Who's behind this

Hi, I'm Assaf Loya, and I built Studio.

I've spent years around diamonds and jewelry, and for most of that time the hardest part of my week had nothing to do with the jewelry itself — it was getting a decent photo of it. You're holding a piece that took real skill to make, you need an image that does it justice, and instead you're booking studio time, waiting days for the files, paying more than the shot is worth, and still ending up with a stone that photographed like a piece of glass.

I kept thinking there had to be something better than that, and eventually I stopped waiting for someone else to build it.

Studio is that thing. You upload one photo from your phone and you get back the shots you'd have booked a studio for — on a model, held in the hand, clean on white, close enough to see the setting. The one rule I won't bend is that it has to be your piece. Not something similar, not an idealised version with the stones rearranged and the prongs tidied up. If the picture isn't honestly your work then it's no use to you, and it's a good deal worse than useless to whoever buys from you.

I should be straight about the scale of this: it's me. I built it on my own, mostly at night, around everything else I do. That's part of why it's priced the way it is — there's no team and no investors to carry, and I'd rather this be something people in the trade can actually afford than something that only makes sense for the big houses.

And if you write in on the chat here, you're talking to me. If something comes out wrong, tell me. I'd genuinely rather hear it than not.

— Assaf