photographing diamonds so they don't look dull?

I'm trying to take some pictures of diamonds, and am having problems
with the pictures looking very dull. I'm seeing the same problem with
most of the diamond pictures on teh web: they lack sparkle.

Does anyone have any tips to take good pictures of diamonds?

I found this thread, which was very helpful, but as yet nothing that
specifically addressed the problem of an absence of sparkle:

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.c...8243ab903abcee

wrote:

I'm trying to take some pictures of diamonds, and am having problems
with the pictures looking very dull. I'm seeing the same problem with
most of the diamond pictures on teh web: they lack sparkle.

Does anyone have any tips to take good pictures of diamonds?


One part of the problem is that we look at things with both eyes. Each
gets a slightly different picture. When one eye is seeing a highlight
that the other doesn't, the result is an active scintillation that
occurs in the brain.

Another part is that we tend to see the diamond with some relative
motion so the highlights are constantly changing.

Both of these aspects are impossible to convey in a photograph. Try
holding your head still and looking at a stationary diamond with one
eye. If you can get that to look good, put the camera where your eye was
and take the picture.

You need a number of broad-spectrum point-source lights to begin to
capture the sparkle of a diamond. I haven't tried this but, I bet you'll
get your best results if you arrange them in horizontal pairs. This
should offer the one-eyed camera about the same reflections as a single
light offers a two-eyed person. (minus the scintillation, of course)



--
Carl West http://carl.west.home.comcast.net

change the 'DOT' to '.' to email me

"Clutter"? This is an object-rich environment.

wrote:
I'm trying to take some pictures of diamonds, and am having problems
with the pictures looking very dull. I'm seeing the same problem with
most of the diamond pictures on teh web: they lack sparkle.

Does anyone have any tips to take good pictures of diamonds?

I found this thread, which was very helpful, but as yet nothing that
specifically addressed the problem of an absence of sparkle:

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.c...8243ab903abcee


A stone won't show much sparkle without a _point_ light source.
Point light sources include the sun on a clear day, clear bulbs with
visible filaments, laser light, and light focused to a point with a lens.

Unfortunately, the metal in jewelry needs exactly the opposite: very
soft _diffuse_ light, to cut down reflections. Light passing through a
light tent, white paper, or the light on a very overcast day. Light
coming in from all sides almost equally.


So you're faced with two reasonable choices:

A) get the point light focused on the stone _only_, or
B) retouching with Gimp (free from gimp.org) or Photoshop.


The retouching in software can be done by taking a diffuse photo and
adding highlights to the stone. This is the easiest way.

The following method is also possible:
1)Set camera on sturdy tripod and light piece diffusely.
Take a shot.
2)Leave camera in place, and light with point light source.
Take a second shot.
3) Gimp and Photoshop have "layers"
that are kind of like stacked sheets of paper. Place
diffuse shot on the bottom layer.
4) Place point source shot on next higher layer.
Be sure the shots are lined up precisely.
5) Erase all of layer with point source shot except the stone,
leaving the rest of the layer transparent.
6) Flatten the layers together and save your image.
--
mbstevens
http://www.mbstevens.com/