Instagram assets for a custom jeweler

The client is a custom jeweler. Every piece is made by hand, most of them one of a kind, and each one is photographed the same way: on the workbench, on a phone, in whatever light the day had. Beautiful work, documented like inventory. She is not a professional photographer, and hiring one was never realistic: a studio shoot pays for itself over a production run, and her pieces have no production run. Whatever an asset costs, each piece has to carry that cost alone.

So the workflow is designed around the photos she already takes, and asks for nothing beyond them:

A few phone shots of the finished piece, taken on the workbench.
The photos are uploaded to the studio.
The studio restyles them and places the piece on models generated earlier.
Out come finished images, or film.

Everything past the upload is the studio's work. The piece stays exactly as photographed; everything around it is generated, from the surface it lies on to the light to the people who wear it. The finished assets come back in her visual language, sized for Instagram, across six color families.

Original phone photo of gold beaded rings on a green workbench mat — The same rings. On the left the original phone photo, on the right the finished 4:5 asset.

The same rings restyled on warm leather with directional light, as a 4:5 Instagram asset — The same rings. On the left the original phone photo, on the right the finished 4:5 asset.

The phone photos are also upscaled along the way, so the finished asset holds up at full size even though the source never would.

Original phone photo of a green heart pendant on a chain, on a green workbench mat — A heart pendant, upscaled from the phone photo until the stone and the gold setting read at full size. The pendant stays as photographed; the scene around it is generated.

The same heart pendant, upscaled and restyled on pale leather with directional light — A heart pendant, upscaled from the phone photo until the stone and the gold setting read at full size. The pendant stays as photographed; the scene around it is generated.

The models are the part that gets made once and reused. The woman below does not exist; she was generated for the brand, approved, and kept. Any new piece can now be placed on her without a booking, a shoot day, or a fee.

Generated model fastening a blue moped helmet, hand raised, no client jewelry — The same generated model, without and with the client's garnet ring. The model was generated once; the ring is hers.

The same generated model with the client's garnet ring placed on her hand — The same generated model, without and with the client's garnet ring. The model was generated once; the ring is hers.

From product photo to film

The same photos can go further. For this hammered gold pendant the studio proposed several composites of a model wearing it, a person picked the one that looked true, and an image-to-video pass added five seconds of gentle movement for a reel. Photographed conventionally, that clip would have meant a model, a photographer, and a studio day. Here it took a phone photo and a few minutes of pipeline time, with a person approving each step.

Original phone photo of a hammered gold pendant on a black cord — On the left the original phone photo, on the right the finished reel; click it to play. The model is generated, the pendant is hers.

Generated model wearing the hammered gold pendant — On the left the original phone photo, on the right the finished reel; click it to play. The model is generated, the pendant is hers.

Built on the platform

Everything above ran through Story by Numbers, the video platform I build and write about at /projects/video-platform. The jeweler work is one wiring of it: image models for the settings, compositing layouts with slots for the product and the portrait, and a render pipeline that produces the same asset every time it runs. When the collection grows, the feed grows with it.

If your organisation has material that could become imagery or film, email me: jason@storybynumbers.com.