10 Jewellery Photography Mistakes That Lose Sales

These are the problems we see most. Each one is fixable in minutes.

1. Dust and fingerprints

Macro shooting magnifies everything. Clean with a microfibre cloth and soft brush, wear gloves, and check at 100% before you export.

2. Harsh or flat light

Hard light creates white blobs; completely flat light creates grey stones. Use large soft light plus one controlled highlight. See jewellery photography lighting.

3. Reflecting your room (or yourself)

Metal mirrors its surroundings. Put white or black cards where the reflections fall, and angle the piece so your phone is not in it.

4. No sense of scale

A ring and a necklace pendant look the same size on white. Add at least one image on a hand, neck or ear.

5. Inconsistent backgrounds

A grid with six different looks feels messy. Choose two or three backgrounds and stick with them.

6. Wrong crops

Cutting off clasps, chains or earring drops is common when you crop afterwards. Compose for the final ratio. See photo sizes.

7. Over-editing

Saturated stones, over-sharpening and smoothed metal make jewellery look fake and cause returns. Fix white balance and dust, nothing more.

8. Missed focus

The back of a ring sharp and the stone soft is a classic. Tap on the stone and use a tripod. Consider focus stacking for macro shots.

9. Using on-camera flash

Flash gives hard reflections and flat stones. Use diffused window light or LED panels.

10. Only one photo

Customers want several views: front, side, detail, on-body, in-context. If shooting all of that is too much, use Jewellery Photoshoot to generate studio and on-model variations from one clean source photo.

Checklist before you publish

• Is the piece clean and in focus?
• Do stones show colour and sparkle?
• Is the background consistent with your other listings?
• Is there at least one image showing scale?
• Is the crop right for the platform?
• Does the colour match the real piece?