Feature Designer

Outi, a Finnish jewelry artisan was one of the earliest designers I featured on this blog. I liked her simple and elegant style of designing jewelry and shared her love of beautiful gemstones. Shown here is one of her many creations - a wire wrapped ocean jasper pendant necklace.

Although I can't read a word of Finnish, pictures are worth a thousand words. Her blog, Helmetti and her website show her skilled versatility but above all the quality of her products and attention to detail. Her sites show her preference for clean, uncluttered lines.

What really impressed me in my early days of struggling with jewelry photography, was how well she photographed her work. She is truly an inspiration. As many people have been asking her how she takes her photos, she recently took pictures of her worktable/studio and posted it on her blog and on Flickr.

As you can see below, she has a fantastic worktable as it is right by a window - perfect for jewelry designing and for taking photos on the spot. As I myself learnt the hard way, you don't need a light box. Natural light works very well. Outi has " a pretty decent camera" as she puts it but even a good point and shoot camera works. Just make sure you have the white balance set to daylight and cloudy/indoors.

The camera also must have a macro function for close ups otherwise everything will be fuzzy. If you have a steady hand, you can omit the tripod. I sometimes use a tiny tripod right on the table or brace my elbows on the table or against my body. One great tip from Outi is the use of a white background - a folded piece of white paper or card to reflect the outside light. Nothing fancy and minimum effort!





Related Post
13 Things I Learnt About Jewelry Photography

For more tutorials check out my Jewelry Making Tips

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The Beading Gem's Journal