|Sponsored| Taking good jewelry and gemstone photography is essential for marketing your jewelry business. You put a lot of time and effort into your work, but no amount of fine finishing will matter if your photos are bad. Printed materials, websites, and social media posts need professional-looking photography to show your designs at their best. And there’s a lot of information out there to help you take better jewelry photos. But what about gemstones?
Same.
So when I learned there was an easier way to create great gemstone photography, I had to try it. And it uses my smartphone? Even better!
Whether your business involves finished jewelry or just the sparkling little treasures that are set in it, you need good photos. But ask any jewelry photographer (or any human connected to our industry, really), and they’ll tell you. Gemstone photography is hard. And tricky.
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GemZoom Smartphone Photography Attachment
Meet the Gem-Zoom™ Universal Macro 10X Smartphone Lighted Magnifier Attachment from Rio Grande. It’s the cutest little gemstone photography (and any-tiny-thing photography) tool you’ll ever see. It’s about the size of my palm, case and all, which includes the GemZoom itself (more on that shortly), a USB charging cable, a 10x macro lens, a wide-angle lens, and a cleaning cloth. That small white card in the pocket on the right is the instruction manual, ha! That should tell you how simple this clever little attachment is.
If you can open a chip clip, you can use the GemZoom attachment. It opens by simply squeezing the ends and sliding it over your smartphone (Android, iPhone, and even some tablets) until the lens aligns with your phone’s camera. Then you take photos as usual. (It even works on my beloved old BlackBerry.)
Testing the GemZoom
I loved how the details of my pearls, other gemstones, and jewelry photography popped as I photographed them, even on my phone’s little screen, and was excited thinking about how amazing they’d look on an actual computer screen. I think it’s fairly common with macro lenses, considering the depth of field that close to the subject, but I also love the ethereal, soft-focus look around the edges. Talk about a beauty filter! See how dreamy these pearls look?
While testing the GemZoom, it took me a minute to realize just how close I needed to hold my phone to the subject. It’s a macro lens, after all, so you’re taking a very close-up shot. You could think of it like a jeweler’s loupe, if you’re familiar with using those. You’ve gotta get in close.
Speaking of close, here you can see a smartphone photo taken with the GemZoom attachment and the same photo taken from the same distance, using just the smartphone. The GemZoom really picks up details and subtle features.
Three Light Options for Jewelry and Gemstone Photography
A huge perk of the GemZoom is the light that fits around the lens. You can add light to your subjects in three levels of brightness. It’s a simple thing, but it’s a soft, beautifully illuminating wash of light that, as you might expect, really makes the photos look special.
Why GemZoom?
There are so many reasons; stunning gemstone and jewelry photography is the main one. But it’s also incredibly convenient to have your photos on your phone—and without the GemZoom, I’m not aware of any phone that can take photos this beautiful and professional looking at such close range. Plus, that light! It’s so helpful and it enhances the photos beautifully.
No matter how beautiful your designs or how well you finish your work, bad photography won’t help any jewelry business grow. Professional-looking, eye-catching jewelry photography absolutely can! And you can create it yourself easily with the GemZoom.
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