Why doesn''t Dan fix the color on his photos?

[beaujolais]

Why doesn''t Dan fix the color on his photos?

I was just looking at some of the photos you all put up of your Dan stones. Lovely, yes, very much. However, I''d hesitate to buy from him when I couldn''t tell what color stone I was purchasing.

I believe he said he''d fix it at one point, but it appears not.

I don''t mean to be harsh and yes, they are exquisite . . .

 

[karee888]

https://www.pricescope.com/forum/colored-stones/some-of-my-loose-gemstones-part-3-dan-s-blues-and-greens-t123626.html

for what it''s worth, i''ve recently purchased 3 or 4 stones from him and his photos were spot-on.

 

[beaujolais]

Really? Cool. Thanks for telling me.

I was looking at something but afraid of getting it for that reason. I guess I could always ask him it is really the color as in the photo.

Thanks Karee.

 

[karee888]

Date: 8/26/2009 6:54:52 PM
Author: sonomacounty
Really? Cool. Thanks for telling me.


I was looking at something but afraid of getting it for that reason. I guess I could always ask him it is really the color as in the photo.


Thanks Karee.

if you have any questions, just email him. his descriptions are also helpful. if the stone is darker than what the pic shows, he will say so. if it''s lighter, he''ll say so. he''s awesome with email so if you want something, just ask him!

 

[DanielStair]

Hi Everyone!

This is my first post on Pricescope. I decided that I should comment on this photo issue, and hopefully help clear things up a little.

A bit about my background - I worked for many years as a professional photographer and graphic artist, and during that time had to learn to calibrate my computer so that what I saw on my monitor was exactly what would come off of a printing press. For example, I would run the same advertisement in a number of national magazines, and the ad had to look right in all of them. To accomplish that, I have to precisely calibrate the monitor itself, then the software such as Photoshop. It's quite a process, and I wouldn't even venture to go into the details of how to do it. There are several color systems you have to understand (CMYK, RGB, etc.) as well as software programs that handle those colors in different ways, as do printers, different file formats, and so on. Ambient light reflecting off your monitor is yet another problem. It should look right sitting in a darker room, and will never look right if you are sitting in a brightly lit area.

Something else that is interesting is that I have never yet encountered an automated software calibration program that actually works. Those are not to be trusted.

One problem I did recently discover as a result of comments here on Pricescope was that the newer Adobe Photoshop I have was lightening images when I saved them as jpeg files for the internet. I felt kinda dumb for not noticing that, but I think I've found a way to compensate.

Something else I've noticed is that these newer LCD computer monitors come from the factory set to be WAY TOO BRIGHT. I could barely get mine to darken down enough to display colors correctly without washing out the light areas (highlights). If you are using yours the way it came out of the box, as I'm sure 90+% of people are, it will cause images that are actually correct to look too light. You may also notice that when you print things out, they look darker than what you see on your screen. That is not an exact science though, as most desktop color printers are also out of calibration.

I know that it might come off as sounding kind of arrogant, but it's also very likely that other gemstone vendors have computers that are set to be too bright. So, when most computers are out of calibration, and mine is not, most people will assume it is mine that is messed up, which is totally understandable. I still do the odd graphic art job, so I have to keep mine set properly.

As for the photos I put online, I try to make them representative of what a stone would look like under indirect daylght (such as standing near a window, but not in direct sun)...or at least as close as I can get them with reasonable effort. Even with all that I go through, they still are almost never exact and it's always best to read the written description and/or ask if you have a concern. It is more common that they will be a little darker in person than lighter compared with what you see on your computer. I try to get them very, very close. However, there are also colors that jpeg files cannot display, and I have to just do the best I can.

I know I'm forgetting something here, but that was probably enough of my babbling anyway.

"Thank you" to everyone who has been supportive of me in the past. I really appreciate all the nice people that have found me through Pricescope. Cindi and I are usually cutting away like maniacs, and hope to fill at least most of the requests that are coming in.

--Dan

 

[Fly Girl]

Welcome to PriceScope, Dan.

Thanks to your tip, I have turned down the brightness of my monitor, then printed out a page of your gemstones on my printer. They look very close in color to me. Now the deeper stones on your garnet page look darker like I would expect, so I am probably closer to what you are seeing.

I''m not sure how my little experiment will affect other gemstone sites, but I''m sure my eyes will thank me at the end of the day.

 

[DanielStair]

Maybe this little chart I made will help. You should be able to see at least a slight hint of gray in all the boxes, and also the white line under the numbers should be visible, even if only a tiny bit, all the way through the 1% box. If the white line doesn''t show in 2%, 3%, etc., then your monitor is probably too light.

I made this in photoshop and did it mathematically using percentages of black, then saved it using max quality jpeg. I can see all of it on mine, and though I don''t know if it will work on a "too light" monitor, it might. It seemed like it would be worth a try.

 

[karee888]

Date: 8/26/2009 10:40:40 PM
Author: DanielStair
Maybe this little chart I made will help. You should be able to see at least a slight hint of gray in all the boxes, and also the white line under the numbers should be visible, even if only a tiny bit, all the way through the 1% box. If the white line doesn''t show in 2%, 3%, etc., then your monitor is probably too light.


I made this in photoshop and did it mathematically using percentages of black, then saved it using max quality jpeg. I can see all of it on mine, and though I don''t know if it will work on a ''too light'' monitor, it might. It seemed like it would be worth a try.

that''s awesome!!! thanks, dan!!!

 

[DanielStair]

Date: 8/26/2009 8:17:54 PM
Author: Fly Girl
Welcome to PriceScope, Dan.


Thanks to your tip, I have turned down the brightness of my monitor, then printed out a page of your gemstones on my printer. They look very close in color to me. Now the deeper stones on your garnet page look darker like I would expect, so I am probably closer to what you are seeing.


I''m not sure how my little experiment will affect other gemstone sites, but I''m sure my eyes will thank me at the end of the day.

Thanks for the "welcome"! Hope your monitor tweeking turns out to be a good thing overall. You may notice a lot of websites are more colorful now.

--Dan

 

[zeolite]

I think that part of the perceived problem is that SS photographs in her thread had considerably darker exposure than Dan''s picture in her thread. So the question was posed, which exposure matched the actual gem?

I print hundreds of pictures through an online printer, and at that cost, the prints I receive must match the prepared picture in my monitor. To accomplish that, I display 3 three different gray scales to check my monitor''s brightness. I apply a Gretag McBeth colorimeter on my screen and run it through an 8 minute calibration program. The colorimeter consists of 4 filtered photodiodes (white, red, green, and blue) that measures dozens of color patches in the calibration program. I do this monitor calibration before each batch I sent to my printer. My prints from the printer always match the image on my screen.

In addition to that, when I prepare gem photographs to upload to this PS site, this is the check I do: I put the picture to be sent, on my monitor, place the gemstone right next to the monitor with the correct light source shining on the actual gem, and correct the Canon raw digital file for exposure, white balance, saturation in Photoshop until my monitor matches the gem I see. I don''t use Photoshop to distort the picture, I use it to exactly match to the gem, no matter what picture the camera initially produces.

My monitor reproduces Dan''s white line through all 10 squares.

 

[marcy]

Welcome to PS, Dan.

I adjusted the brightness on my laptop too. Thanks.

Sonomacounty, the stones I bought from Dan matched his description exactly. They are real beauties too.

 

[CharmyPoo]

Fun - it looks like I can see the white line all the through.

 

[chrono]

My monitor also shows all the white lines across all the boxes, but when I look at the comparison pictures, I still see that the actual stone is slightly darker than Dan’s pictures. I guess this might be due to the different lighting condition and camera used?

 

[hoofbeats95]

Some of this color stuff is way over my head. But I wanted to welcome Dan to PS. YAY! It''s great to have you here.

 

[mercoledi]

Hi Dan

and welcome

I too have several Dan/Cindi Stair stones and find the pictures online to be representative of what I get. A while back (Oct/Nov) after I started the "your pix v. vendor pix" thread, this topic came up, and Dan retooled a bit as he mentioned. Since then I've found that the stones I get aren't a surprise.

I would encourage anyone to contact the vendor and ask a million questions, gemstones are dynamic and only some one else's eyes can guess what your eyes will see. For Dan, Barry, Gene, everyone I've bought from, the descriptions are generally far, far more useful than the pictures.


One thing that certainly isn't captured in Dan's images is the brilliance of these suckers. Dan, I still haven't met a flashier sapphire than the Montana I have from you, kud

s!



ETA: I think we all know that lighting makes a huge difference. I don't know how many stones I've received at dusk in my apartment and not been immediately impressed by. Those same stones get to go on a bit of a field trip for the next day or so while I evaluate them and plenty of 'duds' become real stunners with a change of venue and lighting!

 

[simplysplendid]

Date: 8/26/2009 11:30:10 PM
Author: zeolite
I think that part of the perceived problem is that SS photographs in her thread had considerably darker exposure than Dan''s picture in her thread. So the question was posed, which exposure matched the actual gem?

I print hundreds of pictures through an online printer, and at that cost, the prints I receive must match the prepared picture in my monitor. To accomplish that, I display 3 three different gray scales to check my monitor''s brightness. I apply a Gretag McBeth colorimeter on my screen and run it through an 8 minute calibration program. The colorimeter consists of 4 filtered photodiodes (white, red, green, and blue) that measures dozens of color patches in the calibration program. I do this monitor calibration before each batch I sent to my printer. My prints from the printer always match the image on my screen.

In addition to that, when I prepare gem photographs to upload to this PS site, this is the check I do: I put the picture to be sent, on my monitor, place the gemstone right next to the monitor with the correct light source shining on the actual gem, and correct the Canon raw digital file for exposure, white balance, saturation in Photoshop until my monitor matches the gem I see. I don''t use Photoshop to distort the picture, I use it to exactly match to the gem, no matter what picture the camera initially produces.

My monitor reproduces Dan''s white line through all 10 squares.

Hi, My stones from Dan were from a while ago before he fixed his pictures so the pictures were lighter. That said, I have taken my pictures under natural light (in doors, near the windows at about 4pm when it is still bright) but somehow my pictures turned out a tad darker.

I think if you look at the vendor pictures comparison thread, it was already known that Dan''s older pictures were lighter, so I don''t think my pictures contributed to that perception that Dan''s pictures were lighter, Dan''s previous pictures were indeed lighter than the real thing.

However, Dan did fix his pictures and his new pictures were much close to the real thing.

Also, just want to say a big welcome to Dan! Good to have you here.

 

[DanielStair]

Hi everyone!

Thank you for the warm welcome to Pricescope. I''m glad people are finding my pictures to be closer to right than they used to be.

For those of you taking gem photos, some things you may notice are that using more optical camera zoom and using direct light, such as sunlight, will cause images to look darker or have too much contrast. Also, your camera meter tries to achieve a certain level of gray (I think it''s about 18%), so if you set your stone on a background that has a drastically different level of brightness, the camera''s light meter will "sacrifice" the exposure of your stone and go for the correct exposure of the background.

I am very impressed with the creative and well done gem and jewelry pictures many of you are taking. I have posted quite a number of them on my site for all to see.

Thank you again every one. I will make an effort to get those photos as close as I can and also to give good descriptions to supplement the images. I''d rather have people be pleasantly surprised when they get a stone in the mail, rather than disappointed.

--Dan

 

[AustenNut]

Welcome to PS! And thanks for the chart. Though I couldn''t figure out the other night how to change the monitor settings on my laptop, your chart indicates that they''re already well set. Woohoo!

 

[arjunajane]

Hi and welcome Dan!
I'm sure I'm going to end up looking dumb, but I'm wondering if anybody can tell me where to find the brightness on my laptop..
I have an HP and run Windows XP.
I've gone through all the areas under Control Panel-> appearance, where I thought it would be, but no option for brightness

I can see the white line in Dan's test clearly up until about the third last box, so I feel like mine may need adjusting..

Any help appreciated!