Any tips for photographing colour change alexandrite?

[Starstruck8]

I thought you might find this interesting. This is some of my Alex and there's a mix of good and poor colour changers on my hand (with the exception of one or two, none of these are what I would call good quality). Look at the ones I've pointed to with arrows. They are the ones that have rubbish colour change and you can see that they are looking green. The ones with the better colour change are showing no green at all - although, when I was looking at them, trying to take this photo, they all looked green!

If you look at my previous post, you'll see the same ring but this time it's on my ring finger, middle ring. This is the same iphone but for some reason played ball one day and not another!

Thank you for this and the previous post. This is just what we need to see. It illustrates the problem perfectly.

Judging from the skin tone, first pic has 'greener' white balance and is a bit lighter, the second has 'redder' white balance, and is a bit darker. But I doubt that this is enough to account for the difference in the alexandrite colours.

You have a amazing collection. And that's only part of it... I've never seen so many alexandrites in one place.

 

[Nick_G]

I've wondered what the definition of percentage colour change is with alexandrite. For example, I have a rough specimen of crystals in matrix, which appear a beautiful rich bluish green in daylight, a very meh dark brown/grey/green in incandescent light and a deep garnet red in firelight or candlelight. Would this be defined as a complete 100% colour change specimen, or would the red colour have to be visible in incandescent light as well to qualify?

I've never been able to replicate the daylight green I see with my eyes in photos of this specimen.

 

[Shiny Black Cat]

I don't know the secret.sometimes l capture colour change, sometimes not. Not very helpful, but sharing my photos. l

 

[Kessi]

I have taken so many pictures with so many different types of lighting and only see purple unless I use mirrors with very intense lighting. The only time I can get the green is when in a shadow on a bright day outside or in my kitchen with florescent lighting. I made an immediate girl's trip to NYC to find matched side stones and also drop off for GIA origin. I only found 1 piece that was very similar to my color changes of purples, reds, pinks.. the raspberry color. It was a 14carat 14stone eternity band in the diamond district but couldn't get the green to show, even outside the day I was there to check the over all match. Mine looks very dark but in person it is very transparent but still very deep in color. The reds under incandescent is more a raspberry red pink on mine than the raspberry fuscia of the eternity band. The eternity band is way outta budget but a girl can dream! I also found that most of my friends and family with blue or blue green eyes only see purple no matter the color everyone else sees... same for most with contacts and glasses. This stone is eye clean but not on a scope and hopeful to get the true origin before too long and maybe one day the matched Brazilian eternity band which photos as purple as well.

 

[Shiny Black Cat]

I have taken so many pictures with so many different types of lighting and only see purple unless I use mirrors with very intense lighting. The only time I can get the green is when in a shadow on a bright day outside or in my kitchen with florescent lighting. I made an immediate girl's trip to NYC to find matched side stones and also drop off for GIA origin. I only found 1 piece that was very similar to my color changes of purples, reds, pinks.. the raspberry color. It was a 14carat 14stone eternity band in the diamond district but couldn't get the green to show, even outside the day I was there to check the over all match. Mine looks very dark but in person it is very transparent but still very deep in color. The reds under incandescent is more a raspberry red pink on mine than the raspberry fuscia of the eternity band. The eternity band is way outta budget but a girl can dream! I also found that most of my friends and family with blue or blue green eyes only see purple no matter the color everyone else sees... same for most with contacts and glasses. This stone is eye clean but not on a scope and hopeful to get the true origin before too long and maybe one day the matched Brazilian eternity band which photos as purple as well.

l have no problem with red purple, l use candle light, but teal blue l can only see in daylight in shadow and if it"s cloudy. l managed to capture teal several times, don"t ask me how. l also have Alexandrites which are more olive green and have no problem to capture red and green, no matter what the weather is. obviosly, they are from different sources.

 

[Kessi]

The image outside was while the sun was setting/incandescent porch light were hitting the stone at different angles and in person it was very green on the top, even more green on the bottom, with red pink in the middle-, however the green/teal/blue never show up on any camera or any phone I have used- it can get very green, almost like an emerald but the cut isn't the best and there are a few small chips, no cracks. I was told not to recut until origin is done by a jeweler that cuts alexandrite and even then it may be better to embrace the chips as part of the beauty.. but a local jeweler told me to have recut before sending to GIA. I was shown an example of a recut that lost half a carat down to 2.57 report no. 5172910531 on GIA it was 3.07

 

[Shiny Black Cat]

The image outside was while the sun was setting/incandescent porch light were hitting the stone at different angles and in person it was very green on the top, even more green on the bottom, with red pink in the middle-, however the green/teal/blue never show up on any camera or any phone I have used- it can get very green, almost like an emerald but the cut isn't the best and there are a few small chips, no cracks. I was told not to recut until origin is done by a jeweler that cuts alexandrite and even then it may be better to embrace the chips as part of the beauty.. but a local jeweler told me to have recut before sending to GIA. I was shown an example of a recut that lost half a carat down to 2.57 report no. 5172910531 on GIA it was 3.07

I
Yes, it's always fun when it comes to color change stones, especially Alexandrite, l concluded that everyone has a part of puzzle.