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Please post your thoughts on this, pros and cons, suggestions, anything.
Colored Stones forum recently had threads about the problem of believing/trusting photographs of colored stones.
There are many reasons color in a pic you see on your monitor is not the same as the color you'd see if you held that gem in front of you.
Here are the most recent two threads:
[URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/clear-cut-gems-experiences.196744/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/clear-cut-gems-experiences.196744/[/URL]
[URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/using-image-error-level-analyzers-to-analyze-gemstone-photos.199232/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/using-image-error-level-analyzers-to-analyze-gemstone-photos.199232/[/URL]
Someone suggested it may be informative to ship the same stone around to various vendors, who would photograph the gem using the same equipment lighting and processing they use for gems pics on their website.
Great idea, and a couple vendors have already volunteered, and Chrono, a highly knowledgeable collector of colored gems, also volunteered to show up to personally evaluate the color of the gems and comment on the pics two of the vendors.
(Chrono, please correct me if I got this wrong.)
On another thread a non-pro volunteered to take pics with her cellphone and a point and shoot.
I volunteer to take pics with my DSLR macro set up.
Ideally, I think a few gems of a few colors would be more helpful than one gem, and little more trouble.
IMO I'd like to see six gems: the three primary colors and the three secondaries: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet.
Or, what colors do you think would be best?
There would be lots of logistics to work out.
Perhaps each participant must volunteer to pay for shipping and insurance to the next participant.
You can avoid giving your real address by having the previous participant ship via FedEx or UPS HOLD FOR PICK UP at the nearest location.
I don't think the USPS offers General Delivery for pick up any more … does anyone know?
Next, I think it should be larger gems since they are easier to shoot than very tiny gems.
The gems should be affordable for obvious reasons, they may be lost or stolen … a risk the provider must consider when selecting gems to submit.
I own several low-cost colored gems I volunteer (all or some) as models, inferior though they are.
If someone has other better hues they wish to volunteer that would be preferred.
Here are my sacrificial lambs.
No they're not FCDs.
They came in a bag with a hundred other cheapos from Jewelry TV. :
For consistency IMO we should all place the gems on the same 18% gray card or cloth we would ship with the gems.
All cameras expose for 18% gray.
A white card would result in lots of dark pics because of how camera's think and decide where to place the exposure.
The gray surface would improve the chances of good exposures from everyone and a gray card will still reveal white balance variations, which could be corrected later so all gray backgrounds look identical in hue.
Next, what about buying Pantone color chart and shipping it around with the gems?
Does someone have one they can contribute (and hopefully get back)?
That way each person can 'vote' on which pantone hue the stone actually is.
Would this be prohibitively expensive or unworkable?
What are your thoughts on this project?
Would it be futile, as in herding cats?
I asked Ella and Andre to pin this thread on RT, Hangout and CS.
![screen_shot_2014-03-12_at_3.png screen_shot_2014-03-12_at_3.png](https://www.pricescope.com/community/data/attachments/361/361889-dffc91bbbf1ff4de84ab8b328b65c3ff.jpg)
Colored Stones forum recently had threads about the problem of believing/trusting photographs of colored stones.
There are many reasons color in a pic you see on your monitor is not the same as the color you'd see if you held that gem in front of you.
Here are the most recent two threads:
[URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/clear-cut-gems-experiences.196744/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/clear-cut-gems-experiences.196744/[/URL]
[URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/using-image-error-level-analyzers-to-analyze-gemstone-photos.199232/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/using-image-error-level-analyzers-to-analyze-gemstone-photos.199232/[/URL]
Someone suggested it may be informative to ship the same stone around to various vendors, who would photograph the gem using the same equipment lighting and processing they use for gems pics on their website.
Great idea, and a couple vendors have already volunteered, and Chrono, a highly knowledgeable collector of colored gems, also volunteered to show up to personally evaluate the color of the gems and comment on the pics two of the vendors.
(Chrono, please correct me if I got this wrong.)
On another thread a non-pro volunteered to take pics with her cellphone and a point and shoot.
I volunteer to take pics with my DSLR macro set up.
Ideally, I think a few gems of a few colors would be more helpful than one gem, and little more trouble.
IMO I'd like to see six gems: the three primary colors and the three secondaries: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet.
Or, what colors do you think would be best?
There would be lots of logistics to work out.
Perhaps each participant must volunteer to pay for shipping and insurance to the next participant.
You can avoid giving your real address by having the previous participant ship via FedEx or UPS HOLD FOR PICK UP at the nearest location.
I don't think the USPS offers General Delivery for pick up any more … does anyone know?
Next, I think it should be larger gems since they are easier to shoot than very tiny gems.
The gems should be affordable for obvious reasons, they may be lost or stolen … a risk the provider must consider when selecting gems to submit.
I own several low-cost colored gems I volunteer (all or some) as models, inferior though they are.
If someone has other better hues they wish to volunteer that would be preferred.
Here are my sacrificial lambs.
No they're not FCDs.
![Laughing :lol: :lol:](/community/styles/default/xenforo/smilies/icon_lol.gif)
They came in a bag with a hundred other cheapos from Jewelry TV. :
For consistency IMO we should all place the gems on the same 18% gray card or cloth we would ship with the gems.
All cameras expose for 18% gray.
A white card would result in lots of dark pics because of how camera's think and decide where to place the exposure.
The gray surface would improve the chances of good exposures from everyone and a gray card will still reveal white balance variations, which could be corrected later so all gray backgrounds look identical in hue.
Next, what about buying Pantone color chart and shipping it around with the gems?
Does someone have one they can contribute (and hopefully get back)?
That way each person can 'vote' on which pantone hue the stone actually is.
Would this be prohibitively expensive or unworkable?
What are your thoughts on this project?
Would it be futile, as in herding cats?
I asked Ella and Andre to pin this thread on RT, Hangout and CS.
![screen_shot_2014-03-12_at_3.png screen_shot_2014-03-12_at_3.png](https://www.pricescope.com/community/data/attachments/361/361889-dffc91bbbf1ff4de84ab8b328b65c3ff.jpg)