5 Reasons Why the Cameras I Recommend are Perfect for Jewelry Photography

Savvy jewelry owners know how important it's to create the right jewelry imagery on their website.

Imagine this scenario, similar price, similar diamond ring, similar specs, first site has a horrible image of the diamond ring and the second site has a great-looking image of the diamond ring.

Which site will generate more sales, if they both receive the same amount of traffic?

Of course the second one.

The camera and lens are the most important factors of jewellery photography besides the lighting.

You can have a top-notch camera and lens and horrible lighting, but you will not be able to do a lot. Also, we recommend DSLR for shooting jewelry. You probably don’t even imagine how much sales you may lose with your current bad images.

That is why it is so important to have absolutely perfect images on your site.

I recommend a DSLR camera, either Sony or Canon. With Canon, a 100 mm Canon standard macro lens is a must. It is a superb lens that has been around for decades. Even 80D, 90D can produce perfect images if you have great lighting. 

You do not have to go wild and buy a few thousand dollars cameras. The jewelry images shot with a cheap DSLR and a very expensive DSLR will not be that different.

I shoot jewelry with various cameras. Sony A7III is still an amazing camera. Also Canon 90D, and even 80D are great for shooting jewelry.

The most important element in jewelry photography is lighting, then the lens, and then the camera itself.

After you take good photos of your jewelry, you will need jewelry retouching service.

Here are the cameras I recommend the most:

1. Canon EOS R
2. Sony a7III
3. Canon EOS R6
4. Sony a7C
5. Canon EOS Rebel T7

Why not consider your mobile phone or a point-and-shoot camera to shoot jewellery?

One advantage of having DSLRs is you can configure the settings, such as shutter speed and aperture, to match your lighting and the jewelry item you're taking a picture of. And you can´t attach a macro lens to a phone camera, which is a vital step for shooting jewelry.

Point and shoot cameras could work when shooting large jewelry items like for example necklaces since you do not need a macro lens to really get the details out of the image. A DSLR camera is a much better choice overall. 

Why you don´t have to invest in a more expensive camera?

1. High-end DSLR cameras tend to offer features you don´t need for product or jewelry photography. For instance, if you're shooting fast-moving objects or objects in poor lighting, a high-end DSLR camera will give you much better results than a budget DSLR. But for jewelry photos, where light is generally controlled and plentiful, a basic DSLR is all you need.
2. There is only a minor difference, for example, in the quality of jewelry mages taken with EOS R and Canon Rebel on the other hand, with same high-quality lighting. You can barely see and difference in quality. YOu can also use Photoshop to further improve photos.

My strong opinion is that spending double or triple for the best camera on the market for jewelry shoots is not logical. Highly-priced DSLR cameras with the latest features in a perfect lighting setup is not an important factor to consider when shopping for a digital camera. Higher quality cameras have additional features and are more efficient for various uses, but for jewelry photos, you won't really notice the difference whether you shoot with budger or a very expensive DSLR.

Full frame cameras vs cropped sensor cameras

The full-frame camera captures a bigger portion of the scene when compared to cropped sensor cameras. This is important when shooting landscapes or other nature-related images as you can capture the larger scene from the same distance with a full-frame camera. For jewelry, since the size of the objects are often very small, a cropped sensor camera will be perfect. The full-frame cameras are always more expensive. 

For product photography/jewelry, a full-frame camera is unnecessary. Any entry-level camera or mirrorless camera will do just fine.

What is the most ideal lens for working with jewelry photography?

Because I am a Canon guy I always use my Canon 100 mm macro lens when shooting jewelry. It is perfect in any way. The images are crips and with optimal lighting, this lens is a perfect choice. I also used a 200 mm Canon and an 85 mm lens. When using Sony I used 85 Sony macro lens.

If you want to print a full page of small items like a ring or earrings on a poster or a glossy magazine, then a macro lens will help you achieve better quality for printing. You will get much sharper images, with more details. On the other hand for pictures for your jewelry website or small prints, catalogs, etc you can even use an ordinary lens and you will not easily notice the difference.

In addition, buying the above-mentioned macro lens won't help improve your photography automatically; it calls for certain knowledge. Please learn more about the focus stacking technique where you join several shots together into 1 because with a macro lens when you are that close to an item, only a portion of the item will be sharp, the rest might be blurry, so you have to stack several images into 1 to get the best result. 

It is also possible to get the whole item sharp in one shot without focus stacking, but the quality of the image might suffer. For example aperture of 22 can help you get the whole item in focus in one shot. But there will probably be image morphing and tearing and you will be able to see the difference in sharpness when comparing stacked photos and 1 shot photos. You have to experiment with that. If you have to shoot fast and have a few hundred items to shoot, then play with aperture and get the whole item in focus so you don't have to do any photo stacking. 

But if you have more time and are shooting expensive jewelry, where the optimal quality is a must, then do photo stacking. I used to do 10 shots per item for really expensive pieces. But on average you can do 3 shots per item, front focus, middle docus, and back focus, and then you stack them into one image. 

Tools like Photoshop and Helicon for example can help you with stacking. I prefer Photoshop personally. 

It's easy to get distracted by all of the details of the various lenses available. While it's true that some lenses have better technical specifications.

But for a jewelry photography shoot, since the camera is very close to the product, it's important to pay attention to the macro focus range or minimal focus distance listed with each lens.

Conclusion

Differences between an entry-level and advanced camera include features such as the ability to take faster photos useful in situations like shooting sports and animals, better low light quality shots, etc. But when shooting jewelry, you're shooting in a static environment with a light directed toward your jewelry product.

The most important is the light setup. You require good lighting for taking pictures of small pieces of jewelry. That way you can avoid reflections and get , crisp, sharp images. Ensure that you invest in good lighting is critical.