Creative Ring Photo Ideas

Kyle Nelson

Feb 28, 2020

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If you’re planning a wedding, an important piece of the planning process is your photographer selection. And, once you’ve found your perfect photographer, you’ll likely discuss what style of photos you prefer and make a checklist of the photos that you definitely want to have taken. During that conversation, we highly recommend you ask your photographer to take fun photos of your rings! You’d be surprised how often this gets overlooked and ring photos capture your eternal symbols of love.

If your photographer doesn’t capture your rings, have no fear! We’ve also included some tips on how to take unique photos of your rings using your own camera or smartphone.

Read on for some wedding ring photo inspiration from photographers around the country.

Inspiration and Ideas

There's no shortage of creative ring pictures on social media. Capturing an attention-grabbing image calls for some imagination! Some of our favorite shots from Pinterest, Facebook and Instagram follow one of the following themes:

Bridal Accessories

Capture the engagement ring, wedding bands, or all three in a shot featuring some of the bride's accessories.

This tricky balancing act also showcases the beautiful wedding destination. Photo credit: Michelle Coelho Photography

The wedding dress itself is the background for this stunning halo engagement ring. Photo Credit: Ben and Colleen Photography

After you've given up trying to balance between both shoes, you can still get an eye-catching shot with the heel! Photo credit: Paulette Young Photography

Bring all the rings together to symbolize your union. Photo credit: Dylan Kyle Photography

Feature Your Passions

Show off the rings with a tie-in to your favorite things, whether it's a hobby, destination, or even food!

Hunters and outdoors enthusiasts can use their trophy antlers or equipment as a prop, like with this deer antler wedding band.

Guitarists, pianists, and musicians of all varieties can pose their rings on their instruments. This ring even has a guitar string built into it!

Audiophiles and vinyl purists can put their ring on a favorite record for a minimalist look.

Like whiskey on the rocks? Try posing your whiskey barrel wood ring against some ice and snap a picture before it slips!

Involve Yourself

Ultimately, it's the people behind the rings that people really care about. Make an appearance!

Share your happily-ever-after with a cozy home snapshot. Photo credit: Nichole Gokie

Feeling edgy? Make your followers do a double-take! Photo credit: The Twigs

Take a moment during the dress rehearsal to capture yourselves dressed to the nines! Photo credit: Lauren Baker Photography

Pinky promise? Photo credit: Leah M Galloway

Feature the Wedding

If you're able to think at all on the big day, try to remember that all your planning for the venue and decorations make for a beautiful backdrop that's already tailored to your style!

This moody shot was taken on the dinner table before it was set. Photo credit: Lauren Baker Photography

Photo Credit: Alpha Photography

Get more out of your bouquet and use it as a prop, or...

...Use the same flowers to make your wedding band!

Place your rings on a copy of your invites to build up excitement online before the event. Photo credit: Lauren Baker Photography

Taking Better Pictures Of Your Ring

Having a great, creative idea for a ring picture is all well and good... but how do you actually do it?

You don’t need to be a professional photographer or spend huge sums on camera equipment to capture amazing images of your wedding rings. It just takes a little understanding of how your smartphone or camera works, a basic understanding of lighting, and your own creativity!

Lighting

The absolute most important factor in any photo is the lighting. Controlling lighting changes everything about how the subject of your photograph appears. As a subject, jewelry often looks best when photographed in what is called “soft light”. So, what is soft light, and how do we create it?

Hard Light

Soft light, or diffused light, is easiest to understand by what it isn’t: hard light. Hard light is like sunlight on a cloudless summer day, where the sun’s light is beaming straight at everything and causing distinctly lit areas and defined shadows. This makes jewelry look “punchy” or very high-contrast, but it also creates harsh reflections. In hard light, the inside of this deer antler wedding band looks like a mess!

Soft Light

Conversely, on overcast days where sunlight travels through the clouds, everything is lit more evenly and shadows are less defined. This is soft light, and it tends to wrap around objects and show off more detail. You still get reflections, but they accentuate the shapes of the subject. This makes it perfect for capturing the beauty of your rings!

To find soft light, find a window that’s in the shade and away from direct sunlight. Use a piece of printer paper or a white sheet to diffuse the light. It’s that easy!

This easy DIY setup was arranged on a window ledge, and uses just a simple improvised phone stand and a sheet of paper to capture a simple portrait of this meteorite ring.

With this simple setup, we captured this picture. It has been cropped, but there are no edits or filters!

Basic Camera Settings

To get the most creative control over your photo, you’ll want to harness the power of your lens aperture. On larger cameras, this is a physical barrier within the lens that opens and closes to allow more or less light in. On smartphones with only a fixed lens, the effect is simulated by software (there are dozens of free or inexpensive apps that let you adjust your iPhone or Android smartphone). The aperture value controls an image’s depth of field, or, how much of an image is in focus at one time. Aperture values are listed as “F-stops” and range from as low as F/0.95 to as high as F/32. The lower the F-stop, the smaller the area in focus becomes. Notice how much of this meteorite wedding band is in focus as the F-stop increases: