Jewelry Editorial Dubai

About this jewellery shoot

We filmed as a beauty and jewelry editorial featuring the incredible Philipp Jelenska art direction The entire shoot took place in Dubai by the pool and blended glossy beauty looks with luxury accessories and cinematic water reflections to bring out texture skin tone and light.

We filmed the campaign with the Sony A73 85mm 1.8 and used a minimal kit Lighting kept simple and dramatic to create a golden reflective atmosphere around the model.

Jewelry Editorial Dubai is a jewellery shoot shot in Dubai by SwainUK, a commercial and beauty cinematographer and photographer working between London and Dubai. The work here sits under jewellery and fashion, and the frames on this page are the delivered selection rather than a highlight reel.

Made with @idoraphaelmakeup on MUA, @swain.uk on cinematographer, @danihairstylist1, @izabeltevdoradze on model and Philipp Jelenska on photographer. Crews are credited on every project because the people in them are the reason a shoot works, and because a client looking at this page can see exactly who was in the room.

Jewellery is a lighting problem before it is anything else. Metal reflects the room, so the room gets built: flags, black card and controlled sources, so a stone reads as a stone and gold reads as gold rather than as a white blob.

Jewellery shoots in Dubai

This one was shot in Dubai. We work in Dubai regularly and carry our own kit through, so a UAE shoot is not a travel job with a surcharge attached. Permits, locations and local crew are arranged the same way they are in London.

We take jewellery shoots across Dubai, Abu Dhabi and across the UAE, for jewellery houses and watch brands. If you are looking at this page because you need something similar in Dubai, the fastest route is to send the brief: it takes about two minutes and comes back with what we would build and what it takes, usually the same day.

Questions we get asked about jewellery shoots

How do you choose the model for a jewellery shoot?

Casting starts from the product, not from a favourite face. For a jewellery shoot that means looking at what the piece has to sit on: hands, neck and ear line do most of the work, and skin tone decides whether gold or silver sings. We shortlist from agencies we already work with in Dubai, send options with the mood board attached so you can see them in context, and hold the final choice until the direction is agreed. If you have someone in mind already, that is easier and usually cheaper.

How is the mood board put together before the shoot?

Every project starts on a shared board before a camera comes out. References go up for lighting, colour, wardrobe and framing, we pull the palette straight out of the images so the grade has a target rather than a mood, and you comment on it in place instead of sending notes back in an email. It is built on our own tool, so you get a link, not an attachment, and it stays live while the project runs. By the time we shoot, nobody is guessing what the pictures are supposed to look like.

What does a jewellery shoot like this actually need?

Jewellery is a lighting problem before it is anything else. Metal reflects the room, so the room gets built: flags, black card and controlled sources, so a stone reads as a stone and gold reads as gold rather than as a white blob. In practice: a direction agreed on the board, a location or studio, the cast, and a shot list built from what the campaign has to deliver rather than from what looks good on the day. We bring the kit. A job this size is usually a single day, with the selection back to you inside the week and the finished delivery after that.

How long until I get the images and the film?

A first selection goes up on a private gallery, like this one, within a few days of the shoot. You mark your favourites in it, and those are the frames that get finished. Full delivery is usually one to two weeks depending on how much motion there is. If something is needed sooner for a launch date, say so at brief stage and it gets scheduled around that date rather than squeezed at the end.

Do you shoot stills and motion on the same day?

Yes, and it is nearly always the right call. The lighting is already built, the cast is already there and the direction is already agreed, so the second medium costs a fraction of what it costs as a separate booking. A campaign leaves with the stills, the long film and the vertical cuts made from the same grade, so nothing in the set looks like it came from a different shoot.

Do you work outside Dubai?

We work between London and Dubai and travel for both. We work in Dubai regularly and carry our own kit through, so a UAE shoot is not a travel job with a surcharge attached. Permits, locations and local crew are arranged the same way they are in London. Work outside those two is quoted with travel shown separately on the line item, so you can see exactly what the shoot costs and what getting there costs.

Do you retouch, and is it included?

Retouching is included on every delivered frame, and it is done to keep the object honest. Dust, prong marks and reflections of the room come out; the shape of the piece and the colour of the metal stay exactly as they are. A client who receives a stone that looks nothing like the photograph does not come back, so there is no upside in flattering it.

How do I get a quote?

Send the brief through the site. It is a short set of questions about what you are making, what it has to do and roughly what the budget is, and it comes back with a reference number so you can chase it by name. You can pick a slot for a call back at the end of it, which puts a 15 minute call straight in both diaries. Everything is read by a person, usually the same day.