gem photos

[Edward Bristol]

A neat article from GIA.

My only disagree:

Natural daylight and nothing else. Period.

No disco balls, no spot lights, no LEDs. (exception stars, or cats-eyes, or cc, and then it must be obvious)

Under some jeweller-shop-light even glass will show dispersion.

http://www.gia.edu/gia-news-research-six-tips-best-gem-photos

 

[Marlow]

Esp. NO LED!!!

My Cobaltspinels from Sri Lanka look like a top sapphire ( In daylight they are deep blue with a tiny gray or teal touch - they are tested!)

My best Tsavos get a brown touch - CCG and Alex are totaly ugly - I know why I bought dozend of 60W bulbs!

 

[T L]

When gems are truly beautiful, they don't need disco balls, or any special background, or enhancement on the image to make them look good. An accurate camera with good focus should suffice. Photos should be taken in various lighting to show the color shift as well, to the potential customer.

 

[PrecisionGem]

Ed, I don't find natural daylight to be very practical, or consistent. Different times of the day, the color temperature of sunlight changes, and then there are cloudy days to deal with. If you work only with natural light, you would have to photograph stones only on certain days, and then at certain times. To work outside in climates that have snow for 4 months or more would complicate it even more.

I use SOLUX bulbs, which are color temperature balanced to daylight. A consistent set up to me, is the most practical.

In the US and other countries the availability of incandescent light bulbs is getting difficult or even banned in some places. These CFL bulbs make most stones look horrid, other than peridot and chrysoberyl and a few others.

 

[JewelFreak]

You make me doubly glad I piled a trunk full of incandescent bulbs while they were still around. What a STUPID law, anyway. Total catastrophe for gem lovers!

 

[Edward Bristol]

PC,

Yes, a controlled light environment is more practical in day-to-day operations.

I have many days in a row where I cant make a single shot because of fog or rain.

BUT: Any gemtrader (especially pro full-timer) will want to show his gems, literally, in the best light. And I fear there is a too fine line between presenting your gem and making it look superficial nice.

While you and I and many others may be honest and integer enough to resist the light temptations others are not so morally tight. If you open that door, most gems can be made look good somehow. In the shop even that Swarovski glass glitters terrifically. But when you take it home that is gone, right?

For an official site like GIA to endorse any light that helps along the seller is risky. I think they should have added a disclaimer e.g. that for presenting colored gemstones a different set of rules apply.

 

[chrono]

I think the light used should be standardized; the Solux is a good choice as it is consistent and repeatable. Fancy lighting does nothing except to hype the stone and make it look better than it will under normal wearing situations, setting the buyer up for disappointment.

 

[pregcurious]

For my online gem shopping, I expect the pictures to show the stone in its best state, but in lighting that reflects (no pun intended) how the stone will look to a person when they live with it, not when carrying a flashlight.

It is helpful if the lighting is consistent because this helps to interpret the photos. I do not buy from vendors whose pictures I cannot interpret. It's not worth it. Why waste the emotion, time and money?

If I have to return a stone because I feel it was misrepresented, this hobby becomes not fun, very fast. It's one thing to have to see the subtleties of stone a person. It's another to open a package and think, huh? If I cannot get the stone to look like the vendor's image most of the time, over a period of days under different lighting, it is going back. If it happens regularly, to me or other posters here, I will not buy from that online vendor.

I have posted pictures of my own stones and I know how difficult it can be take pictures. I have found, however, that my iPhone takes decent pictures in diffused daylight, or in the fluorescent light of my workplace. It is not good with red, but I think every camera has a weakness. Gene has mad photo skills, so I do not expect every vendor to achieve his skill level, but I expect them to meet my skill level, which is novice.

 

[distracts]

These CFL bulbs make most stones look horrid, other than peridot and chrysoberyl and a few others.

For me it's very important to know what stones look like under CFLs because that is the lighting environment in which anything I have will be seen most of the time. CFLs or fluorescent lights, with outdoor light coming in through the window. I've returned many a stone because it looked bad in CFLs. One of the reasons I end up buying more stones from LoupeTroop and other preloved sites is that the photographs usually represent the stone in several lighting environments instead of just one. I know it's more trouble for the seller but as a buyer it cuts out a lot of trouble on my end.

 

[Edward Bristol]

I think the light used should be standardized; the Solux is a good choice as it is consistent and repeatable.

Probably correct from an industry stand-point, but it would deprive me of that photographer's joy in discovering the multitudes of lights, an early sunset, or a blasting mid-day sun with high clouds, I even tried full moon...

If you know your camera well, you must linger and wait for the right day light to catch a stone in his main character.

p.: "over a period of days under different lighting" - I am glad you say that, it is so important.

 

[missy]

You make me doubly glad I piled a trunk full of incandescent bulbs while they were still around. What a STUPID law, anyway. Total catastrophe for gem lovers!

LOL I did the same Laurie! Hopefully we have enough incandescent bulbs to last a few decades!

 

[JewelFreak]

Ha! Missy, I knew we were twins!

Standardized lighting would be nice but different cameras perform differently so a viewer still doesn't get a standardized view. However a photographer does it, a photo that represents each individual stone realistically in various lights is what I look for. Not a glamor shot nor one where it's hard to interpret the gem's appearance. There are some vendors from whom PSers seem to buy very nice stones, but I don't order from them because their pictures are too poor for me to be sure of what I"m looking at.

--- Laurie

 

[PrecisionGem]

In the home, I find the new LED bulbs to be nicer light than the CFL bulbs. When we first moved in the house the builder had CFL bulbs all over the place, I found them very depressing. Even the wall color was ugly with these bulbs. Things took on a creepy green cast.

I use LED bulbs around the faceting machine and on it, as they produce almost no heat and are a better color temperature and fuller spectrum. If you have a spectroscope, look at a CFL bulb through it, there are so many bands of color where there is no light. This is why the stones, or really anything else can not show a true color with them.

 

[PrecisionGem]

Here is a CFL bulb through a spectroscope. As you can see there are large bands of absorption making the bulbs useless for gemology.
This also why certain stones look strange or muddy with them. It's not the stone, it's the bulb.