Taking Pictures of Jewelry with the 18-55mm Kit Lens

hussyameer

I bought a new D3100 with AF-S DX 18-55mm kit lens. I want to learn how to take professional pictures of jewelry. I have a photography box with a white background but I don't know the settings to use on the camera.

Riddelske

Hi hussyameer,
First, is the box you have lit and are all the sides white? When I mean lit, I mean do you have table top lamps or a source of continuos lighting? I'm assuming you want a white background?

Second, I highly recommend getting a different lens. If you want professional looking shots then I would go for a nice macro lens, especially if your doing jewelry. Then again if you're just starting out stick with the kit lens for now.

I would get a tripod if you've not got one already. As a general rule of thumb you want all possibilities of camera shake reduced, but when the camera is mounted remember to turn off the VR which is the switch on the side of the lens.

When shooting still objects set the focus mode to AF-S and focus areas to single point. This tells the camera what part you want in focus. You will set the point via the cursor buttons. For now shoot in aperture priority mode. Select a an aperture of around f/5.6 - 8.

If you have the light tent/box all ready then start shooting away and see how it goes. Please let us know your set up of the box and maybe we can point you in the right direction. There are some good threads on here about product photography.