Jewellery Photography - How I Created a Starry Background for an Alien Pendant

Alan Ardiff designs and manufactures unique pieces of jewellery that have novelty moving elements. Every piece is photographed on a blue background that matches their branded blue packaging. I then customise the background to complement each piece of jewellery. My most recent photoshoot was to photograph a pendant of an alien on the moon (See Image 1 below) so I wanted to create a starry background

STEP 1 - Creating the Star Shapes I used the same blue Colourama background I use for Alan Ardiff Jewellery and cut random holes in it with a knife. Click on Image 2 above

Step 2 - Lighting the Stars I used a combination of Bowens 1000 Flash Head and a Dedo light to create different intensities of light. Click on Image 3 above for a view of the back of the background and Image 4 to see the effect they created on the camera side of background

Step 3 - Lighting the Jewellery The trick with photographing jewellery is to light what the piece sees rather than the jewellery itself. I lit a white piece of Perspex and an A4 piece of paper (through which I cut a hole for the lens to poke through) with 2 Dedolights, I find these very controllable. Click on Image 5 above

I hung the jewellery from a boom arm over a piece of Perspex. Because the Perspex was convex, I needed to illuminate it all the way round. All the light on this is bounced off the reflectors I placed earlier; it gives a beautiful light. Click on Image 6 above

Final Step - Star Effect The star effect was determined by the aperture I used. Because I used continuous light, a combination of shutter speed and aperture would give me the same exposure. I adjusted the aperture to give me the desired effect. A word of warning, if you use a slow shutter speed to get a usable aerator be sure the jewellery is absolutely still before shooting, to avoid the slighted bit of shake. Click Images 7 and 8 above for more Jewellery photography for our client Alan Ardiff