What equipment do I need for 360° jewelry photography?

You will have to assemble it yourself from A to Z: in this tutorial we will explain how to make this type of DIY turntable. However, the manual movement will not be uniform when creating your 360° animations, especially when positioning or hanging necklaces or earrings that tend to oscillate.

Another constraint is productivity: it is impossible to connect this type of 360 DIY plate to software for product photography. You won’t be able to save and re-apply settings for shooting angles or degrees of plate rotation. So it’s a basic and cost-effective solution, but one that quickly reaches its limits.

These 360° shooting systems are sold on marketplaces such as Amazon. They sometimes combine several uses: 360° packshot for products and 360° window displays for jewelry or watches. Line-powered, they usually have only one rotation speed. These systems are less precise (no possibility to program the desired angles) and are slow (more than one minute for one rotation), compared to higher range plates.

Most “cheap” models do not have a very long life under heavy use. Unlike 360° DIY, some of these models can be connected to a camera or smartphone via a dedicated application to start the shooting process.

Some of the proposed models are software driven and offer a basic 360 assembly system.

Suitable for packshots of jewelry, gemstones and watches, it works with a shooting software and is also connected to a camera. This type of set can also be connected to a lighting system (read our tutorial on lighting used to photograph jewelry). It automates the creation of multi-angle visuals and 360° animations. Thus, you can save and reuse the positioning, shooting angles, camera and lighting settings for similar jewelry.

Some of these 360 packshot systems are equipped with stepper motors. They avoid the oscillation and vibrations of your jewelry or necklaces when creating a 360-degree animation.

This is the complete solution, designed specifically for macro photography of jewelry, precious stones and watches. It consists of hermetic systems (light boxes, softboxes) with multi-source lighting, an integrated 360 turntable and software controlling the shooting. These studios stand out with their luminous environment and the motorization of their backlit turntable for a complete lighting adapted to the shooting of precious stones, reflective jewels and complex shapes, allowing you to take full advantage of your camera lenses and settings.

The new PackshotMacro RE photo studio with vacuum system is connected to the center of the turntable. It holds rings vertically during your 360° shots. The advantage: no handling during the shooting, and no support or use of glue dots to set the ring, thus allowing you to avoid retouching the photographs.

With PackshotSpin jewelry, presented on the video here, you can hang jewels to make 360° animations while avoiding the hazards of a DIY preparation. The continuous or sequential rotations of the motor eliminate the effects of swinging or oscillation of objects suspended on different types of T-bar (perforated to hang a pair of earrings, for example).

With the new PackshotMacro WE photo studio, you can use a transparent vertical holding system. Place your watch on it. Connect the holding system to the centre of a turntable. It allows you to take a 360° view of the watch from a distance. The watch remains stationary in this position throughout the rotation. However, some of the holder is visible in the final result. It is also possible to hang the watch to animate it 360°; the advantage is that no support will be visible.