Beads by Babe - Cute Handmade Lampwork Beads

First Thing First, Important Link!
I have several links to share with you, on jewelry and beads photography, also how to set up your own studio at home: A Seven Dollar Photo Studio explain to you a photo set up in limited budget, plus the picture taking technique. Another great links, that is recommended by many already, is Lori Greenberg's Tutorial. In this tutorial, Lori explains how to set up a homemade light cube, plus she teaches how to edit the photo after. Last link I want to share is my favorite, I use this before I finally buy my light cube. I made my own 'light cube' using PVC pipe and Vellum paper, using Bill Hubber's technique that he shares generously online. Its very easy to follow, there are many images in this tutorial. Here it is: a How To Make Homemade Light Cube/Light Tent by Bill Hubber. I hope you learn something from all these links. I did! Its great to get me started. When you have your own set up, whether they are homemade or more proffessional, all you need to do is keep practicing, until you finally find the best technique that is suitable for you. Below is my old tabletop studio set up. It is pretty sad, but as you can see the result (doll image, in the corner), is not so bad, right? ^..^

My Tabletop Photo Set-Up & Important Notes
As I mentioned above, my lightcube was homemade, you can see the set up picture above. I have 1 photoflood and for the other side I use 1 flip diamond light and a table lamp. The result from that set up are good enough, I make my photo set up better just because sometimes people come to my studio to look at my jewels and the old set up is a bit embarrassing. :) So, here's my new set up. A bit better. :) I have a decent light cube that I got from Amvona. The good thing about buying at Ebay Store is, we can bid and set up a budget. And if we are patient, we can finally get them at low price. Just be patient, keep watching and if you don't get it the first time, whether you get outbid or it's over your budget, just watch another items. They have plenty of them. Its a good quality light cube. Comes with 4 background, white, red, blue and black. Mine is the large size.

I use Photoflood lightings, 2 on the sides and 1 on the top. The light bulbs, light socket and reflector are from Smith Victor, and the top one is from local shop. I got the tiny light stands from Amvona too. Those are suppose to be background light stands. But they are perfect for tabletop photography. If you can find the smaller ones or shorter ones, its even better. But its not necessary, really. You can use just any tabletop lights instead of these lightings I mentioned. As long as you use a light tent to diffuse the light, so there wont be any hars light, or hot spot on your bead and jewelry pictures.

Tripod is a must! I dont care if you are the most fit person, you will get shaky hands sometimes, like after you had your morning cofee and things like that. :) I strongly suggest to have a tripod for beads and jewelry photography, also because you are taking still photography, and the items you are photographing are usually tiny. Any movement will make the picture blurred.

Important Notes
I use Nikon Coolpix 8400 for jewels and bead photography. So far I have no complains. There are a few things you need to remember when looking for camera for beads and jewelry photography. These are my personal opinion.

(1) Look for a heavier camera, not the tiny little dinky light ones. I like heavy camera cause it helps to balance it in your hands, however, if you use a tripod, then having a lightweight camera wont be a problem.
(2) Macro mode, its a must have. Make sure the Macro mode is pretty great. That it can take the picture from as close as 4 inches without getting blurry (out of focus). Most digital cameras have macro mode, but the ones in the lower price ranges, their macro mode are usually not that great. So you can not get too close to the object.
(3) White Balance Mode is one of the must have too. Most people take picture of their beads/jewels on white background. White Balance help to capture and accentuate the white to whitest white, make your beads/jewels pop, and the picture looks way better.
(4) I edit my pictures using Photoshop, This is the steps that I do all the time, I crop them, I change their level slightly, and add some text on it. And I choose save for web, so I can keep it in the exact size that I want. Changing the level sometimes necessary when the beads/jewels in the picture looks darker or lighter than their real color. Here is my Basic Photo Editing Tutorial. Have fun!