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Apple smartphones photos are too good.

arms

Rough_Rock
Trade
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Nov 30, 2020
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2
Has anyone noticed photos of gems taken with the newer iphones are just too good. the colors of the photos seem to auto saturate, especially blue. Any ideas how to get accurate shots with newer iphones?
 

paragon1234

Shiny_Rock
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Mar 8, 2020
Messages
206
Most mobile phone cameras oversaturate red and blue. I use Adobe Photoshop Express which is a free app to decrease the saturation afterwards. I don't know if there are settings in your camera app to do this automatically.
 

Polyhex

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Sep 18, 2003
Messages
550
You have to color correct them afterwards with your app of choice, or look for lighting conditions where the camera is better behaved, sometimes they are more accurate in different lighting or against natural brown backgrounds. They do tend to oversaturate blue and red, but hideously under-saturate and change the color tones of greens.
 

emeraldhummingbird

Shiny_Rock
Joined
May 25, 2020
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315
I don't think this issue is exclusive to iphones. I find greens are just a lost cause. I have tried using my DSLR in various lighting conditions. It's just impossible to capture what the eyes see without editing. Blues seem almost as bad, although I have not tried as hard as I did with the greens.
 

bright&shiny

Brilliant_Rock
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May 11, 2009
Messages
1,259
They do tend to over saturate. The processors my digital cameras uses also enhance blue quite a lot. If you use a mac or iPhone, photos has a fairly robust editor that you can use to edit the photo so its closer to what you see in real life. The stones I posted in the 'Master Cut sale' thread were balance as much as possible before I posted them Before - they were neon :)
 

LilAlex

Ideal_Rock
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Has anyone noticed photos of gems taken with the newer iphones are just too good. the colors of the photos seem to auto saturate, especially blue. Any ideas how to get accurate shots with newer iphones?

I have posted about this over and over and have gotten a lot of pushback. Just because you did not manually adjust your photos does not mean that they have not been extensively manipulated by the image processing software in your phone. The bluest blue skies you have ever seen also equals the bluest sapphires...
 

icy_jade

Ideal_Rock
Joined
May 1, 2009
Messages
6,131
Instead of color correcting after, you can use some camera apps to adjust the settings before taking the photos, or even save as raw files. That could be the best way to take accurate pics.
 

LD

Super_Ideal_Rock
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I’m not sure all iPhones do this and I think it also depends on where you are in the world, time of day, indoor or outdoors etc. For example I recently took a photo of my new sapphire indoors, no lights on and in the UK - so grey skies and awful lighting. The colour in my photo is exactly what I see and corresponds to the sellers photos (taken in another country but manipulated only to show the stone’s true colours - his words not mine). So I think there’s more at play here. I have a DLSR that struggles with colours also. I don’t think this is a new phenomenon unfortunately.
 

fredflintstone

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Jul 18, 2020
Messages
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I’m not sure all iPhones do this and I think it also depends on where you are in the world, time of day, indoor or outdoors etc. For example I recently took a photo of my new sapphire indoors, no lights on and in the UK - so grey skies and awful lighting. The colour in my photo is exactly what I see and corresponds to the sellers photos (taken in another country but manipulated only to show the stone’s true colours - his words not mine). So I think there’s more at play here. I have a DLSR that struggles with colours also. I don’t think this is a new phenomenon unfortunately.

I totally agree. People are still slow to realize that it is all about the light. Sure, the camera can do things too that affects color but a stone on a cloudy day in the UK will look more vivid in Florida, even on a cloudy day. Time of day too is crucial.


That is why it is better to see stones in indoor lighting, of course, with the lighting source revealed.

But there are some colors, especially vivid Emerald green that is next to impossible to duplicate by camera.
 
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T L

Super_Ideal_Rock
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The Hope Diamond taken with my iPhone 8’s. It’s hilarious how drab it looks in my photo, although it’s super grey in real life, lol! It’s sparkly though.

I do like the emerald, ruby and demantoid though, but the world’s most famous gem? Meh!


576AE0E0-53F8-4163-B88B-478BAF4C201D.jpeg

89CE395F-F003-478B-A7C4-685A28293E2B.jpeg 0DF83139-2406-4981-9050-9EABC7CB5012.jpeg E134CC14-CFAB-40AB-9E76-E06517A0F318.jpeg
491FB510-B661-4E37-9C61-CCB13838F20F.jpeg
 

LD

Super_Ideal_Rock
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The Hope Diamond taken with my iPhone 8’s. It’s hilarious how drab it looks in my photo, although it’s super grey in real life, lol! It’s sparkly though.

I do like the emerald, ruby and demantoid though, but the world’s most famous gem? Meh!


576AE0E0-53F8-4163-B88B-478BAF4C201D.jpeg

89CE395F-F003-478B-A7C4-685A28293E2B.jpeg 0DF83139-2406-4981-9050-9EABC7CB5012.jpeg E134CC14-CFAB-40AB-9E76-E06517A0F318.jpeg
491FB510-B661-4E37-9C61-CCB13838F20F.jpeg

@TL this is more about the lighting though and not the phone. You’d get similar results from a DLSR if you didn’t adjust settings foreach photo. These photos ..... inside, lack of any natural lighting, spotlights (probably LED) directed in the gem, glass cabinets, angle of the gem (it’s lying down as opposed to the others), a grey/cream background and potentially a flash on the phone. All of that leads to a disasterous photo. Got to say though I’m very jealous. I’d love to go and see these x
 
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T L

Super_Ideal_Rock
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@TL this is more about the lighting though and not the phone. You’d get similar results from a DLSR if you didn’t adjust settings foreach photo. These photos ..... inside, lack of any natural lighting, spotlights (probably LED) directed in the gem, glass cabinets, angle of the gem (it’s lying down as opposed to the others), a grey/cream background and potentially a flash on the phone. All of that leads to a disasterous photo. Got to say though I’m very jealous. I’d love to go and see these x

You would be very underwhelmed with the Hope though. It really looks that color in person, I just could not capture the sparkle.
 

LD

Super_Ideal_Rock
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You would be very underwhelmed with the Hope though. It really looks that color in person, I just could not capture the sparkle.

Seriously? It’s that grey? I’m really shocked.
 

T L

Super_Ideal_Rock
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Seriously? It’s that grey? I’m really shocked.

Yes, I wonder if it was the lighting, but I remember Gene Flannigan saw it, and he said it was very grey. In fact, many of the grey spinels I see are dead ringers for the Hope. Now the Blue heart Diamond at the same museum (once owned by cereal magnate Marjorie Post), was a light powdery grey blue, but primarily blue. Same iPhone shot.

5F5DE9B9-E1FD-48DF-AACC-1AFCE1B1CC59.jpeg
 
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LD

Super_Ideal_Rock
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Yes, I wonder if it was the lighting, but I remember Gene Flannigan saw it, and he said it was very grey. In fact, many of the grey spinels I see are dead ringers for the Hope. Now the Blue heart Diamond at the same museum (once owned by cereal magnate Marjorie Post), was a light powdery grey blue, but primarily blue. Same iPhone shot.

5F5DE9B9-E1FD-48DF-AACC-1AFCE1B1CC59.jpeg

I am so surprised - the photos you see of it, all make it look very blue! Are they all hosted in Washington? I wonder if they ever travel (like the Tutunkhamun exhibition)?
 

T L

Super_Ideal_Rock
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I am so surprised - the photos you see of it, all make it look very blue! Are they all hosted in Washington? I wonder if they ever travel (like the Tutunkhamun exhibition)?

I know!!!! It always looks like a sapphire in professional photos. Maybe it was the lighting!?

Yes, in DC at the Smithsonian.
Ha ha, and I wish the Crown Jewels would travel by me. We need to visit each other’s countries!

ETA: not my video, but pretty accurate in terms of what I saw IRL. My camera just cannot capture sparkle and the blue flash it gave off.
 
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T L

Super_Ideal_Rock
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Oh yes, I just wanted to say that the Hope is still a very pretty sparkly gem, but my photo just makes it look like a drab piece of dead rock. If you love grey sparkly gems, the Hope is indeed beautiful, but I think it’s more cost effective to get a beautiful cushion grey spinel.
 

LD

Super_Ideal_Rock
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Oh yes, I just wanted to say that the Hope is still a very pretty sparkly gem, but my photo just makes it look like a drab piece of dead rock. If you love grey sparkly gems, the Hope is indeed beautiful, but I think it’s more cost effective to get a beautiful cushion grey spinel.

Honestly I never ever expected that it would look like that. As you say, very sparkly but that colour? I wonder if it's held up and face on if it looks more blue? That's so disappointing! I mean I wouldn't say no if somebody was giving it to me but I'd think somebody had swapped it out!

You're right about the crown jewels - I hadn't thought about it like that! They really are magnificent and actually if you ever visit the UK, it's worth visiting Buckingham Palace because they have an exhibition of some of the lesser known pieces AND a superb collection of Faberge eggs that is jaw dropping!
 
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