Do you think warmer diamonds throw off more colors?

[hybiscus]

I know it sounds like a silly questions, but what do you think? Specifically for cushion/OMC cut diamonds, I love how they throw off all those pastels but I also like a bright stone. Do you think warmer colored stones (below G colored) pick up on more colors or is it all quite similar, just depends on cut?

 

[kenny]

Dispersion has nothing to do with the body color of a diamond.
Dispersion is the breaking up white light into its component colors and is the result of the cut angles, the lighting environment, and the refractive index of diamond.

 

[yssie]

Dispersion has nothing to do with the body color of a diamond.
Dispersion is the breaking up white light into its component colors and is the result of the cut angles, the lighting environment, and the refractive index of diamond.

Dispersion has everything to do with the body colour of a diamond.
A diamond with visible body colour absorbs certain wavelengths from inbound white light and those wavelengths aren't present in the outbound dispersions - so a D will throw off the most complete spectrum of colour possible, and a warmer diamond will throw off fewer colours, not more.

 

[purplesparklies]

My warmer diamond, an L, definitely throws more color than my F, G, H range diamonds. It is something I have noticed on many occasions. All of them sparkle beautifully but my higher color diamonds tend to have bright white sparkles. I see more of a range of colors in my L. No idea why.

 

[arkieb1]

Dispersion has nothing to do with the body color of a diamond.
Dispersion is the breaking up white light into its component colors and is the result of the cut angles, the lighting environment, and the refractive index of diamond.

Dispersion has everything to do with the body colour of a diamond.
A diamond with visible body colour absorbs certain wavelengths from inbound white light and those wavelengths aren't present in the outbound dispersions - so a D will throw off the most complete spectrum of colour possible, and a warmer diamond will throw off fewer colours, not more.

I have always thought that what you are saying is in part true, however the end effect is that whiter diamonds appear brighter to the human eye but their colour doesn't interfere with the rainbow flashes you get off the actual diamonds and the amount of flashes and type of flashes I've always thought has more to do with cut than with colour.

For example I have mid coloured OECS that throw off as many if not more rainbow flashes than other whiter well cut diamonds I own. My OECS tend to pull in and then reflect out environmental colours more than some of my other whiter diamonds as well.

I guess it depends on what we are defining "throwing off more colours" to mean.

 

[hybiscus]

Dispersion has nothing to do with the body color of a diamond.
Dispersion is the breaking up white light into its component colors and is the result of the cut angles, the lighting environment, and the refractive index of diamond.

Dispersion has everything to do with the body colour of a diamond.
A diamond with visible body colour absorbs certain wavelengths from inbound white light and those wavelengths aren't present in the outbound dispersions - so a D will throw off the most complete spectrum of colour possible, and a warmer diamond will throw off fewer colours, not more.

I have always thought that what you are saying is in part true, however the end effect is that whiter diamonds appear brighter to the human eye but their colour doesn't interfere with the rainbow flashes you get off the actual diamonds and the amount of flashes and type of flashes I've always thought has more to do with cut than with colour.

For example I have mid coloured OECS that throw off as many if not more rainbow flashes than other whiter well cut diamonds I own. My OECS tend to pull in and then reflect out environmental colours more than some of my other whiter diamonds as well.

I guess it depends on what we are defining "throwing off more colours" to mean.

Sounds confusing! I guess I need to just "collect them all" haha

 

[thecat]

I think with 2 stones with exact cut and angles etc, the higher colored one will throw out more colors. Cut is the confounding factor.

 

[yssie]

Dispersion has nothing to do with the body color of a diamond.
Dispersion is the breaking up white light into its component colors and is the result of the cut angles, the lighting environment, and the refractive index of diamond.

Dispersion has everything to do with the body colour of a diamond.
A diamond with visible body colour absorbs certain wavelengths from inbound white light and those wavelengths aren't present in the outbound dispersions - so a D will throw off the most complete spectrum of colour possible, and a warmer diamond will throw off fewer colours, not more.

I have always thought that what you are saying is in part true, however the end effect is that whiter diamonds appear brighter to the human eye but their colour doesn't interfere with the rainbow flashes you get off the actual diamonds and the amount of flashes and type of flashes I've always thought has more to do with cut than with colour.

For example I have mid coloured OECS that throw off as many if not more rainbow flashes than other whiter well cut diamonds I own. My OECS tend to pull in and then reflect out environmental colours more than some of my other whiter diamonds as well.

I guess it depends on what we are defining "throwing off more colours" to mean.

Agree!

Those pastels coming out of cuts that showcase a larger number of bigger facets - cushions, OMCs, OECs compared to say MRB - are all due to faceting: larger facets permit larger virtual facets, larger virtual facets permit both higher energy outputs (which are "brighter", which our eyes translate into "whiter" - bright light pastels vs. deeper colours) and better odds of seeing the colour in the first place (fewer neighbouring dispersions to interfere with the output so your eye is more likely to pick up on a single wavelength)...

I spent a happy couple of hours comparing my GIA J to a GIA G of nearly identical size and and faceting and proportions a few years ago and the G definitely looked brighter and bigger in most types of lights. The "brighter" = "whiter" = "bigger" phenomenon was indisputable!
I'd still personally pick J/K/Ls over higher colours though