DIY Jewelry Photo Booth

When shooting photos of my jewelry, I prefer to use natural light. Living in Portland can make this difficult a large portion of the year. I have found that since it's harder to find the right photo set up for me, that I'm just not shooting pictures of my work. No new photos means I'm not posting new items to my Etsy shop so my online customers don't see new work (yeah, it's been the same old same old on the website for a while...). I also am not shooting my one-of-a-kind pieces which means that once they sell (at the Portland Saturday Market) I have no record of them. Additionally, in order to get into shows, I need to have MUCH better, professional looking photos with a consistent background. Time to step up my game.

I had set up a sort of photo booth in a closet in my studio/office, but it never worked quite right and I stopped trying to use it. So, I started looking for a "real" photo booth set-up and came across a video on how to make your own. I made a list of the things I would need and got it all in one trip (this is special because I usually get one thing, then another, then another and the project takes forever or I lose interest). I already had one lamp and the tracing paper I used for the windows.

Cut up foamcore. I ended up cutting
these down before I cut the windows
to fit better in the closet space.

Here's how it went (click on the photos for a better view):

The stuff.

Windows cut in foamcore.
I neglected to take photos of taping the
tracing paper to the windows or taping
the windows together.

Here are the windows covered in tracing paper
and taped together. The poster board is cut and
taped to the top back of the thing.
This is the two-light set up.

Sample shot with two lights - top
and right side. These photos weren't
touched up at all.

Sample shot with three lights.

This is a shot with three lights and the items raised on the plexiglass. There is no shadow (except from the thing the plexi was sitting on). I didn't clean up the photo at all. Not sure if I like them floating like that...

Now I have no excuse for not posting new items!