How to Scan Images of Jewelry to Sell on eBay

People often need pictures of their jewelry for creating an insurance record or for selling on eBay or other auction sites. I do not recommend scanning jewelry for artists or people who want to sell fine jewelry online or through a catalog; a professional should handle those images or you can do it yourself in a studio with at least three-point lighting and a professional backdrop. Scanning jewelry is a quick and easy way, however, to make an insurance record or get a photo for eBay. It will not work for all items, so read on to find out how to do it.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Flatbed tabletop scanner
• Necklaces, earrings, bracelets

1. 
   Necklace

   Use a scanner for necklaces and bracelets. First clean the scanner bed and cushioned back. Remember, the back is essentially the background for the image, so it needs to be clean. Position the necklace on the platen and use your scanner software to preview and scan the image. Notice the detail is pretty good and you can distinguish the colors between the silver and gold parts of the necklace.

2. 
   Red Background

   Build in any background color to compliment or present the piece in the best light. (This is the same necklace scanned with a red background.) Simply place background paper between the object and the soft platen. In this case you can see that the wrong color choice can really hurt the image. The red background makes it hard to see the color differences between the silver and gold components.

3. 
   Earring

   This picture shows what NOT to do. The earring is delicate, but yet too thick to really be scanned. The result is an out-of-focus mess. Thickness is the key with this method. If it is too thick it will not be suitable. Men’s rings and rings with large stones will not work either. The eye can forgive some focus shift, but a scanner is not designed to scan thick objects.

4. 
   Pearls

   This picture is acceptable even though the necklace was sort of thick. You can see the stone clasp is thicker than the pearls and has less focus than the pearls; however, you can see the number and color of the stones and the pearls look good. It is sufficient for an insurance article or for an eBay listing, but you can see that it is not good enough for a jewelry website or for a catalog.

5. 
   Jewelry With Colors

   Make sure the color side is face down if the jewelry has a color like this earring or a colored stone. Keep in mind the light is coming from below, so when you look down at the scanner you are looking at the backside. Some jewelry like this earring, cufflinks, buckles and pins have a distinct front and backside. This method does not work for some types of jewelry, but it is a lot easier than setting up a backdrop and lighting and putting your camera on a tripod.

[kariharaldson]

on 11/18/2009 Interesting article 5*'s

[kariharaldson]

on 11/18/2009 Interesting article 5*'s

[kariharaldson]

on 11/18/2009 Interesting article 5*'s

[imagery]

on 11/16/2009 You are so correct about doing the image editing in post-production. Really a musy do on all scans.

[austinstar]

on 11/15/2009 I've used this method for years and sold lots of jewelry on eBay! It also helps after scanning the image to open it in your image editing software and crop, resize, do closeups of important parts, etc. You can also adjust the brightness and contrast to make things pop. Change something and then 'undo it' if it's not right. Practice makes perfect!