New Photography - Silver on a White Background

The question of how to photograph silver on a white background has been troubling me for some time. It seems that a lot of websites, craft fairs etc ask for white background pictures, whereas I’ve always preferred dark.

So, now that I have my fancy new camera lens (more of which here), I thought I’d have a go. It has been a rather headache-inducing experience, as if you just plonk the silver on a white background and take the shot, the background always comes out grey.

I tried one of the light panels from Tabletop Studio (http://www.tabletopstudio.co.uk/Pages/IlluminatedFlatPanelsMenu.htm) but wasn't overly impressed, as it's not very bright at all compared to the tabletop lights.

After much faffing about with the lighting (and a great deal of tweaking in Lightroom and Photoshop) I’ve managed to get them almost white.  Well, white ish.  Or cream.  Beige?

This was the whitest I could get it, but then it overbrightens the silver and I had to attempt some Photoshop faffery.  Back to the drawing board!

The jewellery is a new collection I've been working on for a while. It's all baroque and fancy, with lovely little swirly bits everywhere. I like swirly bits.

Here's some more earrings:

There's also necklaces and larger neckpieces.  Everything is designed to co-ordinate with all the other pieces, so it's going to be perfect for weddings - in fact I've been designing it for the boy's sister's wedding this summer!

More pictures soon...