Jewellery is the hardest small product I shoot. It is tiny, so depth of field is paper-thin. It is a mirror, so it shows the whole room. And on a white background, polished metal surrounded by white simply turns white and loses its shape. The craft is in controlling what the metal reflects.
You are photographing reflections
Polished metal has almost no tone of its own. What you see is a reflection of its surroundings. Surround a ring with white and it photographs as a flat, pale blob. Put a dark shape where the metal can see it and a dark line appears along that curve. Lighting jewellery is deciding which parts reflect white and which reflect black.
Start with a tent
Enclose the piece in diffusion so that every direction it can see is clean. A small light tent, or the cardboard box from a DIY lightbox under $20, does this. Cover the front with white card and cut a hole just big enough for the lens, or the ring will show a dark rectangle with a camera in it.
- Light through the tent walls from both sides, one side slightly stronger.
- Add light from above for the top surfaces of stones.
- Keep the base white and curved up behind, or use a glowing white screen under a sheet of clear acrylic.
Put the shape back with black cards
Now the piece is evenly lit and flat. Cut narrow strips of matte black card, 1 to 3 cm wide, and place them inside the tent just out of frame. Watch the metal as you move them. Each strip appears as a dark edge on the curve facing it.
- A strip each side defines the left and right edges of a band.
- A strip above the lens darkens the front face.
- Move a strip closer for a thicker, harder line; further for a thin one.
White light shows the metal. Black card shows its shape.
Making stones sparkle
Diffused light is kind to metal and dull for gemstones. Facets need a small, hard source to flash. I add one small bare LED or a pen torch from above and slightly in front, outside the tent or through a small hole, and move it until the table and crown facets light up. A few millimetres changes everything. Coloured stones often look better with a small white card bounced underneath to light them from behind.
Depth of field and focus stacking
At macro distances, even f/16 gives only a few millimetres in focus, and stopping down further softens the whole image through diffraction.
| Approach | Result | When |
|---|---|---|
| Single frame at f/11–f/16 | Front sharp, back soft | Flat pieces, pendants, angled so the plane matches |
| Single frame at f/22+ | More in focus, everything slightly soft | Web-only thumbnails |
| Focus stack, 8–30 frames at f/8 | Sharp front to back | Rings, hero images |
For a stack: lock everything down, focus on the nearest point, take a frame, move focus a fraction further, repeat to the back. Many cameras automate this as focus bracketing. Merge the frames in stacking software. Nothing may move, including the light.
Holding the piece
- Rings: a tiny ball of museum wax or clear dental wax under the band stands them upright. Retouch the blob out.
- Chains and necklaces: lay them in a natural curve; pin the clasp end out of frame. Fine tweezers and patience.
- Earrings: hang from clear fishing line across the tent, or pierce a sheet of white card.
- Watches: set to ten past ten so the hands frame the logo, and pull the crown to stop the seconds hand.
Clean, then clean again
At macro scale a fingerprint is a smear and dust is boulders. Wear cotton or nitrile gloves, polish with a jewellery cloth, and blow the piece with a rocket blower immediately before each frame. Five seconds of cleaning saves ten minutes of retouching.
Camera settings
- Macro lens around 90 to 105 mm, or extension tubes. On a phone, the macro mode, held on a stand.
- Tripod, two-second timer or remote, no touching the camera.
- Base ISO, f/8 to f/11, whatever shutter speed follows.
- Manual focus with magnified live view.
- Custom white balance on a grey card. Gold must look gold, not orange; silver must be neutral.
- RAW, for highlight headroom on bright metal. See RAW vs JPEG on white.
Getting the white right
Inside a tent the background and product share one light, so the ground lands at about 240 to 250. Lighting the base from below, with a lightbox or a tablet on white, lifts it to pure white in camera and removes the shadow entirely. If you want a shadow or reflection for realism, shoot on white acrylic instead and keep a soft contact shadow. Then finish with the levels-and-mask method in removing shadows from white backgrounds.
Which white for which metal
| Metal | Ground I use |
|---|---|
| Silver, platinum, white gold | Pure white or overcast white |
| Yellow gold | Pure white for listings; linen for lifestyle |
| Rose gold | Porcelain or linen |
| Pearls | Seamless or studio white, never blown out |
Retouching, lightly
Remove dust, the wax, and any stray reflection of the lens. Do not smooth the metal into plastic or oversaturate stones; buyers return pieces that do not match the picture. Check the result at 100 percent on a screen you trust, using the resolution checker to know what 100 percent really is on your display.
The short version
Tent the piece so it sees only white, add black strips to draw its edges, add one small hard light for the stones, stack focus for rings, and clean obsessively. For a quick start, lay a tablet flat with a white screen and build from there.
FAQ
It is reflecting only white. Add black cards just out of frame to create dark edges.
f/8 to f/11 for sharpness, with focus stacking when you need the whole piece sharp.
Yes, on a stand, with macro mode, locked exposure and a small tent or diffused window light.