Ideal Scope and loops arrived! Cool! :)

[ff]

Hey Gang,

the ideal scope and loops arrived yesterday! Only 1 day after ordering them from gemappraisers (ordered friday got saturday!) Wow! David runs a really tight ship!!!

Was really great to now be able to look at the diamond closely and see what I''ve seen in so many other threads and reading material!

Here''s some photos I just took! I would love to hear comments and get all of your great opinions on them! :>

Fred

 

[ff]

Hearts!

 

[ff]

Arrows!

 

[ff]

Ideal scope!

 

[ff]

Ideal scope from other side. Not sure if this really is useful for info. but thought it was cool and figured it might be informing for the experts here. I have no idea what it should look like from this side.

 

[ff]

Ideal scope without light source behind. Hence doesn''t show any leakage but thought it was a cool photo regardless.

 

[kcoursolle]

Beautiful pictures, looks like a lovely diamond! Glad to see you are having fun with it.

 

[ff]

Was cool to see the actual girldle facets!

 

[Cehrabehra]

Date: 10/15/2006 2:41:08 PM
Author: ff
Hearts!

pretty! did you take that with the idealscope on an upside down stone?

 

[ff]

Thanks Kcoursolle!

Am having wayyyy too much fun.

I want to make sure to take lots of photos of it before it gets mounted so that after I give the ring to my WTB (assuming she says yes!

) I can share the full experience of the diamond that is in her ring.

Really addictive though.

Fred

 

[ff]

Date: 10/15/2006 2:50:45 PM
Author: Cehrabehra

Date: 10/15/2006 2:41:08 PM

Author: ff

Hearts!

pretty! did you take that with the idealscope on an upside down stone?

The hearts photo I took with the Hearts and Arrows viewer which I picked up from Dave''s online store at the same time:

https://products.gemappraisers.com/pc-27-1-hearts-arrows-viewer.aspx

For $12, that tool sure gives an awesome photo!!!!!!!!!! Better than I could have ever hoped for!!!

Fred

 

[kcoursolle]

Date: 10/15/2006 2:53:01 PM
Author: ff

Thanks Kcoursolle!

Am having wayyyy too much fun.

I want to make sure to take lots of photos of it before it gets mounted so that after I give the ring to my WTB (assuming she says yes!

) I can share the full experience of the diamond that is in her ring.

Really addictive though.

Fred

Aw, how sweet you are working so hard to find her a lovely ring. You are doing a great job by the way...and yes it is extremely addictive! Most of my friends would think I was crazy if they knew how into diamonds I was, but it''s really easy to get into it.

 

[Kaleigh]

Great pics ff!!!

 

[ff]

Date: 10/15/2006 4:01:40 PM
Author: kcoursolle

Aw, how sweet you are working so hard to find her a lovely ring. You are doing a great job by the way...and yes it is extremely addictive! Most of my friends would think I was crazy if they knew how into diamonds I was, but it''s really easy to get into it.

Thanks Kcoursolle!

She definitely deserves all the hard work and then some!

And I know what you mean! Most of my friends would think the same thing! It''s been a good month of reading and learning but crazy how much I have come to learn in that time about diamonds! I look forward to learning more!

I think what surprised me most is that before all of this, I figured there''s a million diamonds out there to choose from and finding the right one would be just a matter of who has the right one at the right price. Once I knew enough to know what I wanted, I suddenly realized how little there is if you know exactly what you want... for me it was:

- Ideal cut - Hearts and Arrows
- around .65 carats
- VS2 and above
- G and above (originally looked at F)
- Excellent Polish and Symmetry.
- Excellent light return
- Pointed/no culet
- Excellent proportions... etc. etc...

all the things anyone long enough on PS knows to look for!!!

Suddenly it became more watching and waiting till the right one popped up.

I would have never thought that was the case before!!!

Sure is fun though!!!!

Fred

 

[ff]

Date: 10/15/2006 5:14:46 PM
Author: Kaleigh
Great pics ff!!!

Thanks Kaleigh!

The tools from Dave (oldminer) made them easy!

Fred

 

[lumpkin]

That looks like fun!

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

nice ice too !!!!

 

[:)]

Smokin''!

 

[ff]

Thanks Lumpkin!

Thanks Gary! Glad to know you like it as I know you''ve seen a few million by now.

Also, thanks for developing the Ideal Scope. It really makes a difference for an amateur like myself to quickly see the quality of the diamond''s light return characteristics. Put my mind at rest once I looked through the scope and saw what I was hoping to see. Thanks!!!

Thanks Cut Rock!

Just love this forum!

 

[Phoenix]

BEATIFUL ROCK!

How did you manage to take such clear crisp photos?

 

[ff]

Thanks lienTN,

Took a lot of playing around.

First, I think the scopes/loupes/etc. that I got through gemappraisers are all great quality so that probably helped a lot.

I''m just using a small digital camera. Set it to Macro (usually the symbol of the flower). Make sure you are zoomed all the way out... I know on my camera, if you are in Macro and you zoom in at all, it can''t seem to ever get the focus right. On other cameras this might not be an issue though and then you could zoom in and macro for a really super shot.

.

I also put the self timer to 2 seconds. This way, when I press the shutter release to take the photo, there''s a 2 second pause before it shoots the shot. The reason I do this is that the motion of pressing the button usually moves the camera and since these are low light photos, you''d usually get the photo blurred/out of focus due to the slow shutter speed. By using the 2 sec trick, I push the button and then can just hold the camera steady without trying to push anything while it''s taking the photo. I use this trick all the time in many low light conditions.

Also, put the camera on a small mini tripod or sitting directly against the ideal-scope. If you try to hold it mid-air, your micro-movements trying to hold things steady will cause it to not be sharp in-focus.

Last trick, if it comes out a little soft focus, do one "sharpen" in photoshop (or equivalent image editor) *After* you resize to the size you want.

Hope that''s not more info. than you wanted.

Oh, and thanks for the Beautiful Rock compliment. It''s nice to see everyone liking it so much as it should mean she loves it very much too!!!

Fred

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

Very often there is no need to use a macro setting - as the camera does does the auto focusing that our eye would to loook thru a loupe etc

 

[ff]

Nice catch Garry!

I don''t usually take photos through a loupe so fell for the macro trap on that one.

Without macro, the zoom can definitely be used well to find that correct focal distance with the loupe and I can get MUCH better photos. Thanks!

Here''s one with 30x loupe. This one is exactly as came out of the camera except for resizing/cropping. Really nice and sharp.

One other trick by the way lienTN... often the auto-focus will have a lot of trouble this close up and often will focus on the wrong part of the object. With a very narrow depth of field at this close up, this will often put what you want to see right out of focus. Here''s a trick... press the shutter release half way so that it auto-focuses. Don''t worry if it''s not exactly where you want it to focus on. Then, without letting the shutter release up at all, reposition the camera closer/farther till the part you want is in focus. Push the shutter release all the way at that point. If you don''t let it go in between, it won''t refocus automatically which is exactly what you''re trying to avoid.

Thanks again Gary on the catch!

Fred

 

[ff]

30x loupe. (cropped. Actual size off a 5MP camera)

 

[Phoenix]

Thank you so much, Fred and Garry too. Very helpful indeed, all the information is much appreciated and needed!

. I am not very good at using the camera and that''s an understatement!

.

All the rings posted here are absolutely gorgeous and I really want to be able to take photos of my baby and post them here.

Look forward to seeing photos of your WTB''s ring after it''s set. Good luck with the proposal by the way! Judging by the way you have gone about this, it says a lot about your personality and how you are as a boyfriend/ HTB. She''s very lucky to have you (and I am sure she is a lovely laddy too). I am a great believer in the institution of marriage (speaking as someone whose has been blissfully happily married for almost 10 yrs).

.

 

[ff]

You are very welcome lienTN!

Just keep working at it and experimenting and I''m sure in not time you''ll be a whiz photographer and putting up gorgeous photos. Hopefully you are using a digital camera, in which case, take TONS! With digital, you can afford to take a hundred photos and then look through them to find the ones that are great. The photos I posted here are just a few of many I took.

Will definitely post photos of the final ring when it''s all done, but probably after I give it to her. I''m thinking that aside from the Jeweller, I want her to be the first to see it.

. I''ll take the photos before I give it to her though as it might be hard to get it off her finger after.

She''s been waiting a while very patiently for it to come.

Thanks for the good luck and the compliments.

And congratulations on 10 years which sounds like it''s around the corner!

I look forward to seeing your photos!

Fred