Photo Editing

Probably one of the most challenging parts of listing new jewelry is capturing quality photographs. Viewing items online is not as personal as shopping in stores, and having beautiful photographs can often tip the scale, to really capture the attention of a client and entice them to buy.

I have no professional training with photography, and have basically been lucky to have a really brilliant camera. I have learned, over time, some techniques that help capture the colors and give a photo an eye catching angle. However, editing seems to be the tool that truly differentiates a fabulous photo from an average one.

Often for one piece I can take up to 40 to 50 shots to get just a couple good ones to work with. This is a lot of work! I have recently started playing around with Photoshop, to be able to perfect color and hue, and today I stabbed at altering one photograph to suit a listing for 5 different colors. I have a pair of Czech glass poppy earrings, available in a multitude of colors, I literally took 30 different shot of me wearing each color, and came up with only ONE outstanding shot.



Here is the original photo. I like the feel of this photograph, but wasn't sure I could reproduce it for each color, as it is difficult to photograph myself with my DSLR camera. So I turned to Photoshop for some editing help. Below you can see that I have switched to black and white, increased the brightness and and contrast, and then adjusted the hue to match each color that I have to offer.







I have only attempted this because these earrings are all identical in size and proportions. I have also been very careful to modify the hue to resemble the color I have available, to make it an honest interpretation.