There you are…holding a gorgeous piece of clear rhinestone jewelry that just sparkles like the dickens and has fabulous fire that shoots prisms of color everyone. You just know this is going to be a good sale – especially with the holiday season right around the corner.

So you get your camera and begin taking pictures. You’re excited because this piece of jewelry is soooo beautiful. You snap a few photos with the flash because you believe that’s going to fire up the rhinestones. You take a few more without the flash just to see how they will turn out.

You transfer the pictures to your computer and when you look at them expecting to see the razzle dazzle of the rhinestones instead you see either dull looking dead stones or a glaring white blob.

 

What the heck happened?

Photographing clear rhinestones (or even clear gemstones) can be one of the most challenging jobs in all of jewelry photography. Colored rhinestones (or gemstones) are far easier.

When you wear a piece of clear rhinestone jewelry light bounces around the facets to bring out the brilliance of the rhinestones. But when a piece of clear rhinestone jewelry is standing still (such as when you are photographing it) there is no movement to cause the light to “bounce” and this often causes a dull, lifeless looking picture.

How do you fix that? Well…there are two very important things you can do. One is setting the proper Exposure Value on your camera. Exposure value settings on your camera let you increase or decrease the exposure. To bring this point home we’ve all seen photographs that are over-exposed (glaringly bright) or under-exposed (dark). When a picture has correct exposure it looks just right.

When I shoot clear rhinestone jewelry I follow a few rules:

No Flash

I never shoot clear rhinestones using the camera’s flash. It will just wash out the rhinestones making the picture too bright and cause the clarity and definition of the piece to be lost.

Exposure Value

I set my camera’s exposure value to a low value such as -0.7 or -1.0 (sometimes even lower depending upon the jewelry). Play around a bit with your camera’s settings to find the EV that works the best. Lower values will produce different results depending upon whether you are shooting outdoors or indoors under lights. A little experimentation will let you find the best value for your lighting conditions.

Sparkle Tricks>

To get your clear rhinestones to “fire up” and show their brilliance try the following.

Get a strand of clear Christmas twinkle lights(preferably ones that have speed settings). Put the setting to the one that causes the lights to blink very fast. Hold this over the clear rhinestone piece. The fast twinkling lights will cause light to bounce around in the rhinestones and bring out their fire.

Another trick to use is a simple holographic bow

I hold the bow over the piece and shine a bright light onto the bow (not the jewelry itself). My camera sits on a tripod and when using this technique I use the delay timer on my camera to take the picture (thus letting both my hands be free to hold the bow and light).

I gently shake the bow and it throws wonderful rainbow sparkle onto the rhinestones.

Experimenting with the lower EV values on your camera, not using the flash, and using twinkle lights/a holographic item can make a huge difference in the quality of your clear rhinestone photographs. Good luck!

Carol Scheer

A Return to Splendor - http://areturntosplendor.rubylane.com

Do a search of the blog for 'Carol Scheer' and read all of her educational blogs on photography, including how to photograph items for display on the Internet. Her articles are clear and concise with excellent photo illustration. The Editors