To sell your jewelry online--from your website, eBay or other online auctions, or web stores--you’ll need to post good, clear pictures of your work. You'll also need good jewelry photos for your business card and any flyers, brochures, or other marketing pieces you make.

I use a scanner for photographing jewelry, and I’ve learned it’s really a great and simple tool for quickly getting beautiful, artistic shots. You don’t need to be a camera buff to get good results with scanners. Jewelry that’s basically two-dimensional is easy to shoot this way. You can get wonderful photos of earrings, necklaces, and other pieces that can be laid flat on the scanner glass.

Digital cameras probably give the most professional looking results for jewelry photos. But they’re more expensive and have a steeper learning curve than scanners, because there are so many variables and adjustments involved in using digital cameras. They also require extra equipment like a tripod, a light source, and the right kind of lens.

First, since most jewelry is shiny, with reflections bouncing off every surface, lighting is one of the trickiest but most important factors in jewelry photography. With a digital camera, getting just the right amount, size, color, and placement of lighting is vital. 

The other critical and challenging element in jewelry photography is getting sharp, close up photos that show the jewelry’s detail, beauty, and depth of field. A macro lens is a necessary to accomplish this.

Once the elements of lighting and macro lens are in place, you’ll have a lot more versatility with a digital camera than with a scanner.

You’ll be able to shoot some of those neat photos of a bracelet, ring, or other piece standing up dramatically with no visible support by using a little modeling clay under the jewelry to hold it in the position you want. You can then move the digital camera on its tripod to whatever angle will give you the best shot of the jewelry.