I have been shooting some jewelry for a local client that is using Etsy to showcase her designs. The pieces are very nicely done, but aren’t going to sell for thousands of dollars, so I need to be quick and efficient to manage costs. Click the images to see larger versions.

    

I decided to use my Canon 580EX flashes as they are easy to set up and very easy to change light output from the camera mounted flash. Using “hot-shoe” flashes allows the ability to change setups quickly and easily. With the ability to control light output of the off-camera flash units from the on-camera unit I don’t have to move around if the light isn’t quite right. I just make the changes at the camera and just before the next picture the changes are relayed to the off-camera units.

  

Being able to move quickly also lets us try out different sets and backgrounds and quickly determine if it will work. All of our images are taken at the clients house, so the small size is also a benefit.

    

All of these images were captured with a 24-70mm lens which also allows macro work for getting in very close to capture the details of the smaller objects like clasps.

As mentioned above these images are destined for Etsy.com. To ensure my client has the best presentation I reviewed Etsy’s image quidelines and how images are actually displayed on their site. They have several different image sizes they use on their site, and they also crop the first image for each piece into a square format that is used as a thumbnail in search results.

When I deliver images to the client I specify the first image to upload and I ensure it is cropped in such a way so the thumbnail that Etsy creates won’t cut off her piece and make it hard to see.

Having a good understanding of image standards and programming comes in handy at times and ensures my clients images look their best at all times.

Digital Photography, Recent Work hot-shoe flash, jewelry