People often ask about the photography on the Gary Dawson Designs website. I do it. And it hasn’t always been this good. In the beginning stages of my business, I took archive photos of my stuff but hired a variety of excellent photographers to shoot my jewelry for promotional materials. What I found was that a photographer may capture excellent landscapes, or portraiture, or action, but the successful creation of an image of jewelry was a different animal altogether. Back when we used film, and my learning curve toward making my own images involved documenting the precise exposure settings on every image I took, it was ‘normal’ to shooting a 5 image “bracket” of exposure around a single item. I felt like it was a good day when I could get one great image on an entire roll of 36 exposure slide film. Fujichrome Provia was the ticket with beautiful saturation and fine grain. The best images usually resulted from slight underexposure. Digital, of course, has changed a lot but not the basics of image creation. The thing with shooting jewelry is that what makes shiny metal look good works as a disadvantage on gemstones, and vice-versa. My stage and lighting is complex but not rocket science. I’ve taught the technique at jewelry industry shows and conventions and don’t mind answering some specific questions if you have them….happy shooting!
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Author
|