Taking pictures of Beads(introduction and goals)

Taking pictures for posting beads on websites selling venues…
I have been involved in bead making for about 3 years now and have muddled through the "picture" taking of my beads. I want to improve my ability in showing my beads in a better light.
I've had people say, my beads look better in person.. I've taken the beads out side… in the sun, in the shade..I've done them in regular lighting.. Tried some ideas like using plastic shoe boxes.. And have the light shine through it. Has not worked for me.. So systematically I would like to go through the info out there and sort through and try again.. Sigh.. To get it right.

There are wonderful glass bead artist out there who know how to do it.. And I drool over their lovely beads.. And of course the wonderful pictures they take.. I'm sure they have had to walk this walk too! Research, ask.. Or beg.. Lol.. I can ask too.. But I'm one of those hard heads.. Who likes to figure it out.. Keep the brain engaged , and learn and read and do… Even though over the years.. I've kind of done this off and on… and have come to a point where the pictures are Ok… not perfect not great…they do the job.. But now I would like to step it up..

I will start out by showing past set ups.. I've had… and what I'm doing now… I am going to use some of those on line descriptions on how to make a light box… and use it. What I want to do is take pictures out side.. In different settings.. Take pictures in different set ups in the house as well.. to compare .

I've learned a valuable tool.. In all of this.. Photo shop elements.. Sometimes a pictures is perfect but the colors are just wrong.. The camera reads the readings.. And just does what it does.. Sometimes there will be a blue cast and just moving the camera a smidge will fix that.. Let me say I have one of those small point and shoot digitals.. With a great macro lens.. Does a great job but there are limitations.. So you need to fix…. What you can…
So enhancing is done sparingly.. If I posted the actual picture.. It would not represent that actual item with its true colors… so here I am.. just sharing, and going through the thought process> I've come to a few conclusions that work for me. Maybe some of what I have done and tried will shed light on this subject. Feel free to contact me with comments or suggestions . Remember I'm no expert, just working thorough the process and gathering information.

The pictures that follow, show you what I use to do. A light.. a table with a plastic white top. I'm showing the set up, and various things I have done and the resulting picture after color adjusting on photo shop..

This was actually pretty fancy set up for me.. my usual set up is the bottom photo.. with the bead just lying there with the light over. I think doing it this way.. I have a sponge with a card stock with a wire poking out so the bead can sit up right... I noticed this way.. not so much glare! just a little bit on the rim on top. The 2nd picture shows the result of this set up.. Its very simple and works pretty good..

This set up I am just using the shells for a back ground and I had to move the shell tray around to avoid so much glare from the light...

Ok here is the overly simple.. the one good thing about this simple set up is you have room to move the bead around to control the glare. Even still, right in the middle of the bead there is the light , So this is a beginning, this is where I have started from.. Hopefully by the end of it.. I will have a better picture quality.. Thanks for stopping by. Diane