-processing) and very detail oriented, you may find that hiring someone is both easier and cheaper (at least in the short-term for smaller numbers of items).

If you do do this yourself, a better way to use plexi is to use clear sheets that allow you to suspend your items in front of a background. You can then light your background separately. Doing so also allows you more flexibility in placing reflectors and flags to control surfaces and edges. (It's not the end all be all set-up, but nothing is.)

Light, Science and Magic is a good resource for getting a handle on how to light jewelry.

Good luck.

-m
 
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