Is this Alexandrite good value?

[The Alexandrite]

Yup, this is why I think OP is going to be dissapointed. The vendor quite clearly isn't honest with his photos.

We pay a significant amount of money to a highly talented professional photographer specializing in jewelry photography for 20 years.

Last 15 years she was perfecting the art of dedicated to mostly Natural Alexandrite Jewelry photography specifically. She says she is fascinated with this gemstone and we support and encourage that!

I do not know anyone else who can spend 6 hours taking a picture of one single ring with painstaking attention to details. Try to find another website with the same quality pictures of Natural Alexandrite Jewelry.

Below is the excerpt from the renowned expert in mineral photography John Betts:

“Lighting

NO AMOUNT OF PHOTO MANIPULATION ON THE COMPUTER WILL EVER DIFFERENTIATE THE TWO COLORS. By using a full spectrum light source that problem can be minimized.

The one light source that meets all of these needs is the new SoLux halogen bulbs. This is a new technology lamp based on MR-16, 50 watt halogen bulbs, but with proprietary technology to produce a full spectrum light output. SoLux has been so successful, they have been adopted by several museums as the standard light source for their paintings and exhibits. SoLux bulbs are available in several different color temperatures.

The Solux bulb best for photography is the 4700 Kelvin version which is the equivalent to daylight at 10:00 A.M. AND VERY CLOSE TO 5000 Kelvin NOON DAYLIGHT.”

Only in studio lightning of 5000 Kelvin, you can actually recreate how the HUMAN EYE SEES THE STONE IN A DAYLIGHT.

Picture taken outdoors by smartphone will show heavily distorted colors.
We never enhance artificially the color of gemstones. It is an art and expertise of a highly talented photographer who could capture the real color.

No amount of photo manipulation can produce such colors.

 

[LilAlex]

We pay a significant amount of money to a highly talented professional photographer specializing in jewelry photography for 20 years.

Last 15 years she was perfecting the art of dedicated to mostly Natural Alexandrite Jewelry photography specifically. She says she is fascinated with this gemstone and we support and encourage that!

I do not know anyone else who can spend 6 hours taking a picture of one single ring with painstaking attention to details. Try to find another website with the same quality pictures of Natural Alexandrite Jewelry.

I can't speak to the rest of your comments but to say (elsewhere) that your photographer does not manipulate images -- that just can not be true, can it? Unless he/she shoots on film. Or is not being up front with you.

I don't know of any professional digital photographers of anything (people, real estate, gems) who do not "adjust" their images in "post." And all digital devices -- and phones are the worst -- and unless you are shooting in RAW or the equivalent -- apply tons of processing before you even see the initial image.

If you were to say, as some do, that you extensively adjust your images to replicate as closely as possible what the eye "sees" under the various lighting conditions, I get that. I have worked with a vendor in Sri Lanka who openly says that he spends hours manipulating his images to make them look accurate. Not ideal or optimized; just accurate.

As I have said before on this forum, there's a reason that modeling agencies and their clients like Polaroids.

I'm also impressed and surprised that you have a 0% customer dissatisfaction rate. I have not seen that success rate in any business or industry, let alone for alexandrite jewelry. One poster on here didn't even like the ones in the Smithsonian.