[Laura B]

Originally Posted by Mike Jordan

Oh, definetly, shadows and focus can fool our eyes into seeing depth in a 2 diminsional image. Both schools are correct too... but it comes down to what are you trying to accomplish and who are going to be viewing your images.

You can play with focus and lighting and background and props, etc., if you are going for something artsy. If you are trying to sell something, you want the object to be presented as accurately as possible and you want the person viewing to focus on what it is you are selling. That doesn't mean you can't be artsy as well as functional, but it takes a person that has this talent to be able to do that. I'm not that type of person, so I've always leaned more towards simple and plain so that what it was I was photographing was the key element. Sometimes I wish I could be more artsy though.

Mike

Heh... well, as much as I love artsy, when it comes to selling my jewelry I'm MUCH more comfortable with the "less is more" school of thought.

I want factual representations of my work. I don't want the photo to look better than the piece of jewelry.

I hate busy backgrounds and rarely, if ever, use props.

But I do wonder if I should try hard to get the very back of my angled items into focus.

Shrug. Probably can't please everyone anyway, so maybe I'll just plod along as I've been doing.