How to take good photos of your diamonds.

thanks for such excellent tips.
I can''t wait to try them!

No wonder I had such a tough time taking a picture of my ring..the tripod and not using a black underlay..I thought If I put the ring on a black cloth it would show the ring better..I think I will try a pale blue..

Macro photography is largely dependant on the capability of the camera in taking close-up shots, object positioning and lighting conditions. The background has little to do with it, though many will choose either black or white - unless you are a pro, a black background may result in surrounding light absorption. 

If you are regularly shooting small pieces, whether they be pieces of diamond jewellery or other items, a suitable ''mini-studio'' is the best option, which offers optimal lighting for the subject matter. For web based companies, a white back ground using lighting with a colour temperature of 5000K is the preferred route.fficeffice" />

I stopped by to lurk a bit and saw that much to my surprise, my thread is still stickied.

Everyone is offering great tips and suggestions. I think everything that has been said is right on. I apologize that I haven''t been on here much over the past year, but it certainly has been a busy 2009 with the wedding planning (3 weeks away) and house buying and all.

I was merely suggesting that a plain background is less likely to "confuse" an auto-focusing camera, not that it can''t be done.

Great job everyone. Keep experimenting and posting your results.

thanks for your share

Oh, it is a good creation to put on fruits.
It looks more luxury

Tip for small cameras? White background? Shade?

To take photos of arrows in a hearts and arrows diamond shut out the light from the sides and underneath. Have light entering only from the top. To do this either cup the diamond in your hand or make a tube out of card/paper and place around the stone.

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To take photos of arrows in a hearts and arrows diamond shut out light from the sides and below. Have light only entering from above the face/table. You can do this by cupping the stone in your hand or making a tube out of paper or card and placing it over the stone.

Cupping the stone in your hand:

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This makes me crazy! I am using canon EOS 350D and I think that should be good enough to take good pictures of diamond jewelry. There's just some problems that can't be solved. I have searched hundreds of sites out to have some information of my problem. So here it is: When using a little photo box that has white inlay, black ice glass, I can't take a good picture of my jewelry as when I take them with flash, all the diamonds appear very cloudy.. I resolved this problem by taking the pictures through a paper that has a hole on it. That generates a shadow on the jewelry and makes gold look pretty fine but diamonds are still too dark. I want them to be sparkling and CLEAR! When I take them without the flash, the picture appears still too dark even thou I have a very powerful daylight on the box I made... What can i do?? Here some examples of my takings:

Taking a good photos of your diamond needs a focus.

This post was so helpful. Thanks

Hello Everybody, I am an Amatuer photographer and have had some success taking pictures of diamonds, including my Fiances!! I actually this this light box for some of them -->http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Concepts-Ps-101-Portable-Lighting/dp/B000FBF400.
But the biggest thing is if you have an external flash for your camera I noticed several of the diamond pictures had big flash spots, Try turning your flash backwards so it reflects either off of the wall or ceiling behind you, it will still fully illuminate the Diamond but without washing it out!! another good way is to use the natural sunlight it fills the diamond with light and you just turn your ISO down a little.

I use macro mode, natural outside lighting & usually flowers for the background. I LOVE the tripod idea, I have a small one already & will use it soon! Thanks!!!
Here are my photo's in macro mode, flash off & natural outside lighting.

Just wanted to see how it came out.

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goofing around with different objects.

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Get a better camera!! That's what I did

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thx for your sharing

Insanely gorgeous!

Tripod helps a whole lot. I think that was number one on my list of things that helped. I also like using natural light when I can (bright but diffused outdoors or indoors near a window) and natural objects like leaves and flowers and no flash. I get more vivid colors when I include natural objects, it seems. Oh, and reread the very first post after you've tried a few things. It's a great post and really helps alot (even if some of us have to learn through just trying things out).

I think one of the things the original post said that was helpful was don't try to use zoom (or flash) in macro mode. (The camera shop told me the same thing when I got my new camera. Just get a close as you can to the subject.)

Lots of great tips. Thanks for sharing.

If you have a smartphone, you can often adjust the focus on your phone's camera so it will focus on the jewelry and not the background. To try it, set your ring off-center in the photo and touch the screen where the ring is. The little square or brackets should move to where you touched the screen. That's where it will focus.

It works on my Droid. I'm not sure about iPhones - anyone with an iPhone able to confirm if this works?

Written by Gemsetter » November 6th, 2012, 5:17 pm:Lots of great tips. Thanks for sharing.

If you have a smartphone, you can often adjust the focus on your phone's camera so it will focus on the jewelry and not the background. To try it, set your ring off-center in the photo and touch the screen where the ring is. The little square or brackets should move to where you touched the screen. That's where it will focus.

It works on my Droid. I'm not sure about iPhones - anyone with an iPhone able to confirm if this works?

I was trying this on my droid yesterday and was having a hard time. But I noticed that it has a macro function as well as the steady or shaky hand which seemed to work. Staying far away and zooming in doesn't work. But you answered my question, and I kind of found out yesterday. Thanks!

Written by Gemsetter » November 6th, 2012, 5:17 pm:Lots of great tips. Thanks for sharing.

If you have a smartphone, you can often adjust the focus on your phone's camera so it will focus on the jewelry and not the background. To try it, set your ring off-center in the photo and touch the screen where the ring is. The little square or brackets should move to where you touched the screen. That's where it will focus.

It works on my Droid. I'm not sure about iPhones - anyone with an iPhone able to confirm if this works?

On the iPhone, I can lock the focus by touching my finger on the screen and holding it there til the focus locks where I am pointing. Then you can move the camera until the focus is where it needs to be rather than trying to touch the screen to focus while attempting to keep the camera in one spot. That still doesn't help with the stupid auto-refocus that the iPhone keeps trying to do just before it snaps the picture because it will still blur on me most times.

Oops- too late to edit. This is probably one of the better pics I took with my iPhone. It an be done, but it is a little bit of a pain.

Excellent tips! Thank you so much. Useful for colored gemstones too!

Found that natural, diffused light works best. Minimal light source in the area type of thing. This works best with very good, Ideal, EX cuts.

Everyone's rings are absolutely breathtaking here. Congrats to all.

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Ring on knee in a room with only sunset light coming through on window behind me.

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In early morning; westerly sun. Again, the sun is the only light on/coming into the room.

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Overcast sky-light through one window to the west of me picked up the H&A! I did not notice this until after I took the pic.

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Having good information.

Great tips! I used natural light and placed my ring in front of a window.

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These are really great tips! Thanks for sharing.

This is good to know. Thank you very much.