Chapter 1: Introduction
Gemstones and jewelry are notoriously the most difficult items to photograph. Their reflective metals, multi-facet gemstone surfaces, and fine details are just some nuances to start with. If you’re reading this ebook right now, you’ve most likely tried at least a few (thousand) ways to photograph your jewelry.
Our team at Picup Media has worked with over 8,000 jewelers globally to perfect smartphone jewelry photography.
On this page, we’ll guide you through our top hacks on using just your smartphone to take studio-quality images. Yes, it’s a bold claim – let’s run through exactly how in this book. By the end of this ebook you should have the answers to these two of the most researched jewelry photography questions:
- How to use a smartphone to take jewelry photography?
- Is a smartphone camera good enough for jewelry?
Alright, let’s begin! Forget about DSLR cameras. Current smartphone cameras are more sophisticated than they’ve ever been. The best cameras in your smartphone combine intricate sensors and algorithms to optimize the lighting, color, and every fine detail each time you point and shoot at the click of your fingertips. That’s basically saying – a great smartphone camera is much more than just a nice lens and a high-megapixel sensor. The Picup Media team has done thousands of hours on perfecting smartphone jewelry photography and rounded up the best smartphone hacks for you.
Chapter 2: Quick Facts
Some interesting stats to know before we dive in.
- Over 85% of online sales are lost due to poor images. Your images are a reflection of your business and brand. Poor-quality images don’t impart lasting impressions on your customers.
- You only have 2 seconds to capture the attention of any customer. Your images decide if they stay or go.
- By 2020, over 50% of the world’s population is estimated to use a smartphone (Statista).
- In 2021, online video will account for 74% of all online traffic (KPCB).
- 55% of people watch videos online every day (MWP).
So what does this mean?
It means that more people are using a smartphone every year to view products online. It also means that more people are using their smartphones to sell. Therefore your images are crucial to the success of your online business. We cannot stress how important it is to make the most out of your images. And for the last two points mentioned, having good video content is as important as having good images. Read down below for all of our
smartphone photography hacks!
Chapter 3: The Hacks
Hack 1: Choose the right smartphone
This one may sound a little obvious –but a great smartphone is worth its weight in gold. Smartphone manufacturers have been placing substantial research and development budgets in advancing the capabilities of smartphone cameras over the last decade. These pocket-sized powerhouses now pack some amazing features that traditional cameras are yet to catch up with including 8K video, 108MP image sensors and 100x digital zoom. They are also undoubtedly convenient and easy to use as they don’t require the user to fiddle around with lenses or settings. Some of the most popular smartphone snappers are summarized below for you:
A great smartphone is worth its weight in gold. In this day and age, the smartphone has become an
essential all-in-one tool for staying connected, capturing great photos, and more – all in the palm of
our hands.
Hack 2: It’s all about lighting
It’s no secret that jewelry photography is all about lighting. Jewelry photography requires very unique lighting conditions to bring the piece of jewelry to life. Most jewelry pieces exhibit special properties including being incredibly tiny to shoot, often with reflective surfaces and faceted gemstones that interact differently under different lighting conditions.
The lighting conditions required to bring a jewelry piece to life include a mixture of soft, diffused lights at color-corrected temperatures, reflectors, and backdrops. That’s when you’d use a light tent, a lightbox, or softboxes for your jewelry photography. Each setup brings various degrees of success and complexity.
If you’re looking to save yourself the headache and simply want to achieve consistency in your Jewelry images, then a lightbox is the perfect solution for your needs. Lightboxes provide a controlled lighting environment which usually requires little to no tinkering or customization from the user to start utilizing effectively.
The GemLightbox is one such example, designed as a plug-and-play solution that works in tandem with a personalized GemLightbox smartphone application to achieve white background images and videos in as little as 15 seconds.
There are many solutions out there for jewelers of all levels. Regardless of which option you pursue, you must optimize your lighting environment to bring out the best in your jewelry pieces.
Hack 3: Make the most of applications
Smartphone photography applications are a great way to edit and enhance your jewelry images without hassle or spending hours in Photoshop – groan!
Most smartphone photography applications are free to download and provide useful tools and functions to bring your jewelry images to the next level. For example, Snapseed is often recommended by jewelers as a simple way to remove unwanted shadows, dust, and reflections from images.
Aside from image editing, smartphone applications are also extremely useful for improving your quality of life and photography process.
For example, Dropbox is a service that allows you to store, transfer, and share all your jewelry images between multiple devices and multiple people. It’s a simple and effective way to manage your images and inventory all at once.
The GemLightbox App works with both iPhone and Android phones and allows you to capture studio-quality white background images and videos in just one click.
In conclusion, applications are a simple but effective way to bring your jewelry images one step further with minimal effort.
Hack 4: Using the right background
While photographing jewelry is tricky and challenging, producing a final output that centers the buyer’s attention on your jewelry is key to online sales. Depending on which buyer demographic you’re trying to target, you’ll need to adapt and diversify your image style.
For your personal website or e-commerce, it is incredibly important that your images professionally represent your brand. This means a clean white background with no distractions whatsoever. Your jewelry images are a direct reflection of your brand, so always strive for consistency. In the end, this will help you build long-term relationships with your customers and attract new buyers more easily.
If you’re shooting for social media, adding different backgrounds and props to your images is never a bad idea. It helps to bring a fun and vibrant feel to your business that wouldn’t otherwise, make sense on your main website.
Head over to your local arts and crafts store and purchase a pack of textured backgrounds. A pack of 30 backgrounds will last you many months for all your social media shots! When shooting for social media, try combining different pieces of jewelry and other elements.
Get creative, the world is your oyster!
Hack 5: Videos are the future
Now that you’ve learned how to capture the perfect jewelry image, it’s time to consider adding videos to your repertoire. With more than three-quarters of online traffic engagement shifting to videos, there’s no better time to start capturing videos of your jewelry pieces.
There are many advantages to this. Instead of capturing a dozen different images to showcase every minute detail of a piece, you’ll only need to capture a few different angles and couple them with a short video that displays the piece and all its unique features.
Furthermore, videos allow you to illustrate the brilliance and sparkle of your gemstone pieces that would otherwise be impossible to convey through a still image.
Again, a white background is ideal when capturing videos to avoid any unnecessary distractions and keep your video looking professional. While this may be somewhat difficult to achieve, a lightbox and compatible turntable, like the GemLightbox, make the process much easier and more convenient.
Videos add a touch of class to your business and showcase your pieces in ways that still photographs simply cannot. If you’re truly looking to drive online engagement and bring in new customers, videos are undoubtedly the way of the future.
Bonus Hacks
We’re feeling generous, so here are more hacks to prepare you for your next jewelry photography shoot.
Conclusion
Perhaps the most important advice. Take jewelry photos regularly. Take hundreds of them and don’t give up when you don’t get a perfect outcome after a few tries. Jewelry is a challenging subject, but you have to take a few bad ones before you get to the successful ones.
Take the knowledge you’ve learned and apply it to your jewelry photography and see results immediately!