Diamond opinion

[jjca]

You’ve seen the videos of what a really well cut diamond can look like so you might just have to use your eyes to select from the options that are available to you. You’ve done a good job of narrowing your choices to a selection that should be better cut than most diamonds that are out there. Now you want to look for a nice edge to edge sparkle, a good level of brightness, and a pleasing symmetric facet pattern across the whole face of the stone. The stone should have lots of sparkle moving across the whole surface, and it should have patterns of bright and dark facets, turning off and on across the whole surface of the stone. There should be no areas that remain dark across different lighting sources or as you move your hand. The whole face of the stone should look active with light play. Be sure that you look at it in natural daylight or incandescent light because high spotlighting like they usually have in jewellers makes it hard to assess cut.

I also recommend taking a picture with your phone at the jewelers. When I was first looking for a diamond, I saw a stone in a store that was so sparkly and bright in their lighting. I took a quick pic with my phone and the jeweler said "oh diamonds don't photograph well with phones." When I looked at the picture later it was awful, mushy and dull. The next day I found PS and JPs videos - I learned that it was a terrible cut and leaking a ton of light. I almost made a very expensive mistake and that picture saved me.

 

[diamond144]

Unfortunately, at the time of the meeting, it will be early morning in the United States and no one will be available here to help me.

I'll try to take a picture with my phone (iphone 13 pro) and hope I can identify whether it's a good stone or not.. I'm not skilled after all.

So from what I understand from the pictures I should see the arrows inside the stone perfectly?

I would love to receive more examples of how the stone should look on camera..

I mean what is a good stone and what is not.

Thanks

 

[jjca]

Unfortunately, at the time of the meeting, it will be early morning in the United States and no one will be available here to help me.

I'll try to take a picture with my phone (iphone 13 pro) and hope I can identify whether it's a good stone or not.. I'm not skilled after all.

So from what I understand from the pictures I should see the arrows inside the stone perfectly?

I would love to receive more examples of how the stone should look on camera..

I mean what is a good stone and what is not.

Thanks

I didn’t even know about hearts and arrows at that time - it was just dull, flat, and mushy. I will say that with my super ideal I can often snap the arrows with my iPhone - but the pictures are never crisp - I honestly think it’s too much light reflected back for my phone and the processor doesn’t like it.

Here is that leaky stone - it was so bright in person - and a E color! The second picture is of a diamond that is also an E color - but super ideal - same phone and much worse lighting…

 

[diamond144]

You can definitely see the differences..
In the second picture I can clearly see the arrows inside the stone..

 

[autumngems]

if you went VS2 and G you could get more stone (ct) for your money. You would not see any inclusions and still be a white stone.