Julie is absolutely correct. This is a big topic! And is one that has been often discussed in the forum for many years.
I would describe myself as an adequate, not an excellent jewelry photographer. I’ve been lucky enough to be able to find photography mentors to guide me throughout my career, while I muddle through figuring things out on my own. Sadly, I don’t have suggestions of a book or website to recommend.
The trends of common jewelry photography backgrounds have shifted dramatically over the years. Back when film was the only option, in the 1970’s, jewelry shot on brightly colored paper backgrounds, shot outdoors on a foggy/cloudy day were common.
Then things evolved to graduated light to dark gray being the most common background. While professional photographers accomplished that with adjusting lights and camera settings. Amateur photographers like me used graduated light to dark gray photo paper, again shot outdoors on a cloudy/foggy day.
Now that objects floating in white space shot on digital cameras are common backgrounds for portfolio shots, shooting the photos is only the beginning of process. Much, if not most of creating the final image happens in photo editing process. It’s important to remember that.
I’m a big fan of Photoshop Elements as an affordable photo editing software (currently $99 on Amazon) to get started with. There’s other options, but I like that one. It’s a scaled down version of Photoshop, but has all of the features that you need for jewelry photography. (plus it’s a one time purchase vs an annual/monthly subscription.
One thing other thing to remember, because this doesn’t get talked about as much. What your end goal is should determine what your jewelry photos look like.
Portfolio/juried show photography isn’t necessarily the same as product/advertising photography. Most juries prefer a neutral background (jewelry objects floating in white space that you’re describing). When a juror has to look at hundreds or thousands of images they just want to just see the jewelry object, not jewelry on a wet rock or damp green moss, etc.
Advertising/product photography kind of tells a story that helps to sell the product. Jewelry on old wood, a desert rock or whatever fits your goal, is the right choice for this kind of photography.
As far as equipment that I use. In the Fall I bought an iPhone 15 Pro mainly to quickly shoot photos and video. I also have a Canon 70D with a macro lens and a telephoto lens. These days I use a lightbox that I bought from Gesswein. It took a little bit to figure it out, but now that I have I like it a lot.
Here’s a recent thread from a week or so ago to explore. The thread is about a specific kind of lightbox, but talks a lot about jewelry photography in general.
Hope all this helps a little!
Jeff