Always Learning

I am beginning to HATE photography. Taking pictures of jewelry (like anything else I imagine) has it's quirks, the light has to be perfect, the stage has to be nice, and you have to try and appeal to your audience.  I thought I had it all figured out. Here is an example of my props: 

In the shade but with natural light. See how it kind of has a gray cast to it. Well on one or two pictures that tends to be ok BUT when all your pictures have it... not so much. 

Here is an example of a necklace done in this setting: 

Nice but gray. so I tried it in full sun: 

Nice but I'm not crazy about how stark the shadows are in full sun, not to mention the glare. 

So I was pointed in the direction of Gimp photo editing. It is free and you can use it online or download it. 

Here is the finished product via shade but edited slightly: 

I like this. Not gray, not to "BAM" with the shadows, and you can see in all three the colors pretty much stay the same. I am going to have to get use to the photo editing because it can get a little crazy too. For example: 

As you can see all photo editing is not good. :)  That was an exaggerated example, but it is funny how you can go from editing to improve and editing to the extreme if you are not careful, or if you've been at it too long.  

So what I have learned is that pictures in the shade of natural light is good, but you may have to "tweek" it just a bit so that it does not look like a haze. 

Yes, I still think I am hating photography, but I can get along with it I guess.