Just Take a Photo. Honestly, That's All We Need.
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The internet will sell you a £30 fingerprint kit. The pet shop will sell you a £15 one. A few jewellers insist you post them an ink print on a specific kind of card before they'll do anything.
For our pieces, you don't need any of that.
A phone, daylight, and thirty seconds is all it takes.
Why a photo is usually better than an ink print
It seems counterintuitive — an ink print on paper feels like the proper way to record a fingerprint. The thing is, ink prints are surprisingly easy to get wrong. Too much pressure smudges the ridges. Too little and they don't transfer cleanly. The ink can pool, the paper can smudge, the finger can slide. Most people have to do it three or four times before they get one that looks decent.
A phone photo skips all of that. The fingertip is right there, in good light, exactly as it is, with the ridges naturally visible. No ink. No pressure. No paper. No fuss.
It's also easier to send — straight from your phone, no scanning required.
The five things that matter
Here's everything you need to know to take a usable photo:
1. Daylight, no flash. Sit near a window. Soft, even daylight reveals the ridges. Flash flattens them and bounces back as glare. Skip overhead room lights too if you can — they can cast harsh shadows.
2. Close up. Fill the frame with the fingertip. Most modern phones have a macro mode — if yours does, use it. If not, get close enough that the fingertip takes up most of the screen.
3. Steady. Brace your elbow on a table. Hold your breath for the second the shutter takes. Don't try to take the photo with one hand while holding the finger with the other — that's how blur happens. Get someone to help if you can.
4. Tap to focus. On most phones, tapping the screen on the fingertip locks the focus where you want it. Do this. Otherwise the camera might focus on the hand or the background instead.
5. Don't edit it. This one's the most important and the easiest to forget. Don't crop. Don't sharpen. Don't run it through a filter or an "enhance" tool. Phone editing apps tend to smooth skin and remove what they think is noise — which means smoothing away exactly the fingerprint ridges we need.
Send the photo straight from the camera roll. As it is. We'll take it from there.
A quick test
Before sending the photo, look at it on your phone.
- Can you see the ridges clearly with your own eyes?
- Are the lines sharp, or are they blurred and soft?
- Is there a bright glare patch in the middle of the print?
If you can see the lines clearly, the engraving will be very good. If they're a bit soft, the engraving will be a bit softer too — but usually still recognisable. If the photo is genuinely blurred, take another one — it's worth the extra minute.
What if the photo isn't perfect?
Send it anyway.
Most of the photos people apologise for turn out fine. "I'm sorry, I know this is rubbish" is one of the most common things in our inbox, and most of the time the image is actually workable.
We've engraved fingerprints from photos taken in hospital corridors, in cars, in low light, at the wrong angle, with thumbprints accidentally over the lens. Twenty years of doing this means we can usually see the ridges where they are — even if the photo isn't a textbook example.
The only photos that genuinely don't work are the ones with no visible ridge pattern at all — completely blurred, washed out by flash, or with the centre destroyed. In those cases, we'd just ask you to take another. No charge for trying.
What about taking someone else's fingerprint?
The same approach works. Daylight, close up, steady, tap to focus, don't edit. If they can hold their finger still, you can do this together — you holding the phone, them positioning the finger.
If the person isn't here — if you're working from a mortuary print, an old piece of jewellery, or something else — see our other posts for that:
- When the Funeral Director Hands You a Fingerprint
- Yes, We Can Take a Fingerprint from Your Mum's Old Ring
The short version
A phone. A window. Tap to focus. No flash. No filter. Send it as it is.
You don't need a kit. You don't need to scan anything. You don't need to apologise for the quality. Just take the photo.
When you're ready, browse the fingerprint jewellery here. Upload the photo at checkout. We'll do the rest.
FAQ
Can I really make fingerprint jewellery from a phone photo? Yes. A phone photo taken in daylight, close up, and in focus is usually a better source for fingerprint engraving than an ink print on paper.
Should I use my phone's macro mode if it has one? Yes. Macro mode is built for exactly this kind of close-up. If your phone doesn't have it, just get the fingertip as close to the camera as it will focus on.
Why shouldn't I use flash? Flash flattens the ridges of the fingerprint and bounces back into the camera as glare. Daylight from a window gives a softer, more even result that brings out the ridges.
Should I edit the photo before sending? No. Phone editing apps tend to smooth out exactly the ridges we need to capture. Send the photo straight from the camera roll, without crops, filters, or enhancements.
What if the photo isn't sharp enough? Send it through anyway. Most photos people worry about turn out usable. If yours isn't, we'll tell you straight and ask for another one.
Closing
Browse the fingerprint jewellery → /collections/fingerprint-jewellery