Take Control Of Your Jewelry Photography

Why Good Photography is Important For Your Jewelry Business

The fashion industry has always been highly visual. Try describing your newest necklace design to a friend, over the phone. We don’t even try. Today we just pull out our smartphones, take a couple of photos and send a text message. We work in an industry that needs to show our products through photography, and settling for bad photography does not work in 2019. Today we’ll cover why good photography is so important in your marketing campaigns and what options are out there to help you improve your jewelry photography.

Photography Can Make or break Your Marketing Campaigns

Marketing has also become more and more visual. This is evident with the rise of social media advertising and the decline of radio over the years. Effective jewelry advertising uses good images to attract attention. When was the last time you saw jewelry advertising that didn’t have an image or a video? Jewelry shoppers want to see what you are offering and the best way to do that is in person, the second best is with a compelling image. Having good images for your marketing campaigns are very important because they are often the single most important factor in capturing someone’s attention. The image can open the door to them wanting to learn more about what you have to offer.

The Rise of E-commerce

E-commerce has undoubtedly affected the retail. This is true in the jewelry industry as well. While e-commerce currently makes up 4-5% of all jewelry sales, it is expected to rise to 10-15% by 2020. Consumers always want to know as much as they can about a product before they make a purchase. With e-commerce sites, they can’t touch and feel the product, so they have to rely on images. Having a good image of your product can be the difference between making the sale or not.

Brick and mortar jewelry stores are also affected by the rise in e-commerce because consumers have been conditioned to research and look at everything they can about their purchase. Your brick and mortar store is competing with e-commerce sites that have beautiful images. The best way to attract online jewelry shoppers is to have great product images.

Take Control of Your Jewelry Photography

Taking photos of jewelry is very different than photographing other items. Metal, reflections, and imperfections are just a few things that make jewelry photography a little more challenging. There are three basic approaches to managing your jewelry photography. You can outsource on a per project basis and hire an outside agency or freelancer. Another option is to hire a part-time photographer and keep the process in-house. And finally, you can invest time and money and try to take product photos yourself. Let’s look at each option in detail.

Outsource

If you’re looking to hand the task off to someone else and just look at final images to approve, then outsourcing is your best option. If you decide to go this route there are a few things you should look at when trying to find a good jewelry photographer.

Experienced in Jewelry Photography- You’ll want a photographer who has experience specifically in jewelry photography.

Check Out Their Portfolio- Look at their jewelry photography work and ask yourself if their style matches your brand and the product you carry.

Include Retouching Work- Nearly all of the jewelry you see in high-end advertising involved retouching the original photograph. Make sure you’re aware of retouching work when it comes to getting prices.

Revisions- You want to be happy with the images you put out there. Make sure you have a direction in what your final images look like. A good photographer will work with you and offer a reasonable number of revisions to make sure you’re happy. Never accept photos you are not happy with. Make sure you understand the revision terms before entering an agreement with an outside photographer.

Keep in mind that you get what you pay for when it comes to professional photography. You may be tempted to hire someone who may not have that much experience but low prices. Be very careful. Try to get a guarantee that ensures you don’t pay full price if you are not happy with the final product and don’t intend on using the photos.

In-house

You may have a need for several photos because you’re constantly selling new collections and products. If this is the case then you might want to consider hiring an in-house photographer. This can start as a part-time hire and grow from there.

Having your own photography department lets you get creative with your images and try different approaches when it comes to capturing your vision. This option may require some investment at first but in the long run you will save money if you use a lot of images in you branding and advertising.

DIY

If you have some interest in jewelry photography and want to learn more then you might want to try a “do it yourself” approach. You will need to invest money on equipment and some time to learn the basics of good photography.

Unless you have some experience in jewelry retouching you will need to find a good retouching service. You’ll want to look at their portfolio and make sure the jewelry looks clean and presentable. Some retouched work can go a little too far and make the jewelry look fake and misleading.

We’ve been around the jewelry industry for over  20 years and have seen some of our clients spends thousands on photography. We’ve also seen a lot of tools over the years that help jewelry stores get good product shots and we recently found one that delivers results. The GemLightbox is a must have if your looking to take the stress out of shooting jewelry photography.  One of the most difficult things to manage in jewelry photography is lighting. The GemLightbox was designed to take the guesswork out and lets you get great images with even your smartphone. Learn more about the GemLightbox here.

For a limited time save $20 off the purchase of a GemLight box with promo code GemFind19.

Final Thoughts

In a world where videos and images of products are everywhere we see you must have great images if you want to stand out. Treat your photography as you would any other important aspect of your business. Have a budget for photographs, due your due diligence when it comes to hiring photographers and only present images you are happy with. Put out as many high quality images as you can social media. Consumers want to see your jewelry in the most beautiful way.

Want some advice on where to put your beautiful jewelry photography so your brand gets the most exposure? Our marketing experts can help you find the right channels to get more people seeing your products. 

  Contact us today to get started. 800-373-4373