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Colour Representation Online

Smith1942

Ideal_Rock
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I've had quite a few instances lately where I've really liked a piece of jewellery online due to the colours, but when I've seen it in real life, the colours are much paler.

I recently got a silver and semi-precious necklace from BN which had about half the colour saturation on the skin as opposed to on the website (I returned it) and also I really liked Tiffany's new range of cabochon and silver rhodonite. The stones looked like a hot candy pink online, and I thought they would be great for summer. Then I saw them in person, and the stones were a muted, dusty beige rose which didn't stand out much on my skin. Pretty, but not what it looked like online:

http://www.tiffany.com/Shopping/CategoryBrowse.aspx?search=1&search_params=s+1-p+1-c+-r+-x+-n+12-ri+-ni+1-t+rhodonite

I've been wanting something inexpensive with a splash of colour to look good with black v-necks in winter, so I'm thinking of getting this:

http://www.bluenile.com/multi-gemstone-necklace-14k-yellow-gold_37717

Also, proportions can look so different in real life. I loved this pendant, but then I saw it. You wouldn't believe how tiny, thin and flimsy it is. It looks so much more substantial online. http://www.tiffany.com/Shopping/Item.aspx?fromGrid=1&sku=28800002&mcat=&cid=&search_params=s+1-p+2-c+-r+-x+-n+6-ri+-ni+0-t+palm&search=1

The undoubted upside is that I've saved a ton of money! If all these items were as fab in reality as they look online, I'd be much poorer!

Has anybody else found that colours are brighter online and something of a disappointment in real life? Or proportions?
 

JewelFreak

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It can be a crap shoot, Smith. From the real stone to camera to vendor's computer to buyer's & difference in monitors, colors can be quite changed. (And the difficulty in photographing stones accurately.) Possibility that some vendors ramp up intensity too. One reason good online vendors must have generous return policies.

I don't imagine anybody here has never returned a gem because IRL it didn't look like the photo. Frustrating. You can get a sense with individual vendors about how their photography generally correlates with the real item & with some, it's better to read their written description because their pics don't convey as well.

As for pieces' being flimsier than you expect, yeah. I bought a pair of diamond huggies a few months ago -- in reality they were as thin & rickety as a piece of wire, stones cut so poorly there was no sparkle at all. Sent them back, what a rip-off! Crossed that seller off my list. Again, it's a question of finding sources you know you can trust, I guess. Honestly, hate to badmouth Tiff all the time, but their mass-market things are mass produced. The old Tiffany quality is not there anymore, at least in these pieces.

--- Laurie
 

Smith1942

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It's funny you should say that about Tiffany, because I've really noticed that lately too. Only last year I got an amazing, solid, substantial double-chain figure 8 necklace from them in 18k for $600 (tax-free weekend) and I considered that a bargoon. But I was searching in there recently in hot anticipation of the tax-free weekend, and I saw nothing that I thought was both special and a fair price. (At least, fair in Tiffany terms!)

The rhodonite things were particularly disappointing because the colours were really very different in reality and I liked the hot pink of that set, I thought it was cute. Oh well - as I say, it saved me money!

ETA: Who was the huggie vendor?
 

kenny

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There are a zillion things that affect the color we see in online photographs.

Don't believe what you see.

It never ceases to annoy me when a poster asks for pics of people's J-colored diamonds.
The results are pics, of J-colored diamonds, that range from D-Z and beyond.

Same thing with colored gems.

It is fascinating how we are so deeply programed to believe pictures.
 

Ally T

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Whilst I do love it, my pink sapphire platinum Tiffany DBTY bracelet was disappointing. The colour on the web was more of a hot pink, which is what my pink sapphire ring is, so I thought they'd match nicely. But no. It is only because I stack it with a diamond DBTY that you can see the colour difference. If alone, the pink looks super pale. I wouldn't have expected that pale a stone to be set in platinum & sold for the price it was :nono:
 

Ally T

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Whilst I do love it, my pink sapphire platinum Tiffany DBTY bracelet was disappointing. The colour on the web was more of a hot pink, which is what my pink sapphire ring is, so I thought they'd match nicely. But no. It is only because I stack it with a diamond DBTY that you can see the colour difference. If alone, the pink looks super pale. I wouldn't have expected that pale a stone to be set in platinum & sold for the price it was :nono:

Crap picture alert, but you get the gist....

img_20130223_3.jpg
 

Smith1942

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All very true. It's always been a crapshoot ordering online, but I've noticed it in more pieces lately. It seems quite hard to get jewellery that really is vibrantly coloured.

In terms of clothes, I went through a phase after losing weight when I was buying things from the Ralph Lauren website and also from the Boden website. With the Ralph Lauren things, the colours were amazingly accurate - I never got a surprise. But with Boden, the colour difference between online and reality was incredible - they were so often worlds apart! Lauren demonstrated, in my experience at that time, that some measure of accuracy can be gained when photographing clothing. Stones are different, though. But I do feel as though, with the examples I provided, as if BN and Tiffany might have ramped up their colours somewhat.
 

Smith1942

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Yes, I see what you mean, Alex. I'm especially wary of pink stones because they can blend into your skin, unless they're really colour-saturated. I'd quite a like a pink sapphire DBTY from Whiteflash, but am afraid that I'll have the same problem as you have with the bracelet, and it would be non-returnable.
 

Ally T

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I was very disappointed, I must admit. But it was a birthday gift from my eldest daughter that I had picked (with the help of hubby - she was 2 at the time!) So I would have felt REALLY bad to have sent it back.

I toyed with the idea of the tanzanite version last year as a gift from my youngest (again with the help of hubby as she was even younger!) But I decided against it purely from a colour saturation point of view & am SO glad I did, as I have a friend who has since bought one & its even paler than my sapphire :shock:
 

Smith1942

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Oh, I've seen the tanzanite one online and it looks beautiful! What a disappointment about the colour!

I've just ordered this as I've liked it for a long time and it's on sale. I'm not holding out any great hope about the colour saturation, but if I don't like it I can always return it. http://www.bluenile.com/multi-gemstone-necklace-14k-yellow-gold_37717 It will be interesting to see.
 

Ally T

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The tanzanite colour IRL is nothing like the web :(sad

Pretty necklace! Keep us posted as to what you think when it arrives!
 

marcy

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Something that has worked for me is I have quite a few gems and mineral books. I list them for the vendor to see if they have any of those books. That way they can tell you what picture in a book matches the color of the gem they have for sale.
 

JewelFreak

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The necklace looks very nice in pics -- I'll be interested to read what you think of it when it arrives. Good price.

--- Laurie
 

Smith1942

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The necklace has arrived and it works. The colours are not quite the same as the website but they're pretty good, I have to say. Am doing an SMTB thread.
 

Smith1942

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marcy|1375303710|3493980 said:
Something that has worked for me is I have quite a few gems and mineral books. I list them for the vendor to see if they have any of those books. That way they can tell you what picture in a book matches the color of the gem they have for sale.


Marcy - that's an interesting idea. Have you put it into practice? It sure would help with custom items.

ETA: What books do you have, and where can you buy them?
 

Smith1942

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kenny|1375298274|3493903 said:
There are a zillion things that affect the color we see in online photographs.

Don't believe what you see.

It never ceases to annoy me when a poster asks for pics of people's J-colored diamonds.
The results are pics, of J-colored diamonds, that range from D-Z and beyond.

Same thing with colored gems.

It is fascinating how we are so deeply programed to believe pictures.


Isn't it just. Even when I know that something is unlikely to make me look like the Ralph Lauren model wearing the clothes, a part of my brain is still residing in Never-Never Land - even if it's a tiny part!

Even though the first gemstone necklace I ordered from BN this week had much paler stones, I still took a chance on the other gemstone necklace, because I wanted - needed - to believe!

Actually, it's worked out. The stones are perhaps a tiny bit paler than online, but actually it's very pretty. Am doing an SMTB thread.
 
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