Vendor pictures and owner pictures of PS stones

[emeraldluvr]

Wowww!! All these stones look extraordinary. Love the blue and green colored stones.

 

[Lula]

I've been wanting a wide band set with colored gems, so I ordered this small, unheated Burma sapphire from Gary at Finewater. It will be set with some diamonds and tsavorites and some other smaller sapphires. It's a color shift stone -- Royal blue to royal purple. I haven't been able to get a good photo of the purple yet, but the color shift is amazing. This was my first time working with Gary -- he's a great guy!

Please ignore the dog hair in my photo -- gah! It's everywhere!

 

[minousbijoux]

Lula: that looks to be a beautiful sapphire! Love his cutting, love the color and its shape. I'm sure your ring will be amazing.

 

[Lula]

Lula: that looks to be a beautiful sapphire! Love his cutting, love the color and its shape. I'm sure your ring will be amazing.

Thanks so much minous! I'm very happy with it. For such a little guy, this sapphire packs a great color punch. And Gary was great about answering all my questions, and he sent me some additional photos, too. A very easy transaction. The stone is a bit lighter and brighter than what the photos (both Gary's and mine) show. It's also got a bit of a silky or velvety look to it in some lighting conditions.

 

[VapidLapid]

I don't own this stone but wanted to illustrate the discrepancy between the vendor's website listing photo and the one in the vendor's "certificate" that can be viewed online. This is a single screen capture of the two windows open together. Hopefully, the image won't change much in the upload to PS, but if it does it will be changing them both to the same extent. I have been telling people for weeks now that with this vendor, who is IMO quite good, honest, and reliable, one really must look at both versions of a stone because the listing photos are, chromatically, tripping their brains out!

 

[Agneau]

Here we have two Spinels from Gemcal. These are really hard to get an accurate picture in real life... they are quite different depending on the light source.
My images were taken on an overcast day.

Their image:


My picture, focusing on the green blue spinel:


Sometimes it's more blue, sometimes it's more green. In fluorescent lighting it is a silver grey. It does have a half and half going on, but one half never goes completely dark, it is just that the facets aren't lighting up. If you view it exactly straight on there may be a little window, but it's hard to tell. Otherwise, there is a tilt window going on somewhere in the stone at any given time.

I kept this stone because I am really happy with the slighty grey greenish blue color. It's so moody! It sparkles a lot. The easy tilt window bothers me some days and not much or at all other days.

Next stone. Their image:


My image, focusing on the silver blue spinel:


This gem was more different in person than their picture vs the blue green one which was decently close. I was hoping for it to be as silvery as in their picture, but it was more blue than I was looking for. It does basically the same thing as the green blue stone as far as half/half but never going completely dark and a tilt window somewhere in the stone at any given time. I sent it back because it wasn't what I was looking for.


Both together showing their sparkle. Top is the silver blue, bottom is the green blue. Any bright green you see was because I was standing under bamboo.



The people at Gemcal were pleasant to deal with. I received my refund very quickly once they received the stone.

 

[minousbijoux]

Nice summary, Agneau, really helpful! Those are two stones that I probably never would have chosen for myself, but I like the color of both quite a bit. Its interesting how I don't like grey in stones when they are "supposed" to be a different color, but when they are that light silver grey mixed with either blue or green, I really like it. Kudos to you for taking the leap and writing such a nice summary.

 

[pregcurious]

Red spinel from Bruce Bridges. He described this stone as being red, with a hint of rose (purple secondary) that he noted was not captured in his picture.


I saw the stone for the first time with Martin Fuller (independent appraiser), and Martin classified it with the GIA colored stone set as being red with just one stone towards the purple spectrum, which is consistent with Bruce's written description.

In real life, it looks similar to Bruce's picture indoors, and outdoors in diffused natural light, it looks like the picture below. This picture was take with a black iPhone on a cloudy day, and only cropped. I am very happy with the stone, and it ended my search for the holy grail Red. I think Bruce's written description was right on, and I would buy from him again with no hesitation.

 

[minousbijoux]

You know, it reminds me of AGBF/Deb's stone. In one of your pictures, it almost looks like it has an orange modifier (the one on the white background). But I can definitely see it leaning towards the blue side in the one on your purple hand ( ). I know you are but you should be so pleased with that stone.

 

[pregcurious]

Thanks, Minous. I am extremely happy with this stone, and I like ABGFs stone very much. Bruce's is very saturated, and I love the purple modifier, even though it has taken me years (3!) to train my eye to see it. I realize now that I am extremely sensitive to orange; I originally hesitated to buy it based on Bruce's pic, but he also sent me some others in which it looks different (but the stone is small and not face up). None of his pictures, however, are as good as the real thing, and I am very grateful to him. This is "red" in my dreams.

 

[chrono]

I wanted to add that your red spinel is beautiful; very strongly saturated and yes, no orange modifier in your pictures.

 

[pregcurious]

Thanks, Chrono. It does shift to a more "neutral" red indoors, and loses purple. I've finally learned how to identify the purple modifier, thanks to you, and others.

 

[pregcurious]

Minous, Pala has a good description of blue vs. red light shift of natural light. You can see from one poster that the color of their hand will change quite dramatically, even if all the shots were taken outdoors, with no adjustments, with the same camera, on the same day. I have a post showing pictures from my iPhone, and you can see that my hand color is different in each, even though the pics were taken over the course of one day with 1 iPhone. That picture of my spinel above shows it at it's most "purple", and only cropped. Bruce was very good to tell me that this is the main modifier.

http://www.palagems.com/quality_4cs.htm

 

[Sakag]

Blue grey spinel, 1.45ct.
Vendor pic:

IRL (sorry about the photo quality, these are cell photos and my first stone):

Outdoor, shade (green is from tree reflection)


Incandescent/CFL warm color temp

 

[minousbijoux]

Sakag, I like your stone - the cutting and the cool color. Its like it owns up to the fact that its not saturated and hops about from silver to purplish to greenish silver. Really nice.

 

[Sakag]

Thanks, MB! I'm one of those weird people who really like sneaky, understated, mostly grey stones. I'm hoping to find a brighter silvery-light grey one for a ring, eventually, but I'm still deciding on cut and size. (and budget. I'm hoping it will be an ering, but I'm not quite a lady in waiting yet, so no rush.)

But if anyone knows who might have appropriate rough to cut, I'm all ears. And fingers, and wrist, and neckline..

 

[pregcurious]

I don't own this stone but wanted to illustrate the discrepancy between the vendor's website listing photo and the one in the vendor's "certificate" that can be viewed online. This is a single screen capture of the two windows open together. Hopefully, the image won't change much in the upload to PS, but if it does it will be changing them both to the same extent. I have been telling people for weeks now that with this vendor, who is IMO quite good, honest, and reliable, one really must look at both versions of a stone because the listing photos are, chromatically, tripping their brains out!

Thanks, VL. The left looks super saturated to the point of neon. The right looks like it has quite a bit of an orange secondary, and is much less desirable (to me.) It's a good example why it's important to ask questions about secondary color, saturation, tone, etc.

I can't even get my own pictures to look "accurate", so I don't mean to disparage the vendor. I would buy from him.

 

[VapidLapid]

My pair of unheated madagascar rubies from thegemtrader.
Photographed indoors by south facing window before the sun rose above the building behind me (11:45 am).
When taken outside in daylight they glow like looking directly into the laser pointer on a rifle, not that I've ever done that.

 

[minousbijoux]

Keepers, then VL? Is that extinction in that one photo, or is it due to what looks like low light conditions (despite your description)?

 

[VapidLapid]

They are definitely keepers! What looks like extinction may be the low light, also they are tiny at 2.8mm. I'll try to get a picture outside today. One has a pink modifier the other is more red, but outdoors, or to a non-PSer they are eagle-blood red.

 

[VapidLapid]

 

[pregcurious]

Very glowy in the 2nd set of pics. Congrats on a great purchase, VL. They look better than the vendor shots both in saturation and hue.

 

[chrono]

Yes, one is redder and the other is pinker, but who cares; they look great! What are your plans for the rubies?

 

[kgizo]

3.07 red spinel from Jeff Davies. She's a shifty one and changes in different lighting conditions. My photos were taken with a iPad, mid day. I'll post Jeff's photos in another post, I'm having trouble uploading photos on PS today.
I know there has been some debate about Jeff's photos. I have ordered a few of his stones and been pleased. I find his videos to be slightly more accurate for reading color. Two were much, much more sparkly than in the video which made me happy. When I've emailed him for more descriptive info he's been responsive, usually within 24 hrs, and is pleasant to work with.

 

[kgizo]

3.07 Jeff Davies spinel photo 1.

 

[kgizo]

I have a hand shot of the Jeff red spinel, but get "stream exhausted" error. Does anyone know how to fix?

3.05 Litnon blue spinel. Something about this shade of blue really resonates with me. My photos taken with iPad, miday. Sorry for the fingerprint smudges on stone, please don't hold it against her.

 

[kgizo]

3.05 Litnon spinel. Last of my photos.

 

[minousbijoux]

First of all, thank you for posting the comparisons. They are extremely helpful. Jeff's photo of the spinel looks just like the photo you took on the back of your hand - really good to see that its true to life.

My guess on stream exhausted may mean the size of the photo is too large - can you open the photo and save it in a smaller size say no bigger than 4.5" and lower quality (less pixels/inch)? That might help...

 

[kgizo]

Hi MB, thanks for the tip. Here is the hand shot from Jeff.

 

[minousbijoux]

So it seems like his photos are pretty close to what you see in hand?