We started expanding our wedding photography portfolio by taking pictures of rings, graciously provided by Krikor and Marina of Lugaro Jewelry. My original plan was to bring the lights and the diffuser tent to the store, but it became apparent that photographing diamonds requires much more light than could be comfortably accommodated on location.
In fact, at least three lights are needed to capture the brilliant facets of a diamond in colour: a key – highly diffused light, and two additional lights of different intensity. I used an Alien Bees studio flash with a large soft box diffuser
Another point to consider when photographing jewelry or gemstones is textural contrast. Since the objects themselves are highly polished, hard and reflective, using a background that is rough, soft and light-absorbing is a good idea. Of course, rules are made to be broken, so a reflecting background, such as this hand-painted lacquer tray from Kanazawa, can complement the main object nicely.
The biggest challenge, of course, is to come up with an original idea for a photo after seeing hundreds of highly polished, but similar, images in magazine ads. The idea to use a book emerged during the shoot. The book, incidentally is one of the volumes of Pushkin’s letters – a tribute to our heritage and, paraphrasing Obi-Wan Kenobi, a more elegant time.
The most rewarding aspect of this project for me was a chance to do it together with Svetlana, who was involved at all stages. We used to do a lot of photography side-by-side during our travels before Anya was born, but since then, I was doing most of the shooting, and my style, technique and even equipment changed. This time, Anya was in daycare, and we could both focus on the shoot. Perhaps, one day in the future, we will shoot together with Anya?