Photographing jewelry is very different than photographing other products since you have to deal with reflections, scratches on metal, gemstones glare, etc. Here is a list of questions you should ask before you move ahead with a photographer. View our portfolio and pricing here.
Q1: How many jewelry product photographs has he/she taken for paid clients?
Jewelry is tricky to shoot and requires certain props and light modifiers to shoot right. A lot of product photographers online have very few jewelry samples in their portfolio so be sure to ask how much jewelry they’ve shot. You’re looking for someone who has taken hundreds, if not thousands of jewelry photos.
Q2: What level of editing is included in their price?
If you are looking for a white background, confirm that it is included in the price. Some photographers will give you a light gray natural background and do not do the clean up in Photoshop.
Since jewelry pics are bigger than real-size, especially for rings and studs and such smaller items, it’s common to see every little scratch in the photograph. So some level of on-product editing is required. Confirm that this is included.
Q3: What image sizes are included and formats are included?
For web use, jpg files in 1000-1500px is usually enough. For printing, the size depends on the size it needs to be printed. If you need to print on a full A4 size paper, then you need a much bigger image than a web size. Printing is based on dots per inch (DPI). Ideally, you need 300 DPI for printing. A 1500px x 1500px image will print on a 5×5 inch paper clearly (1500/300=5).
Some photographers will provide a TIFF file. TIFF is the preferred format for large prints like full page color magazine ads. For catalog printing in 3-4 inch square sizes, jpg works fine.
Q4: How many rounds of revisions are included?
Typical concerns that clients come back to me with are colors – sometimes colors vary based on your monitor settings and sometimes it needs some tweaking in photoshop. Are minor changes like that included in the price.
Q5: Do they offer a guarantee?
If you are still not happy with the image after the change has been made, do you still get charged?
These are the questions I feel are important and am upfront with my clients about before starting their project so we are clear on the final output from the project. If you’re looking for DIY tips and gear suggestions, view our jewelry photography page or if you’re looking to hire a photographer, view our pricing here.
Are there other questions that you would ask? What are your concerns with outsourcing product photography?
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