I didn't end up buying a dSLR camera when my old compact camera died a few years ago. One of those with a good macro lens would mean I would be out a major chunk of cash. So I went with a then high end compact camera, a Panasonix Lumix DMC-ZS10 which gave me some of the same settings as a dSLR.
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| Jewelry iphoneography using a Modahaus tabletop studio |
I use my camera A LOT so it will inevitably wear out. I thought I should start saving up for a dSLR camera the next time round. But in the last couple of years or so, smartphone cameras such as the one for my iPhone 5 have become so good, I may not need to buy a dSLR after all.
Smartphones are almost always with you so it is no wonder people are now using them a great deal for photography. So much so the market for compact cameras has been seriously undermined. Earlier this year, the fact that
the New York Times featured an Instagram picture on their front page made news.
Here are some tips to start you off into jewelry photography with your smartphone. First of all you'll
need a suitable grip attachment. I bought and like the
Joby GripTight Mount which provides a spring loaded hold on any smartphone. It screws onto any tripod. Another style to consider is the
Joby GripTight GorillaPod Stand
However,
do not use the native camera app which is too basic. I
recommend the camera+ ($0.99) for the iPhone (and iPad). Check out
this review for the best Android camera apps if you have an Android smartphone.
The camera+ app does all the basic stuff like crop, lighting adjustments and much, much more such as filters (for Instagram fans) and special effects like HDR and depth of field. Check out
the slick video over on Mashable to see more about the camera+ app.
It has a timer which is crucial for taking sharper pictures. Placing your finger on the screen will bring up the focus square. Move it to where you want the focus to be.
What I really like about it is the ability to separate the focus and exposure and move them to where you want them with your finger. Just press on the + sign on the top right of the square. Drag the exposure sign to different parts of the screen and pick a spot where your photo improves best with.
After that, I cropped the photo in the editing part of the app. Cropping is the best way to do a "closeup" with a smartphone.
Do not use the digital zoom on smartphones. It is not the same as optical zoom and the quality of your photographs will suffer if you do.
I also experimented with the lighting. The backlit function lightened the photograph quite nicely.
So let's compare the photos of my copper earrings taken on both my iPhone and my compact camera on the same day. You be the judge how they turned out! Vote on the poll below.
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| iPhone 5 : Copper and Lucite Flower Earrings |
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| Compact Camera : Copper and Lucite Flower Earrings |
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Macro enabled, ISO 100, aperture priority f 6.3
Once you are done spiffing up your jewelry photographs, they are already there on your phone to instantly share on blogs and social media like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr and so on.
Also check out h
ow a professional photographer compares the relative performance of the iPhone 5 and iPhone 4S cameras. There is a significant improvement with the iPhone 5.
There is one great feature of the iPhone which regular cameras do not have - it has both front and back cameras. You can
be your own model by using its rear facing camera to take pictures of yourself if you have no available model. All you have to do is select for the rear facing camera and get into the right position! The camera+ app's timer also helps.
Here is an actual jewelry selfie modelling this ring from
my stamping tutorial. It took a few trial photos and cropping to get the right picture I wanted!
This doesn't work for all designs but you can really do some nice color blocking easily with one of the many color effects apps- some free, some not. What they do is make the original in grey tones. Then you just zoom in and "color in" using your finger. I used
Color Splash for this photo of my tassel earrings. I've seen one artisan use this technique (she will be featured later this fall).
One last cautionary bit of advice . Remember to
turn off the geotagging on smartphones for the in built camera and any camera apps. Same with GPS enabled regular cameras. If you don't, any photos you upload online will still carry the GPS signature. This will very easily allow anyone with the right software to pinpoint where you took the photos i.e. where you live, work and hangout. Please pass on this tip - I see many personal photos including those of children uploaded to social media and wonder if they know about this privacy issue.
So, would you use your smartphone for jewelry photography?
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