Ring photography is a vital part of every wedding photoshoot. Couples use diamond ring photography to capture precious moments and make long-lasting memories. Since this type of photography has special meaning for the clients, they are prepared to pay a lot to capture their happiness and love in photos.
Aside from being a reminder of loving memory, ring photography also allows couples to capture a symbol of their love in a modern way. If you’re considering starting a ring photography business, photographing rings properly would require time, effort, resources, and a healthy dose of creativity.
This guide will help you get into ring photoshoot and everything else you’ll need to start.
In this article
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- Place the Ring on a Surface Matching the Background
- Avoid Any Distractions and Make the Right the Focus Point
- Adjust the Depth of Field, Aperture Setting, and Focus
- Use Glue Dots to Hold the Ring in Place
- Use a Macro Lens for Ring Photography
- Get a Tripod for Consistency
- Watch the Reflections When Doing Diamond Ring Photography
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- Place the rings on a wedding box or a photo
- Use a wedding invitation card as a backdrop
- Complement the background with wedding accessories
- Focus on the tiniest details
- Don’t be afraid of a white background
- Consider a textured backdrop
- Create the bokeh photo effect
- Include floral arrangements in your ring photos
- Wedding date
- Ring exchange
Get the Right Equipment for a Ring Photoshoot
The quality of your ring photos depends on the equipment you use. If you’re going DIY on ring photography, here are the equipment essentials you’ll need to generate stunning photos without breaking the bank.
Camera
Today, you can browse countless camera types using the internet. Do you know what’s crazy? This abundance of options is the problem because it overwhelms and confuses you. Identifying the most appropriate and budget-friendly option is more of a challenge than you know due to having too many options.
Fortunately, this guide can help you narrow your selection to the most appropriate tools of the trade for the job. In product photography, any DSLR camera will do just fine. For example, Nikon D3400 and Canon EOS Rebel T5 are two top-grade, affordable, entry-level DSLR cameras for jewelry photography you should check out.
Macro lens
If you plan to take close-up shots or big photos for printing, you’ll need a macro lens. Since ring photography tends to be a difficult process, you’ll have to deal with colored stones and small jewelry pieces that simply refuse to appear as vibrant and realistic as they are in reality.
In addition, rings are typically made of highly-reflective materials, which makes ring photography difficult to capture and process. Thankfully, a macro lens allows you to conquer these challenges and generate beautiful photos.
Lighting
Though you can always count on natural lighting as the most affordable and accessible lighting source, artificial lighting sources give you more options. Consider using multiple LED bulbs in one fixture to get the best shots.
Remember that all light sources must be of the same color temperature to help you produce consistent photos with beautiful reflections. Consider buying a lightbox kit for jewelry photography for more simplicity, consistency, and convenience.
Tripod
Ring photography is mostly handheld, meaning you’ll need to handhold the camera while photographing. Since that exposes your shots to camera shakes and vibration, use a tripod to stabilize your photography and ensure consistency across your images.
Aside from these photography equipment essentials, you’ll also need props, foam boards, white paper, or any other white background to get proper exposure and capture perfect ring shots.
7 Useful Tips for Ring Photography
Here are some top tips to help you get on the right path with ring photography.
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Place the Ring on a Surface Matching the Background
The trick to creating immersive ring photos is using a simple background to allow viewers to focus on the jewelry. Any simple surface matching the background will do here. Professionals say a black or white background can help you eliminate distractions and focus on the jewelry.
Don’t be afraid of experimenting with different settings to find the perfect backdrop for your ring photography needs. If you photograph wedding rings, consider placing them on a bridal bouquet, wedding shoes, or other jewelry pieces.
In addition, you can boost the visual appeal of your photos by placing rings on a wedding invitation or a chair, wallpaper, or any piece of furniture.
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Avoid Any Distractions and Make the Right the Focus Point
Use a simple ring photography background to help viewers focus on the rings. Simplicity is the key to keeping the subject in focus and attracting all the attention to the jewelry instead of distracting the viewer.
Whether you opt for black or white background, avoid any distractions and make the focus point by keeping your ring shots consistent and cohesive in terms of the theme, color palette, background, and lighting.
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Adjust the Depth of Field, Aperture Setting, and Focus
The quality of ring photography greatly depends on the aperture settings you use. For example, proper white balance settings are paramount to capturing immersive ring photos without distortion. White balance helps you take top-quality photos with realistic colors.
In addition, deep depth of field plays a critical role in jewelry photography because it allows you to capture and visualize all the details of the rings. Adjust the depth of field to F/8, as it’s the best option for highlighting all the details of the ring.
Pay attention to the focus settings, as autofocus isn’t the best option for taking high-quality, detailed ring photos. Manual focus works like a charm as it helps you capture sharper, clearer, and crispier shots.
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Use Glue Dots to Hold the Ring in Place
Once you’ve found an ideal background for your ring photography efforts, keep the rings in place using glue dots. Aside from being convenient to use, glue dots are virtually invisible and easy to keep out of sight. They are also ideal for complementing multiple surfaces and shooting backdrops.
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Use a Macro Lens for Ring Photography
A macro lens may be an expensive addition to your ring photography equipment, but it can make your job much easier. In fact, macro lenses are highly recommended for jewelry photoshoot because they capture stunning close-up details.
They can help you capture sharp photos, set the correct photo scale, and ensure you never fall out of focus. Macro lenses also help you avoid resolution loss while taking multiple shots. Just make sure the rings are in the same focal plane to avoid missed focus.
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Get a Tripod for Consistency
Though you can reduce vibration with image stabilization (a common feature in most macro lenses), you should use a tripod to ensure higher photo quality and consistency. Ring photography is all about details.
In other words, you’ll need to capture a lot of close-up photos to highlight all those tiny details. Unfortunately, close-ups are prone to pronounced camera shakes. Thankfully, camera shake is nothing a quality tripod can’t handle
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Watch the Reflections When Doing Diamond Ring Photography
Photographing diamond ring and metal surfaces can be pretty tedious. Why? Because these elements are highly reflective materials by nature. If you’re shooting diamond rings, you’ll need to work on that reflection effect.
The best way to minimize it is to use a suitable lighting option for diamond ring photography to create the perfect atmosphere and set the appropriate mood.
10 Creative Ring Photography Ideas
Here are some creative ring photography ideas to get your creative juices flowing.
1. Place the rings on a wedding box or a photo
Photographing rings on a wedding box is a classic way to go. Aside from working for most couples, using a wedding box also eliminates the need for a macro lens. It also lets you capture wider frames and add more context to your photos. You can also place the rings on a mutual photo to add more depth to your ring photography and evoke more emotion in the viewers.
2.Use a wedding invitation card as a backdrop
If you want to create a more theme-related background for your ring photography, place the rings on top of the wedding invitation to make your shots more relatable.
3. Complement the background with wedding accessories
Adding wedding accessories to your ring photo shoot can help you accomplish greater photography composition.
Since the small details matter greatly, include as many wedding accessories as possible to complement the background, capture the mood, and create photos that will last your clients a lifetime.
4. Focus on the tiniest details
Most rings have a lot of fine details on them. For example, most wedding rings include an engraving on the inside. Capture those tiny details to make your ring photos look more professional and sophisticated.
In addition, your clients will surely love your attention to detail. A selective focus is an excellent option for highlighting small details.
5. Don’t be afraid of a white background
Though most e-commerce businesses use a white background to highlight their products, white is an excellent choice for ring photography.
It’s the bride’s color and will complement your ring photography nicely. All it takes is a bit of creativity to handle texture and lighting, and you’ll get fantastic ring shots in no time.
6. Consider a textured backdrop
If carrying premade backgrounds and stands to the wedding location is not an option, you can use a textured fabric to create a suitable backdrop right on the spot.
Anything will do here. You can use a chair’s tapestry, pashmina, wedding dress, veil, or any other textured material you can find.
7. Create the bokeh photo effect
If time isn’t an issue, you can create the bokeh photography effect by photographing out-of-focus lights. Each lens of your camera captures a different effect that you can further shape according to your needs. Use small, decorative lighting to shoot wide open and capture sharp ring photos.
8. Include floral arrangements in your ring photos
Weddings and celebrations are always filled with various flowers, ranging from the bride’s bouquet and decorative flowers to centerpieces and floral arrangements.
Use flowers as a backdrop and include as many flowers as possible in your ring photography to capture the mood and add more creativity to your work.
9. Wedding date
Another excellent ring photography idea is to take photos on the background of a calendar or a greeting card that shows the wedding date.
The wedding date is a vital detail for your clients. Get creative by capturing ring shots on an invitation, daily newspaper, or any pops which show the wedding date.
10. Ring exchange
Ring exchange is the crucial moment of the wedding. Therefore, you must properly capture the wedding culmination by working promptly to ensure you don’t miss even the tiniest detail.
The best option is to take close-up photos while the couple is exchanging the rings to capture the emotion and the moment.
Create a Unique Backdrop for Your Ring Photoshoot With AI
Nowadays, photographers have various powerful AI tools to help them create impressive, immersive lifestyle photos. These tools use the power of artificial intelligence to supercharge your creative efforts and help you generate outstanding images of exceptional quality.
AI product photography tools like Booth.ai give you access to a generative AI platform where you can tap into image processing and editing tools to handle both pre and post-production phases. All you need to get started with a tool like Booth.ai is a short description of what you want to do with a sample ring image.
Booth.ai will analyze your sample, identify key characteristics, and offer optimal settings to enhance your photo beyond your expectations. You can produce exceptional photos in mere minutes instead of wasting your time, effort, and resources on expensive, time-consuming, and tedious ring photoshoots.
Here’s how to use Booth.ai to enhance your ring photos with unique backgrounds in a few simple steps.
- Step 1: Upload your ring photo
Visit Booth.ai on your web browser. Open the main interface and navigate to AI Scene Generator. Click the Plus sign to upload your sample ring photo. Booth.ai will analyze your sample and identify main characteristics, such as shadows, lighting, color, shape, texture, etc.
- Step 2: Choose your workflow
In the Choose Workflow tab, select Product scene change to create a unique background for your ring photo.
- Step 3: Generate an enhanced image
Describe how you want to see your ring photo by selecting an appropriate option from the drop menu next to I want to see my product option. You can also change the camera angle, time of day, and lighting and add a description of what you want to see in your photo. Once you’re finished, click Generate Images.
Conclusion
This guide should help you gather everything you need for your ring photography effort. Start by investing in essential equipment to ensure the highest quality of photography you can accomplish at the moment.
Rely on ring photography tips and ideas to get the hang of it and find your way around this type of jewelry photography. While it may seem more difficult to shoot something simple as a ring repeatedly while keeping it fresh, these tips can encourage you to try different things and step outside your comfort zone.
In addition, keep an eye on the leading AI photography tools, as they can help you streamline the entire post-production process and create stunning and competitive results.