What This Service Offers:

A very clear, sharp photograph of a single piece of jewelry.

A distinctive and dynamic look that compliments most jewelry designs. The photographs shown here are representative of this look.

A quick turn around time for both jewelry and photographs. This allows for your jewelry to be out of the show case, away from your customer, or off the road for a minimum of time.

A limited selection of standard backgrounds to choose from. Certain backgrounds tend to compliment or work better with certain types of jewelry. Also some backgrounds reproduce better in different media then others.

A pre-set price with quantity discounts, so you know what the final cost will be right from the start

High-resolution digital or traditional medium format tranparency film.

All reproduction rights are transferred to you upon receipt of payment in full. This saves you any additional usage charges.

Special Consideration:

My customers expect a lot from this set-up and usually this photo service produces excellent results, but this set-up does have a few limitations to keep in mind:

Normally only one picture from one point of view is taken of a single piece of jewelry. The camera angle of view is usually from 75 to 45 degrees from the jewelry piece. If instructions are not included for angle and direction of view, or for background to use, I will use my best judgment. After 20 years of shooting jewelry I can usually find the best view for a piece of jewelry but I always welcome ideas and directions.

This set-up has a tendency to cause a glare to occur on gemstone tables and flat top, highly polished pieces of jewelry. I take great care to minimize this problem but on some pieces it may be impossible. In these rare cases another photo set-up may have to be used.

This set-up produces a distinct shadow under the piece of jewelry. Some people love this - others hate it. If you do not like this shadow, I have a number of other set-ups that produce a different look that may suit your needs.

There are some types of jewelry, like long dangle earrings or pendants, that do not work well in this set-up (things keep rolling around). Fortunately, I have other set-ups that work great for these pieces and that I will recommend using.

The photographs produced by this service are extremely sharp and detailed. If a piece of jewelry has any pits, porosity, scratches, file marks, bad setting, or other flaws, they will show up in the photograph. This also applies to any mounted gemstone. For best results send clean, freshly polished jewelry to be photographed. I have often seen designers that do their own bench work rapidly improve their craftsmanship after their first photo session. I can also now, for an additional fee, touch up many problems in photoshop so a piece looks perfect.

Photo Usage:

Photographs produced by this service have been used for newspaper ads, magazine ads, new product publicity, brochures, post cards, multi-photo catalogs, portfolios, wall decor, point-of- purchase display, jury slides, and more. This is a good advertising work-horse photograph for use in B&W (RGB file can be converted in Photoshop) and color. The main limitation comes in how much you can enlarge the photograph. These digital file can produce a excellent 16X20 digital print with little interpolation.

Cost:

Digital:
There is a minimum charge of $160. For this minimum I can photograph up to 4 individual items. That is one photo per piece of jewelry. Each additional photograph past the minimum is $38 each. The price drops to $35 per photo when you send 10 or more items at on time. For large quanities (50 to 500) please contact me for a price quote

Flim:
There is a minimum charge of $200. For this minimum I can photograph up to 4 individual items. That is one photo per piece of jewelry. Each additional photograph past the minimum is $45 each.

This price does not include return shipping charge for jewelry (insurance charges can vary greatly) but does include everything else. I do consider a pair of earrings or a wedding engagement set as one item.

Turn Around Time

I make every effort to photograph and return (mail) your jewelry as soon as possible. I know this is your inventory and you do not want it out of your possession for any length of time. Once I have received your jewelry I try to have it back in the mail in as soon a possible. This normally mean 2 to 5 working days but please contact me for current turn around times.