We've been quite busy at the studio for the past couple of weeks (what's new?). Our client EckSand Jewellers wanted to refresh their look with their latest collection with some new fashion images. It was a pleasure to work on a different, much more human project, it has been a while. With today's economy and the fact that creating real fashion shoots costs money because of model, makeup-artist, retouching, post-fx work, etc., oh yeah, and me the photographer, the bill adds up quickly. Jewellers typically resort to using stock images, from the royalty free type to some rights managed ones. But honestly, nothing beats doing your own shoot - there's much more direction possible.

My favorite image from the shoot. Simple setup using 1 light, 1 reflector and some background lights: Canon 85 f1.2 II lens, high ISO shot.

EckSand wanted an emotional image that was both dark and sensual in nature.They wanted it to contrast with their delicate pearl and diamond collections. With the makeup wizardry provided by Ekaterina Ulyanoff and model Caroline, we had a blast shooting.

The setup was quite simple using 1 light with a grid coming from about 8' high, 2' left of camera. There was also a reflector being held by my amazing assistant Sophie. I used the modeling light only because I wanted to keep the lovely blurred lights in the background (very weak lights of a few watts each) giving it an "evening out" mood. Because of this, I shot between 800 and 1600 ISO with the Canon 85 f1.2 lens shooting quite open because of the low light and sometimes needing to freeze the jewelry on the model. I had to ask the model to hold her poses a wee-bit longer than usual because of the slow shutter speed. I must say, the Canon 85 f1.2 has always been one of my favorites... it's a true gem creating fantastic bokeh/blurs.

Anyways, I hope you liked the images. Next blog I'm hoping to post some insights on how we perform white gold to colored/yellow gold conversions in Photoshop. Stay tuned!