Earring virtual try-on: on the ear, not on a card

How earring try-on renders an ear

Earrings are sold from a card and worn on an ear, and the two look almost nothing alike. A drop earring on a card reads as a shape; on an ear it reads as movement, length and how far it sits from the jaw. That gap is why 'what would I look like with these earrings' is a question people type into a search engine rather than one they resolve on a product page.

Hues renders the ear, the hair line and the lighting around the pair in your photograph. Studs, hoops and drops each sit differently and are rendered accordingly — a stud is a point of light against skin, a hoop describes a circle away from the lobe, a drop hangs and catches light along its length.

What makes a good source photo

Earrings are small, which makes focus and scale the two things worth getting right before you upload.

• Both earrings in frame if you sell them as a pair
• Sharp focus on the stone or the front face of the piece
• The post or hook visible, so the fitting type is unambiguous
• A plain background with even light and no hard shadow

Where on-ear images earn their keep

On-ear imagery does its clearest work at the top of a listing and in paid social, where the scroll is fast and a piece on a card looks like every other piece on a card. It also settles the scale question — whether a hoop is delicate or statement — which photographs of the object alone almost never do.

Every render comes with full commercial rights, so the same image can run on the listing, in an ad and in an email without a second shoot.