Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Jewelry Photography: Year One in Review

In my last post before Macro Sunday, I mentioned I planned to give you some comparison photographs of the same items taken at different times and settings.   I could give you multitudes of examples, some worse than others, but I'll try to stick to a few of varying degrees of worseness... worsestness... worsenisity!  (I know, I was an English major once!)


Spoiler Alert:

  • If you are the kind of person who loves really bad movies, this is for you.


  • If really bad movies make you want to close your eyes during the bad parts, better close them now.  There are no moving pictures here, but some photos will be "scary bad," "laughably bad," or just plain old "bad, bad."

Here goes...

At the beginning of the year, I was just starting up, 
with a plan to sell wholesale to local businesses.
These were pendants I had just tagged before taking out.
The photo was just for my benefit.
I look at that and think "Not too bad."
"WHAT?" you are thinking?
Well, I know that the 
 other 8 photos looked like variations of this....



(I warned you this might be scary!)



From that same "photo shoot"
comes this bracelet that 
I've photographed many, many times.  
I never had that posted anywhere, thank goodness...
well I guess until now.)

Let's try this one for a comparison.

''

My son so did not approve of this one!
I took several of bracelets this way...
until he insisted I stop...
thank goodness!


Can you imagine how proud I was when I got to this stage?!
Goodness, it was pretty much in focus, 
showed some sparkle and shine,
and if there was a bit of a blue hue about it,
at least it went nice with the blue bracelet!



So, better focus, brighter color and sparkle, 
but it's still going to need another go on another surface...
So many tries and still not quite right.

I'm going to make this next one short and sweet.


When I first started, I tried photographing 
against a variety of fabrics. 
(Typically just one fabric per photo--  
I can't imagine why this one had 3!
This is SO bad!)
Not to mention that the silver wire looks gold.

Even on the wrinkled fabric,
an improvement?
True colors at least!

And the last set for today...
Another "no brainer" really.


Early photo.
It really does happen to be on blue fabric this time!
It just doesn't scream, "Buy me!"

And two new ones below...


...which I hope look more appealing!

Thanks for reading another chapter of "Sharyl's Photography Horror Story!"  I could continue with more of these, but enough fun at my expense for a little while!  Ha!  :-)    Something different next time.   

See you then!   --Sharyl

P.S.  A few notes:
  • Please do feel free to comment on any of these photos.  I can "take it!"  :-)   Your suggestions were very helpful last time!

  • I loaded new jewelry into the studio last night, some for Valentine's Day, some just for fun!   Also started a new "On Sale Now!" section.


We're getting there on Facebook!  As of tonight, we have 16 out of the 25 needed "Likes."  I realize not everyone is on Facebook and not everyone may care to "like" the page, not a problem.  But I do want to offer a "Thank you" if yours is one of those "likes!"  And thanks to each of you for the shows of support you offer in so many different ways!  All the best to all of you!


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Image Credit:


Thermometer: http://www.wpclipart.com/weather/weather_instruments/thermometer/thermometer_rising/.cache/thermometer_07.png

4 comments:

Carole M. said...

you're definately heading in the right direction Sharyl, it looks to me. You're working at finding new ways to create new examples with your photography skills. You made an interesting post from where you've been, to where you're going. I'm sure we all can relate to dodgy photos; they're the ones we DELETE! :)

Sharyl said...

Ha! Too bad I didn't hit that "delete" button sooner...and even worse that I saved these! I appreciate your support, Carole, and encourage everyone to take a look at YOUR beautiful photos at: http://dragonfly47.blogspot.com/

ALWAYS beautiful photography on your site--a treat for the eyes!

Thanks as always,
Sharyl

Anonymous said...

Hi, Sharyl. I have to say that your photos are not THAT bad! They certainly keep improving. I have some super horrifying photos from a year ago that would make anyone quesy looking at them. Blurry, dark, too far away, etc. I took some photos on a piece of red velvet that I thought would make things look fancy, but it made every color look like gray or green. Yuck. I checked out Carole's blog - very pretty photos! Also, I am going to add a link to your facebook page from mine, and let people know to "like" your page!

Sharyl said...

Sorry about that red velvet, but I have to admit I'm glad to hear I've not been alone on this journey! Ha!

Thanks so much for helping out with the "likes!" My niece did the same last night and the numbers went up. I need 6 more to cross the finish line! :-) Deeply appreciated!