How to photograph jewelry with an iPhone 4

I agree with all the comments made in relation to the article which was really just approached as an experiment on my part. I've published a follow up article which coincidently highlights some of the points raised here. Again this was just a bit of experimental fun with some cameras and our kit. Hope it's of interest. http://bit.ly/puAvI5

"you are never going to get a great bokeh effect that will make your product shine." Bokeh is not important with jewelry or small product shots. For small product shots you want more depth of field and an even amount of focus throughout the product. Hence why I still use DSLR view camera adapters. The tilt, shift and swing is way more important. Example of how bokeh sucks for products, I just sold my Sig12-24 and to show off the close focusing that someone asked on the auction, I shot three of my lenses, notice how the 85L is out of focus, and so is the 35L, not to mention the 24-70L is not completely in focus. Does the bokeh make it more attractive for close up product shots, nope! Trust me bokeh has its place, I bought my 85mm 1.2 the king of bokeh for weddings, and there having bokeh will make your images pop. For products I use a Cambo Ultima 35. To different beasts. Also the iphone has a work around mount it on a focus rail, (for Ryan) use an app called http://www.procamera-app.com which allows you to lock focus, exposure, time, etc. Then take multiple photos shifting a hair in forward/backwards on the rail, when your done load the photos into a stacking program. (do a search there are tons that can do it for mac or pc). Hope this helps. :)

Using an iPhone, nice lights and a decent app is all well and good to produce one shot, BUT what about repeatability? If you're actually shooting products for a catalogue, theres likely to be anything from a dozen to 100+ products. So you take away the pretty purple bracelet and put in a blue necklace. Were you able to lock down the Exposure time or Aperture or Focus or White Balance on the iPhone for this next shot? Are you getting feedback via a live histogram? Are you able to shoot RAW? No, no, no, no, no.... no.

A nice one off shot yes... trying to pass this method off as a professional workflow? You must be kidding.

OR... You could take a piece of thick white paper, curve it in the middle, prop it up against your computer screen and get a similar result. Total cost: $49.97 less.

The pictures will look fine... until you try to print them large enough and fine enough to actually go into a magazine.

However... who cares? No professional would use an iPhone for that kind of thing other than for the shtick.