"Freeze Frame" for Jewelry Photography
Hanging earrings or pendants motion free

• Lighting & Set-up for jewelry photography
  
• Hanging earrings motion free for photography
• Various freeze frame setups

• Working with highly reflective gold & silver jewelry
  
• Hanging necklaces
  
• Freeze Frame Jewelry Photography equipment

The photos shown here are no doubt what all jewelers selling online are striving to achieve. The technique shown here can be used with an "open photographic set" which does not require the use of a light tent, such as the EZcube, if you have a softbox light. If you do not have a soft box we reccomend using this tool inside of an EZcube light tent, to soften the light. We will show you how it can be used both ways, and will greatly reduce the large amount of time spent struggling to compose your jewelry before beginning to shoot.

A great secret to know when shooting earrings that match ... pros often shoot one and use software, like Photoshop, to create a duplicate.

Run the first line of filament from side to side & clip in place. Hang the earring from it. Then run the second line through the lower portion of the earring and pull slightly downward to freeze the earring in place. Once the second line is secured you can further adjust the earring, tension will hold it in place.

Once it is secure you can move the freeze frame, instead of the earring, to find a pleasing angle of view of the earring frozen in place. Now position the freeze frame 10" x 12" white background behind your earring and take a look through the camera.

Keep in mind that to avoid harsh shadows and reduce glare, jewelry photography, like all product photography, normally requires soft lighting, For soft lighting the Freeze Frame can be used inside an EZcube or with the Kuhl Lite soft boxes.The primary light source for the examples shown on this page was one single 16" x 16" Kuhl Lite 120 soft box . This light holds four 30 Watt compact flourescent bulbs, putting out a substantial amount of light, which allows you to shoot with your camera set to a faster shutter speed.

The image to the right shows a ring suspended in the freeze frame. In this setup the camera is shooting downward so the white freeze frame background is laying on the table surface and would appear to be behind the diamond ring in the photo. Because this is an open set {not an enclosed light tent} sometimes your shiny jewelry will reflect darkness from items in the room. Use the white fill card as shown in this setup to "fill" the darker areas with reflected light. The fill card should always face the light source it is reflecting, to be effective. Move the card around to find the right spot if your jewelry needs a little extra light in one spot.

Be sure that all of your lights match in color or you will not be happy with the results. NEVER mix different light source bulb colors. I use all 5000K daylight balanced bulbs for all of my example images, and never need to make color corrections. Also, leave your auto white balance setting ALONE. Most cameras do a great job with this set to Auto. If you ignore this advice and change your white balance setting, expect a greenish color cast over the entire image. White balance settings will not give you a white background.

The three most effective ways to whiten your background:

If you eliminated ALL reflections in your jewelry, it would appear dull, flat and lifeless.

A) The silver hoop earring hung in the freeze frame on a table, NO light tent. The earrings reflected everything in the room; looking "noisy". See setup A) below.

B) the same earring hung on the FreezeFrame now placed inside the EZcube, leaving the front of the tent open. See setup B) below.

C) eliminate even more reflections by placing the EZcube front cover in place. It will be a personal choice which way to go & which style appeals most to you while shooting your product. This result is too dull for my liking. See setup C) below.