These photos were taken and retouched originally on a very large scale (24×36 inches, 300 DPI) to fit on a back-lit panel to be displayed during a live presentation of the Client’s jewelry.

Two strobes were used, one which was set to the brightest light setting and bounced off of the environment for a filler glow. The other light came from above in a small enclosed set space. Light coming from directly above will bounce off of the surface where the jewelry sits, filling in light beneath the pieces. I elevated the pieces slightly using transparent plexiglas in order to enhance this glow and minimize shadows beneath the pieces.

The reflections are not photoshopped. Sometimes, jewelry photographers will simply flip the image and create the illusion of a reflection, which is easy to do with necklaces, but more difficult to do realistically with rings. With necklaces, you can simply flip the image and fade it out beneath the jewel, but because the rings sit on the surface of something, the reflection from the angle of the viewer needs to display the underside of the piece, or else it looks wonky and inaccurate.

With the right tools, it also takes much less time to simply photograph the jewelry with the reflection included, rather than trying to photoshop it later.