Jewellery photography - An outdoor photoshoot
Good photographs are so important. If you can’t see a maker’s work first hand, then the next best thing is a photograph!
I am very lucky to have a very talented friend who is a photographer, so I send my jewellery to him to be captured on camera. Almost all of the images on my website were taken by Stu – go check out his website www.stuartjohnstafford.com. He also writes & creates ace animations amongst other lovely creative projects.
So when he asked me if we could do an outdoor jewellery photoshoot with a model.. I said “YES! That would be amazing!”
However, it then took a good year (or so) before we got round to actually going out & doing the shoot. Then one day, we got a date in the diary & two of my beautiful friends agreed to come & model for me..
We picked Autumn time for our first official “jewellery photography photoshoot”! I was so excited. Luckily I have a few friends who live in London, so when I go down I can have a great time catching up with them, as well as doing a bit of work at the same time.
Here are a few fun snaps of us throughout the day…
So once we had decided on the general area we had to narrow it down to a location. My work is inspired by the natural world & so I wanted a woodlandy, organic feel to the shoot. After going through several options we settled on Richmond Park - it is such a huge park with really gorgeous areas within it, full of lush trees & ponds. As it was Autumn a lot of the leaves on the trees had turned beautiful shades of orange & red. My fab friends braved the chilly temperature (even though the sun was shining earlier in the day, it was still nippy out there!) in support of me & my work- I’m so so grateful to them.
A few shots I took whilst hovering in the background & a nice pic caught of me arranging the jewellery on Laura.
I have loved looking back through the photos from the day & remembering how we tackled setting up each shot- I felt very much like I was winging it & lent on my friends knowledge of photography & modelling to ensure we got some amazing photos, which we did! I learnt a lot from this first shoot & look forward to getting out again in the future.
It was also really exciting to see Stu’s vision through the lens in contrast to what I was capturing on my phone. For example in this dreamy shot of Tess, the difference is amazing -
So from my limited experience & with no real expertise, I have a few tips to give anyone planning a photoshoot like this:
Get a good photographer that shares your vision
Find models that fit your style & are comfortable in front of the camera
Choose a theme or style to carry through the photoshoot
Plan outfits ahead of the day & how they work with the jewellery/ fit the style you are going for in your images
Think about the time of year you are doing your photoshoot - if you are planning an outdoor shoot this will affect colour/weather/light etc.
Do it with people you like & you will have the best day!
So finally I will share a few more of the stunning images that Stu took for me. I will be forever grateful to him & my friends for being so brilliant.
That’s a wrap!
That’s a wrap!
