The Final Module : Stock Photography

The next unit comprised of several different photographic projects - the first one being stock photography.

Stock images are images that are posted somewhere with the express intent that it may be used by other artists in their own artwork.

I had been given a beautiful Pandora bracelet as a Christmas gift, and this gave me the idea of using jewellery, particularly necklaces/bracelets, as my subject for stock.

I researched stock images of jewellery on the internet, and noticed that there seemed to be several ways of displaying jewellery for this type of photography.

      A plain background was favoured for many of the shots . . .

. . . and white seemed much preferred .

There were also other examples, such as displaying the products with other items

Or displayed actually on the body.







(all the above images were found on google images that I looked at for research)

I booked 3 studio sessions in total, and also did a couple of test shoots at home, to experiment with the various styles I had researched, and to see if I could come up with something I liked.

These are some of the images I shot at home . . .

I experimented with different backgrounds, but was - in virtually all of them - not happy with the lighting, though there was one that I liked enough to use in my final selection.












So, I moved onto working in the studio.

Colin was really helpful here, as I had had very little experience of using a studio for anything other than human subjects, and he helped me set up the lighting at first.

I firstly experimented using black velvet as a background for the jewellery to sit on . . .

But I didn't think that this showed off the jewellery to its best advantage, and I also thought it was pretty boring !

So - I tried adding other objects . . .

And photographing them from different angles and distances
















I felt these images were more interesting, but I was really not happy with the black background - I did however, like the reflection, and wondered if I could perhaps move forward using a combination of reflections and a white background.

At this point, Colin suggested that I experiment with the tungsten light set up, so having bought a piece of white cotton, and borrowed a large mirror, I tried some more shots.

But - I didn't like these either !












So then I tried sitting the jewellery actually on the mirror

This was much closer to an effect I was happy with.











I also tried shots on a plain white background, and sitting the jewellery on a sheet of perspex, using high key studio lighting

And again, I was pleased with these, feeling that the white background worked far better.













I again tried introducing other objects . . .

But I felt like the inclusion took away from the impact of the jewellery.

So, I went back to using the tungsten and mirror, and high key lighting on a white back drop, shooting close up details as well as the whole object,  and eventually came up with 6 images that I liked and that I felt fulfilled the brief.

I like the 'crispness' of the images, despite the reflections in some - and the reflections I felt gave a greater 'interest' to the images.

In researching stock further, I found that there are strict rules regarding copy write and so on - so unless the Pandora bracelet that I used for one of these images was especially commissioned by, or taken with the approval of, the company concerned, I couldn't actually use it for stock if I intended to benefit financially from it.

It was interesting to work in the studio with 'products', rather than a person, for a change.  It presented different challenges, to make an inanimate object 'interesting', and I really enjoyed experimenting with different lighting to create images I was happy with.