HOW TO CAPTURE THE GLITTER OF JEWELRY USING JUST YOUR COMPUTER WEBCAM(originally published in the DIVINE FINDS JEWELRY BLOG)
I'm no expert with videography or even photography for that matter. That's why I have to ask my husband who is a retired photographer to do the jewelry photos of my pieces for our DIVINE FINDS JEWELRY shop at RUBY LANE. (My partner and daughter does all hers and she's really good at it!)
But as good as his and her photos are (and according to our visitors, our jewelry photos are amongst the best at Ruby Lane) it's always a strange feeling when a customers gets their piece and tells us "it's even lovelier than your photos showed!" DUH? I asked hubby about this and he explained it simply: "we see with two lenses ... our eyes ... but the camera has only one lens ie. it can't see all the glitter the way our eyes do".
So that got me thinking. How can I capture the glitter? And that's where the idea hit me re using video. I've often been envious of those sellers who have all the gear, including turntable and lights to create a stunning video of a ring or bracelet rotating under lights in a video. But alas, I don't have that stuff, nor the time or skills to do it. But, hey, I do work on a Mac and it has a great webcam built in. What if ... ?
Well that's what the video above is all about. I set myself up in front of my computer, switched on the webcam and start yapping away about what I planned to do. I hated listening to and watching myself (don't we all) but after 3 or 4 takes, I got it right. Then came the jewelry. I picked up pieces one after the other and rotated them in front of the webcam. I didn't use any fussy lighting ... just a reading lamp positioned high enough and in such a way that it lit up the jewels as I rotated them. The result is far from perfect but hey .. it did capture the glitter better than our photos do.
Like I said at the beginning, and I reiterate in the video, I'm no expert on doing this kind of thing and this video was a bit of an experiment. But I'm reasonably pleased with the results and encourage others like me to do the same: if you haven't got a pro to do it for you, experiment with your computer's webcam to capture the glitter in your lovely jewelry. Have fun!
CLICK THE SIGN ABOVE TO ENJOY A WONDERFUL TRIP DOWN ANTIQUES ALLEYS, JEWELRY SHOPS AND COLLECTIBLE CORNERS
Print this page
