Why jewellery costs more per item
A mug takes about four minutes to shoot once the light is set. A ring with a stone takes twenty to forty minutes. That’s the real reason a jewellery day rate looks steep next to general product work.
Metal is a mirror. Point a softbox at a bracelet and you light the room reflected in it: my hand, the ceiling, the sheet behind. A clean reflection means building a small tent of white card around the piece and nudging it by millimetres until it reads flat.
A stone is worse. Cut stones only show fire when light hits the facets at a precise angle; move it two inches and the sparkle is gone. Most guides say diffuse evenly from every side. Fine for a plain band, not for anything Hatton Garden trades in. A fuller guide to photographing jewellery covers the lighting setups.
Prices
Jewellery photography starts at £300 for a half day, covering eight to fifteen pieces depending on how many need on-model or 360 treatment. A full day covers roughly double.
| Service | From |
|---|---|
| Half day (8 to 15 pieces) | £300 |
| Full day (18 to 30 pieces) | £550 |
| Per-piece rate (fewer than 8 pieces) | £35 per piece, £150 minimum |
| On-model add-on (hand, ear or neck) | £120 |
| 360 spin, per piece | £45 |
| Enhanced retouching, per image | £15 |
| Rush turnaround (48 hours) | plus 25% |
Fewer than eight pieces, and the per-piece rate usually beats booking half a day you will not fill. Check full pricing across every service against a lifestyle shoot with models. Want a piece turning on camera instead of shot flat? That is 360 spins and product video, priced separately.
On white, on model, on texture
Three looks, three jobs. On white is for listings: Amazon, your own shop, a wholesale catalogue. It has to be clean and comparable piece to piece, which is why most jewellery days happen on a lightbox against white or pale grey.
On model shows scale: a ring on a hand, earrings against a jaw. Useful, but it slows things down. Hands cramp, models need direction, and you’re lighting a person and a piece of metal at once.
Texture, wood, linen, a marble slab, suits lifestyle content and a homepage banner. My honest opinion: most small brands book texture and on-model shots before their white-background listings are sorted. A moody lifestyle shot does not let anyone buy. Get the product photography from £300 basics right first; I have seen product work for London brands where the whole budget went on styling, with nothing usable for the product page.
Retouching jewellery
Normal retouching removes dust, a fingerprint, a stray hair, and the small reflection of my softbox on a polished surface. It’s included at the standard level on every image, no extra charge.
- Dust and fibres on the piece or the shoot surface
- Fingerprints and light marks on the surface, not the metal
- Colour correction so gold reads as gold, not orange
- Straightening and cropping to a consistent frame
What I won’t do: make a stone look bigger, remove an inclusion that is genuinely in the piece, or shift the metal’s colour from what it is in hand. This is misrepresenting the piece, and it becomes a returns problem for you. Enhanced retouching, on a difficult piece like oxidised silver, costs £15 an image extra.
Sending pieces safely
Most clients send pieces by insured courier or drop them at my Shoreditch studio on their way through Liverpool Street or Old Street. Here’s what I need.
- An itemised list of every piece, with a rough value against each one
- Insured, tracked delivery if posting: Royal Mail Special Delivery or a specialist courier
- Pieces logged in and kept in a locked safe while they are with me
- My studio insurance covers pieces in my care during the shoot; check your own cover for transit
- Return by the same method you sent them, or collection by arrangement
When your phone will do
Plain silver or gold on a white sheet by a north-facing window is achievable on a decent phone, for a quick listing you will replace later. Diffuse daylight, a white card on the shadow side and some patience will get you a passable shot.
Anything with a stone won’t work. A phone cannot control light from the narrow angle a cut stone needs to show fire, and there is no fixing that afterwards: a flat stone in the file stays flat. If the piece has a diamond, a sapphire or anything faceted worth mentioning, pay someone to light it.
Send me the piece count and whether any are set and I’ll reply within one working day with a fixed quote. Half a day, a full day or the per-piece rate, whichever is cheaper for your count.