Alex begins by presenting the idea behind the course: how to work with an intermediate level client who only has a rough concept in mind of the final image and the process you go through to take such a concept all the way to a finished final image.

In this lesson, Alex looks at the background setup for this shot and describes how the glass wavelet table was built. He also demonstrates how the light behind the seamless background affects the shot.

Alex demonstrates how to position the subject in front of the camera. Suspending the necklace is correctly is important and Alex discusses the difficulties you have to be aware of when shooting small jewelry items, including camera, lighting, and modifier positioning.

This lesson begins with Alex setting up the focus and analyzing the type of subject he is shooting. Since this necklace is a glossy subject composed of metal and gemstones, Alex demonstrates the proper use diffusers to help bring out the different surfaces properly.

In this lesson, Alex demonstrates how to use contrast lighting to bring out the shadows and highlights to ensure the metal surfaces appear appropriately glossy. He also shows how to eliminate the reflections of unwanted objects in the subject.

In this lesson, Alex tackles how to generate movement in the shot. He demonstrates different ways to create the ripple effect in the water using the wavelet table and shows how to capture the ripples in camera.

In this wrap-up of the shooting lessons, Alex summarizes the approach to shooting the Na Hoku Wave necklace and pendant and discusses the importance of including such creative product images in your portfolio.

In this first post-production lesson, Genia begins by evaluating the raw image to be retouched. She demonstrates how to use Adobe Camera Raw to perform the initial post-processing, opens the result as a Smart Object in Adobe Photoshop. From there, Genia shows you her process for cleaning up some of the necklace.

Genia demonstrates how to adjust the colors of the pearl inlay of the necklace and reduce some of the noise in the image as well.

In this post-production lesson, Genia focuses on cleaning up the metal portions of the necklace, while ensuring she retains the proper reflections and gradients that define the polished metal’s characteristics.

Genia moves on to working with the Liquify tool to make the lines straighter and cleaner looking. Using a systematic approach with this tool, she is able to improve the subject’s overall appearance.

In the second part of this post-production lesson, Genia focuses on the main body of the pendant. She demonstrates in detail how to clean up all of the metal areas and get everything looking balanced and straight.

Genia shows how to add to and enhance the white highlights to make the pendant really pop. These enhancements make the metal look much shinier and give the overall image a better glow without hurting the texture and surface appearance. She also shows how to clean up dirt using blurring.

Through the use of various techniques, Genia shows how to make the diamonds pop, including fixing the white and black areas to provide better definition and contrast.

In this lesson, Genia turns her attention to the water element and shows how to clean up its surface using blurring techniques to eliminate unwanted sensor particles, distracting lines, and other things that may prove to be distracting to the image.

In the final post-production lesson, Genia demonstrates multiple techniques to make the image really look its best, including noise reduction to make the metal look smoother and more polished.