How I Created Jewelry Images with the Help of AI

Hi there! I hope you're enjoying the beautiful June weather, the sunshine and the start of summer. We certainly are! Here in the Julian Alps, the weather is wonderful. We've been making the most of it with walks through lovely Alpine valleys, meditating with a view of the mountains, and admiring the flowers in bloom. It's a great break from sitting at the computer, especially when we're busy creating social media content and editing new jewelry photos.

And that's exactly what today's post is about! I recently experimented with AI to create some unusual photos of our new stud earrings, and I'm excited to share every step I took to make these bright, eye-catching images.

Now, I'm not claiming to be an advanced AI artist (or even an artist at all!), but for social media, this picture quality is more than enough. I hope you agree! So here's how I did it.

Step 1: The Photo Shoot

First, you'll need to take several photos of your jewelry piece. In my case, it was a pair of toucan-shaped stud earrings. These earrings are quite small, about 2 cm high and 2 cm wide. I already had the final result in mind, so I knew I needed a shot from the front.

Stud earrings can be a bit tricky to photograph upright because of the earring back and the tiny pin at the bottom. To keep the earrings steady, I used an earring display stand, the same kind I use at jewelry fairs.

I put the earrings on the stand so they were secure, then positioned the stand so the earring platform was vertical. I even used a spool of Miyuki thread to support the stand and keep it perfectly upright!

Step 2: Organize Your Background

To make background removal easy, I set up a dedicated background. I wasn't sure how big or small I wanted the earrings to look in the final designs, so I went with a larger background. I chose one of my two photo background sets, the one that includes:

• A photo background holder with clips

• A set of solid-color backgrounds. Each sheet is double-sided, with a different solid color on each side. I have six large-format (A0) sheets, which gives me 12 different backgrounds in total. They're made for photographers: coated, water and dirt resistant, and very durable.

You just clip your chosen background to the stand, and your small home photo studio is ready!

IMPORTANT: Your background color should be completely different from the colors of your earrings. For example, my toucan earrings are black, white, red and orange, so I chose a blue background. For the next pair, small tit birds in blue, yellow and white, I chose a green (chroma key style) background.

Step 3: Set Up Your Camera or Mobile Phone

I take my pictures with my mobile phone. This photo shoot took place in the afternoon (I'm a night owl, so unfortunately I often shoot photos and videos under artificial light!). It was too dark in the room, even in the afternoon, so I used a photo lamp with a special phone holder. I adjusted it so the phone was at the right height and level, and the light was right for the object and the conditions.

In the next photo (taken from the side), you can even spot a bit of the thread spool behind the earring stand!

Now start taking photos! Take lots of them. You never know which one will work best in your final design. Here are a few I took this time:

• The first shot (after this one, I added the thread spool behind the earring stand):

• Shot two, which turned out nicely:

• A couple of shots with the earrings farther away:

These are just four of the roughly 15 photos I took.

Once I was happy with the shots, I moved to my computer to edit the images. Canva is my go-to photo editing tool. I make a lot of things there, from collages and Instagram carousels to simple videos.

Step 4: Removing the Background

I opened a blank Instagram post template in Canva and uploaded a few of my photos. Then I used Canva's automatic background removal. Just click on your image and select "BG Remover" from the top menu.

After processing, the background of your image is gone.

A couple of notes here. Choosing this simple rectangular wooden earring holder was a big advantage. Its plain shape helps Canva recognize the background and remove it cleanly. The tool doesn't work as well with complex shapes. For example, yesterday I tried to remove the background from a photo of a volume-beaded ring, and it worked nowhere near as well as it did for these toucan earrings.

Step 5: Generating AI Images

Now for the fun part! My first idea was a photo of the earrings in the middle of a light (white or cream) background, surrounded by tropical plants.

To create a colorful tropical setting for my earrings, I used Canva's built-in AI image generator. To open it, go to the left-hand menu, select "Elements," and then choose "Generate your own."

A new window opens with a field where you type your prompt for the AI.

This is where your idea, and how precisely you can describe the result you want, really matter. Here's the final prompt that worked for me: "Photo realistic frame with tropical plants of various green hues, bright flowers and birds, including parrots and toucans at the edges, and white space in the middle." Yes, it took me a few rounds to get to this exact prompt, which ended up working best!

Of course, it takes the AI a few tries to get close to what you pictured. My first attempts weren't ideal. For example:

Something wasn't quite right in each of these images. Either the flowers or birds had odd shapes, the picture was too busy, or the composition didn't leave enough space for the earring photo. Canva's built-in tool creates four versions from each prompt. Once the first four images appear, you have several options:

• Click "Generate again" to have the AI create new results.
• Edit your prompt to add more detail about shapes, colors or objects.
• Go back and start from scratch.
• The most useful option is to generate more images based on the one closest to your idea. To do this, click the three small white dots in the top right corner of the image and choose "Generate more like this."

Step 6: Compile Your Final Image

Once you're happy with the results, you can create your final image. In my case, after a few attempts I had three generated images that were good enough:

When you click a generated image you like, Canva adds it to your design and also saves it to your "Uploads" section, so you can easily find it later.

Now drag the AI image onto your canvas, adjust the composition, add your website or product information, and you're done!

HINT: For two of the images below, I also used "BG Remover" to remove the background from the floral frame the AI created. As I mentioned, it doesn't work perfectly with complex shapes, so you'll need to tidy up the details, especially when your image (like mine) has lots of tiny elements: petals, leaf edges, beaks. But it was absolutely worth the time! Removing the background from the AI image let me put the earring photo on a layer behind it, with the plants or birds partly covering it, for a more natural, blended look.

Now your social media post is ready! Can you guess which image our followers voted the best?

This whole process doesn't take long at all. If your photo setup is already in place, here's roughly how long each part takes:

• 20 to 30 minutes for the photo shoot
• 5 minutes to upload the photos
• 10 minutes to adjust the jewelry photo in Canva
• 30 minutes to 1 hour to generate an AI image you're happy with
• 10 to 15 minutes for the final composition and download

So in about 1.5 hours, you can have something truly unique to show your craft online.

I hope you found this post useful and interesting. If you have questions about any of these steps, let us know in the comments. And don't forget to subscribe to our blog so you hear about new posts!

Happy crafting!

Yours, Ornamentico Team

Related reading: Floral Earrings from Organza Embroidered with Beads