The most important thing for jewelry pictures is light and focus. In order to obtain good light I use flourescent lighting. It does not create the flashback or glare on the stones that white light does. Simply placing a table under a good flourescent light works well. I also use a lamp with a flourescent bulb and a flexible neck over my jewelry.

Focus is obtained in three ways. First you must use a tripod. This is the only way to get a good picture. I tried everything and this is what works. $25 on ebay or at the radio shack is cheap and will increase your sales dramatically. Second you must use the macros setting on your camera and turn it to best. If you don't know about this it is in your instruction book. Third, you will need to set the camera up back from the jewelry and use your zoom and digital zoom. My digital zoom goes to 4x and is good. I would like to have a 10x to photogragh the makers marks one day. If you set the camera up to close the pic will blur at this level of zoom.

Last, you will want to turn off the flash, it will only cause you problems and will not make good pics.

Rhinestones can be taken straight on, crystals ,however, should be done from an angle to decrease the light feedback that naturaly comes off of them.

I rarely use photo shop to doctor a pic, only to add titles when I am doing large lots. Customers seem to trust an honest pic more. I take most of my pics on a polished metal tray, not a mirror. The tray gives the jewelry the impression of floating. Mirrors pick up the room too much. A good white background like a plain towel is also very good. Colored backgrounds are tricky and time consuming, they have to be changed for differant pieces and I take several hundred a week so don't do that anymore.

I hope this helps you.

Hannah