Most people photograph a new piece the way a brand would — close, bright, angled to catch the light. Those photographs are useless in a claim, because every stone looks the same when it is sparkling and no detail is legible.

An insurance photograph has one job: prove that this specific object is the one described on the paperwork. Flat, boring, well lit and in focus beats beautiful every time. Ten minutes now, once.

The five shots

The setup

Plain background. A sheet of white or mid-grey paper. Not a patterned surface, not a hand, not velvet — texture competes with the piece and makes edges hard to read.

Indirect daylight. Near a window but out of direct sun. Direct light produces glare that hides exactly the detail you are trying to record.

No flash. Flash flattens the metal and blows out the stones.

Phone camera is fine. Tap the screen to focus on the piece rather than the background, and take each shot twice.

Do not edit. No filters, no brightening, no cropping to make it look better. An edited photograph is a weaker document than an unedited one.

Finding the distinguishing mark

Every hand-finished piece has something individual about it — that is a consequence of manual setting and finishing, explained in What "Handcrafted" Actually Means.

Look for the rhythm of a milgrain edge, the exact placement of an engraving, a slight variation in one prong, or how a clasp sits. Photograph whatever you find close up. This is the shot that separates "a ring like this" from "this ring", and it is what makes a recovered piece identifiable.

When to do it

The day it arrives, before wearing it — which is also when you should be checking it against your order confirmation anyway. What to Do the Day Your Ring Arrives covers the rest of that ten minutes.

Then repeat every few years. Pieces change: bands thin, plating wears, settings get repaired. A photograph from eight years ago describes a piece that no longer quite exists, and an insurer assessing a claim will notice.

Where to keep them

Not only on the phone that might be stolen alongside the jewelry. Put them somewhere that survives the loss of your house and your handset both — cloud storage, an email to yourself, a copy with a family member.

Store them with the purchase documentation rather than in your camera roll, so that the photographs and the paperwork are one package rather than two things to reassemble under stress.

FAQs