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How to photograph a ring without reflections at home
Learn how to photograph a ring at home without distracting reflections. This simple guide shows you how to use a sheet of white card and a window for a clean, professional-looking shot with your phone.
By Timothy Burdairon, Co-founder, Canova
Published Updated
Put a large sheet of white card between your phone and the ring, with a small hole cut for the lens, and shoot beside a window with soft, diffused light. Polished metal reflects whatever is in front of it, so the card gives the ring one broad, pale thing to reflect instead of your room, your phone and your face.
Keep the reflections that show the shape and remove the ones that distract from it.
That is the whole idea. The rest is setting it up so it works. You will need:
- A source of soft, diffused light
- A large sheet of white card or foam board
- Your phone
Why the ring shows your room
A polished band is close to a curved mirror. It pulls in the ceiling light, the window, the bookshelf and the person holding the phone. Moving the phone only swaps one unwanted reflection for another, so the fix is to change what the metal can see, not where you stand.
The setup
Picture it from above. The window sits to one side of the ring. The ring rests on a matte white sheet, such as plain paper. The card stands in front of the ring, facing it, with your phone behind it and the lens poking through the hole.
- Choose the light. A large window out of direct sun is best, and an overcast day is better still, because the light is soft and spread out. If the sun is hitting the window, hang a sheet of baking paper or a thin white curtain across it to diffuse the light.
- Clear the room. Turn off lamps and ceiling lights, which add bright spots and color casts. Wipe the ring and the surface, since a fingerprint or a speck of dust shows up at close range. Leave the flash off.
- Make the card. Cut a hole in white card or foam board, just big enough for the phone's main lens.
- Hold the phone steady. Prop it on a tripod or a stack of books, and use the timer or a volume button to take the shot so your hand does not shake it.
- Adjust while watching the screen. Move the card closer, farther or at a slight angle until it covers the reflections you do not want, while leaving the window light a clear path to the ring. Tap the ring to focus, and lower the exposure a little if the brightest areas lose detail.
If part of the room still shows along the band, try a new shooting angle or add a second white card just outside the frame.
Keep some dark
Do not try to make the whole ring white. That tends to flatten it. A darker edge, or a soft shift from light to dark, is what describes the curve. Jewelry photographers often place black card at the sides for this reason. Keep the reflections that show the shape and remove the ones that distract from it.
When home is not enough
Some pieces will not give in. Very high polish, flat-sided bands and pieces with stones throw reflections from many directions at once, and a card and a window can only do so much. If you have tried the setup and the room still shows, you have two honest options: shoot the piece with a light tent or in a lightbox, or accept a reasonably clean shot and build the rest of the picture afterward.
That second option is where Canova Studio fits. Studio takes a photo of a piece and gives back packshots, lifestyle scenes and on-model shots, with the background and light rebuilt around it. It works best from a photo where the piece itself is clear, which is what the card setup gives you. It is not a promise that any reflection will vanish, so do the work at the table first.
The same applies if the plain shot is fine but you need a different background or lighting for a listing. Start from the clean photo and let the setting change around the piece.
Whatever you generate, check it against your original. A good-looking picture is only useful if it shows your piece as it really is, so look closely at:
- Engravings
- Stone settings
- Edges
- Proportions
If a plain photo on a clean background already does the job for your listing, you can stop there.
Sources and method
The information in this article is based on established photographic techniques. The sources consulted include:
