Orangutan said:
Valvebounce said:
Hi Orangutan.
I seem to recall product photography was discussed in great detail, with a very good argument being made on why to get a pro to do it for you (or at least someone who understands photography and lighting, like a brother!) if you want to actually sell the product, nothing hinders sales more than a poor photo!
Cheers, Graham.
Yes, but "pros" have to start somewhere. It may be foolish to rely on your own product photography without the skills, but if she's looking to build skills, she might as well practice on her own product. I would hope that a working jewelry artist would be able to tell if her early photo work was crap.
I am absolutely with Orangutan.
The key to "doing it yourself" is to not accept a photograph that isn't as good as what a professional charging you top dollar would produce. To get there, all you need is some lighting, a roll of paper and time to learn -- and some good reading on lighting is helpful too.
If you have the will to generate good photographs, whether it's textiles or jewelry or automobiles, the subject isn't going anywhere, so given enough time, you can figure it out -- and then it will be a lot easier the next time. Product photography also has the benefit to allowing those who are learning to (generally) use continuous lights instead of strobes/flashes for difficult shots -- and then move to strobes and fancier modifiers later on. This is especially true of items like gemstones that reflect and refract light in all sorts of interesting ways.
The real argument against doing it yourself is that all the photography and lighting equipment, and in some cases, the space (if your subject is larger) is much more expensive than just having someone who does it for a living take care of it for you. But then again, if it's your hobby, there is satisfaction to being able to produce it yourself!
And if all else fails, and you don't like your photos, you can hire someone to do it on location, observe what they do, and figure out what you did wrong