Use a regular household lamp to take pictures of jewelry that can look like photographed in a professional studio.

You will need 2 boxes, 2 A clamps, a piece of translucid material and a working lamp.

To make the lamp create a large reflection I used a piece of acrylic (plexiglas). The one I am using is translucent, the kind that lets light go through but you can see through. You can use anything that is translucent and has no color, like paper or fabric. This piece of acrylic is 1/4" thick and 24”x18” in size.

Set up in a place where you will have space to put the camera in front and lamps in the back. Working on the floor is not a bad idea.

The closer the acrylic is to your jewelry, the bigger the reflection of the light on the metal. Consider hanging the acrylic to have space to put your camera close to what you are photographing if you need to. These boxes are a 12” high.

More see more about how to control light using acrylic look HERE

Put the side of the boxes covered in white paper facing the inside. Light will bounce from the white paper to the jewelry. If there writing it will show on your jewelry, cover it with white.

Turn the lamp on. Close the shades and turn off all other lights in the room.

Light is too yellow you say? That’s because a house lamp bulb puts out yellow light. The photograph shows the actual color of the light from the lamp.

Is there a real color for anything? I guess not really, the same object looks different at different moments. To help us make sense of a world that changes so much cameras balance colors so things appear to be the way we think they should look. They do it by adjusting light coming in to match an imaginary 100% white.

Now, you may think twice about white balancing a sunset...

... but it’s a kick ass tool if you want your jewelry to look normal.

To learn how to adjust the white balance for your camera search in You Tube for a tutorial that teaches how to do it for your camera brand and model. I use the tutorials in You Tube to learn things about my own cameras.

Here is something important ... when adjusting the white balance put a piece of white paper in the place where you will be taking the pictures. When taking a reading make sure that the camera sees only the area covered by the paper.

I suggest not to worry about understanding terms like degrees Kelvin, color temperature and balancing targets. The color of your pictures does not need to be perfect, it simply needs to look good. Let your eyes call it, if you like it, it’s perfect.

It is a matter of taste. I let some dark areas in the silver because I like variety and feel that they make the areas that shine more special. But you may disagree...

Polished silver is like a mirror, it has no color of it's own, it takes the color of what it reflects. The dark areas are the room’s reflection.

You can control the size of the black areas by moving the bracelet closer or further away from the light.

If you would like to have the dark areas to be as small as possible put  a gray, white or silver card on each side of the camera. You can control their effect by moving them closer or further away of the camera.

To learn how to make your own silver cards look HERE

The lovely bracelet is a courteous loan of Versani , thank you so much Yaf.

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How to take photos of a product plastic container and make it look great? Here is a step by step tutorial showing how to create highlights that can make plain materials look out of this world.

Make a background sweep using wrapping paper and empty boxes. It is a good idea to put a few heavy things inside the boxes so they are not empty anymore.

Please take a look at this post

To diffuse the light use a piece of translucent acrylic (plexiglas). This piece is 12” x 24 but certainly you could use a larger one. A larger size is more flexible and will allow you to take pictures from higher camera angles. Acrylic sheets come in different thickness and densities. This one is 1/4” thick and translucent. It gives maximum transmission of light and it’s use in light boxes. A good all purpose piece for objects the size of a bottle is 24” x 24”

It’s important that the edge closer to the camera stays free of anything that blocks the light.  You can use two spring clamps in the other side to hold the acrylic in place.

To control the light you will need to move the flash from the front to the back. The closer the flash is to the acrylic the smaller the area with light will be. Leave about 2 feet of space between the acrylic and the edge of the table to have enough the space to play.

If you place the flash so that some of the light goes out of the acrylic the highlight on the bottle will have a bright edge that will make glossy surfaces look... glossy.

Placing the flash at the center creates a highlight with soft edges.

You may like putting highlights that start from the back of the bottle.
This is one case when bigger would definitely have been better, I ended up putting the flash at the very edge of the table after all.

If you like to make a larger highlight you will need to spread the light more. Put a second piece of acrylic between the flash and the bottle.

To create a highlight on the other side of the bottle use a reflective material to bounce the light from the flash. Here I used a piece of shiny silver cardboard that is 12 x 18.

You can buy one in an art store or make your own

You can control the size and shape of highlight by rotating the silver card and by moving it closer, or further away, from the bottle. The closer to the bottle the card gets, the bigger the size of the highlight.

Putting the card close to the lens moves the highlight to the center of the bottle.

Isn’t amazing the options a piece of cardboard can give?

This is where I ended up putting things to photograph a matte plastic bottle...

... and for a glassy bottle.

Cleanser is a loan from Steam Bath Factory, thank you Tabitha.

To make shout look brawny I did not use the card at all and let one side of the bottle stay dark.