If you're a jewellery retailer, you know that creating captivating lifestyle photoshoots can be a real challenge. It’s very easy to rely on standard product shots as it’s easier to capture and create. Unlike other types of product photography, jewellery photoshoots require meticulous attention to detail, as well as artistic creativity, to truly showcase the beauty and intricacy of your pieces. From finding the perfect location and model to capturing the right lighting and poses, there are numerous factors to consider.

Lifestyle photography is crucial for jewellery retailers as it allows for compelling storytelling, context creation, and brand establishment. By capturing jewellery in real-life settings, lifestyle photos evoke emotions, create aspiration, and foster a connection with the audience. They also help establish a unique brand identity through consistent styling and visual elements.

In addition to engagement and versatility, lifestyle photos are highly shareable on social media, driving brand exposure and increasing website traffic. They can be used across various marketing channels, providing versatility and longevity to marketing efforts.

In this blog post, we wanted to provide you with some inspiration and ideas to help you tackle your next jewellery campaign and create stunning lifestyle photos that will captivate your audience and elevate your brand's image.

Jewellery Lifestyle: Bright and Colourful

Bright and colourful lifestyle photography conveys a sense of vibrancy, energy, and positivity through bold colours, high contrast, and cheerful compositions. It evokes feelings of joy, optimism, and celebration, while promoting diversity and inclusivity through diverse models and cultures. This style of photography is commonly used in advertising, fashion, and lifestyle industries to create visually captivating images that capture attention and emotionally connect with viewers, conveying a message of happiness and excitement.

Jewellery Lifestyle: Atmospheric & Mystery

Dark moody lifestyle photography evokes a sense of mystery, drama, and emotion through the use of dark tones, muted lighting, and deep shadows. It conveys a sense of intimacy, authenticity, and luxury, while also potentially evoking a feeling of timelessness or nostalgia. This style of photography is often used in fashion, beauty, and lifestyle industries to create a unique and atmospheric mood that draws the viewer in and elicits an emotional response.

Jewellery Lifestyle: Art & Traditional Media

Artistic traditional lifestyle watercolour style photography evokes a sense of whimsy, creativity, and playfulness through its soft tones, delicate brushstrokes, and painterly aesthetic. It conveys a connection to traditional art forms, a feeling of spontaneity, and a sense of uniqueness. This style of photography creates a dreamy, ethereal atmosphere and is often used to capture visually captivating images that stand out and elicit an emotional response from the viewer. Although not technically photography, this approach can be a little easier to commission and create as a good jewellery artist can draw and paint your jewellery directly onto models without the need to organise photoshoot and hire photographers.

Jewellery Lifestyle: Classic, Nostalgic & Vintage

1950's black-and-white lifestyle photography evokes nostalgia, retro charm, and vintage aesthetics. It captures the fashion, decor, and lifestyle trends of past eras, conveying a sense of simplicity, elegance, and sophistication. With monochrome tones and high contrast, they create a timeless and refined aesthetic. Used in fashion, editorial, and lifestyle contexts, it adds a touch of vintage appeal to images, capturing the essence of a bygone generation.

Lifestyle Jewellery: Futuristic

Futuristic lifestyle photography captures the essence of modernity, innovation, and cutting-edge technology, featuring sleek aesthetics, dynamic compositions, and futuristic elements. It evokes excitement, adventure, and a sense of exploration, while challenging traditional norms and inspiring viewers to embrace new ideas and possibilities for the future. Often used in advertising and technology industries, this style of photography conveys a forward-thinking mindset and a desire for change, igniting curiosity about the possibilities of the future.

Lifestyle Jewellery: Rugged, Earthy, Elemental.

Rugged, earthy, and elemental outdoors lifestyle photography often invokes a sense of adventure, freedom, and a connection to nature. It portrays individuals who are unafraid to explore and immerse themselves in the wilderness, showcasing their resilience and determination in the face of natural challenges. This type of photography often features images of untamed landscapes, such as mountains, forests, deserts, and coastlines, capturing the raw beauty and power of the natural world.

Why is lifestyle photography important in Jewellery?

Lifestyle photography is essential in jewellery marketing as it creates emotional connections and tells compelling stories. It captures the joy, love, and significance that jewellery brings to special occasions, making it more than just a physical adornment. Tiffany for instance uses lifestyle photography to provide context by showcasing how jewellery can be worn and styled in real-life settings, making it relatable and aspirational to the audience. It essentially helps establish brand identity and drives engagement on social media platforms, making it a powerful tool in jewellery marketing.

Through visually appealing images, jewellery brands such as Cartier can create an emotional connection with their audience, making jewellery more than just accessories, but cherished symbols of precious moments and personal expressions.

Can lifestyle photography increase my website sales?

Good lifestyle photography can increase website sales for your jewellery business. It allows you to showcase your jewellery designs in real-life settings, which helps customers envision themselves wearing and incorporating them into their everyday lives. This aspirational appeal can create a desire to purchase the jewellery, leading to increased sales.

Lifestyle photography also helps create an emotional connection with your audience by evoking emotions, telling stories, and creating a brand identity. This emotional connection can lead to increased brand loyalty and customer engagement, ultimately resulting in higher sales.

Moreover, lifestyle photography is highly shareable on social media, where visual content is popular. Engaging lifestyle images can generate likes, comments, shares, and tags, which can expand your brand's reach and drive traffic to your website, potentially resulting in increased sales.

However, it's important to note that the effectiveness of lifestyle photography in increasing website sales depends on various factors, including the quality of the images, the relevance to your target audience, the overall marketing strategy, and the user experience on your website. It's crucial to integrate lifestyle photography strategically and consistently in your marketing efforts to maximize its potential impact on website sales.

How can I hire a photographer for my lifestyle shoot?

If it’s your first time looking to create a lifestyle shoot for your brand or you’re looking for a fresh new style then research is your best friend here. You can start by:

Looking at competitors or other brands that provide lifestyle shoots and decide what style best suits your products and company. This way when you approach a few photographers you can give them a good idea of what you want and more importantly the photographer can be honest with you about their pricing structure and if they feel they can do the job for you.
Try reverse image searching in Google (right-click on an image and click on “Search on Google”) This may bring up the source of the photographs and may lead you to the photographer.
Posting a job on Upwork or Linkedin. These platforms are used by professionals all over the world to find work suited for them.
Contact industry magazines and publications such as Retail Jeweller or Jewellery trade Organisations such as The NAJ who have a directory that may lead you to great photographers.
Search on Google and find local photographers and speak with them. Look at their portfolio and assess whether they can and have created photography that suits the style you are looking for.
If you want to be bold, contact your competitor and ask them nicely who did their photography. Most people are more than happy to help out someone within the industry. Never hurts to ask and maybe the quickest way to get great contacts.

IMAGE RIGHTS & DISCLAIMER: The images presented in the inspiration sections were created using an AI language model and are the intellectual property of Lionsorbet. If you would like to use these images in your own publications, buy them for your own commercial use, or talk to us about creating your own branded set, please contact us at +44 (0)1604 422356 or email us info@lionsorbet.com to discuss further.