How is jewellery photography retouched for e-commerce?

Why jewellery is hard to photograph

Jewellery is small, so only part of it is sharp in any one frame. It is reflective, so it shows the studio, the camera and the photographer. And every speck of dust is magnified. A good jewellery image is usually built from several frames and a lot of careful cleaning.

How it is done

• Focus stacking: several frames, each sharp in a different place, aligned and merged into one.
• Metal: dust, scratches, fingerprints and polishing marks removed, with the tone of gold, silver or platinum kept true.
• Stones: brightness and sparkle kept, inclusions left alone unless you ask, and colour matched to the real stone.
• Reflections: distracting ones removed, the shape-giving ones kept so the piece still reads as metal.

What we need from you

The full set of frames for each piece, not only the best one, plus any reference you have for the metal tone and stone colour. If a set is missing a frame we need, we tell you before the work starts.

Tools for the repetition, an editor for the look

Alignment and first-pass stacking are handled by software. Deciding which reflections give the piece its shape, how bright a stone should be before it looks fake, and whether a ring matches the rest of the collection is an editor's judgement.

Why it pays to keep a person on it

Over-retouched jewellery looks plastic, and customers buying something precious notice. A careful hand keeps the piece looking like itself: valuable, real and the same from one product page to the next.