Ideal scope image of princess on black background

[WinkHPD]

One of the reasons we give a 21 day inspection is so that our clients can make sure they are as happy with our diamonds as with our pictures. We get VERY few returns.

Wink

 

[diamondlil]

Date: 4/6/2005 6:38

9 PM
Author: Wink

Date: 4/6/2005 8:48:52 AM
Author: Garry H (Cut Nut)
Wink can you photograph the setup please - or draw a rough sketch so we can understand your description a little better please?

Sure...

I am sending up three pictures, a global view, and up close and down the angle of the camera view and the picture I took with it in this setup.

Wink

I want a set-up like yours, Wink. I had to laugh because I always seem to be one hand short when I''m trying to take my pics!!! I need to hold the camera with my right hand, the ideal-scope up to the lens with my left, and the diamond ring with my feet!!!!

 

[WinkHPD]

Date: 4/7/2005 8:57:16 AM
Author: diamondlil

Date: 4/6/2005 6:38

9 PM
Author: Wink

Date: 4/6/2005 8:48:52 AM
Author: Garry H (Cut Nut)
Wink can you photograph the setup please - or draw a rough sketch so we can understand your description a little better please?

Sure...

I am sending up three pictures, a global view, and up close and down the angle of the camera view and the picture I took with it in this setup.

Wink

I want a set-up like yours, Wink. I had to laugh because I always seem to be one hand short when I''m trying to take my pics!!! I need to hold the camera with my right hand, the ideal-scope up to the lens with my left, and the diamond ring with my feet!!!!

You would really laugh if you could only see me stretching from the focus ring to the mouse to click the capture button. (I shoot directly into photoshop through a twain capture card.) Occassionally I need to hold something by hand, focus then stretch and shoot, leaving me still short a hand even with all the "stuff" that I have. When it gets really impossible I call Sheila to come click the capture button on my request. (I was going to say command, but then I remembered that too many of you know Sheila and the reality of my carefully chosen word, request.)

Wink

 

[WinkHPD]

Date: 4/6/2005 11:29:20 PM
Author: Garry H (Cut Nut)
As I thight Wink - a lot of light is able to get into the pavilion of the diamond - from the reflected light off the dome - and if you have the carriage lamp on - from there as well.

I personally would not like to buy a diamond based on this type of photography - although i know it is far easier to make a nice looking shot this way.

I have rotated that previous image to show where that firey facet was getting its light from - yu can see it is from a well lit area.

Gary,

I had to think about this overnight, because my initial reaction was to feel that you were accusing me of some kind of flim flam or other skulldudgery.

You and I have been on good terms for way too long for me to believe that so I went to bed instead of replying.

I am not a great photographer, so if I get anything technical wrong, somebody who knows photography better please chime in.

In my experiance, it is hard to get good photographs of many items, diamonds being one of them. I see one thing, the cameral records another. Why? Light. Usually there is not enough light in the subject to make film respond the way that the eye does. To this puropose we use reflectors, we use diffusers, we use flash or any other variety of tools to make our pictures look better, to make them more closely relate to the reality that our eyes see. Personally I have not had great luck with flash, and my camera setup with the photodome is not geared to flash, although I can use it with the camera I used to photograph the dome for you. The light from the dome is both reflected and diffused although some direct light enters from the ceiling lights which I can experiment with, turning on and off to see which gives a more realistic photo.

As previously stated I was particularly unhappy with the pictures of stones set into a conical shaped hole, whether it be against black or clear plastic. I finally chanced upon shooting them laying on their sides, and I like the photo''s much better.

You are telling me that this is not a fair thing to do because it does not represent what the diamond looks like.

You are right.

The diamond looks MUCH better than my photo, but I don''t know how to capture that. This is the best I can currently do, when I figure out how to do better, I will gladly do it. I will NOT go back to making the diamond look even worse.

It is my task as a marketer to show my diamonds looking as good as I can so long as I do not make them look better than they are. Since I have not yet even approached making them look as good as the are, I can not agree with you that I am somehow doing something wrong or unethical.

I think my willingness to give a 21 day inspection and return when the norm is 10 days shows how serious I am in considering my clientele''s satisfaction and their comfort in buying from me. I have had a few diamonds returned for one reason or another, including "My mother in Law to be gave me an incredible diamond last night", but NEVER because it did not look as good as the photo.

You know that I have tremendous respect for you but in this case I must repsectfully dissagree with you.

Wink

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

Wink my comments are (as usual) not directed at ''you'' or any individual or business.
They are directed at our industry.

I seemed for many years to be a lonely voice decrying lousy diamond proportions.

I have also for many years been decryng examining diamonds in tweezers (with back light entering) and taking photo''s that way.

It is misleading.

Sure - diamonds are the hardest thing on earth to photograph.

Look at the examples on our ideal-scope site - where what you see with the ideal-scope leakage translates to dark spots on the diamond. i think consumers desreve that sort f accuracy. We have worked out how to do that in a conical hole with no back light and we are giving it away.

Meanwhile the industry continues to seceretly develop its own individual appraoches which alsmost always end up in backlighting the diamond (because it makes the stone easier to make an attractive photot).

 

[Paul-Antwerp]

While I was too busy to react to this thread, not even follow it up, it somewhat went off-topic. Can we try to bring it back to the original idea.

What we have learned from rounds, is that the contrast pattern is mainly caused by obstruction (black arrows-pattern) and slightly by leakage (small triangles around the girdle-area). This creates a pleasing pattern. This contrast is the main contributor to what we call contrast-scintillation.

In a princess-cut, we can get a similar contrast-pattern, made up of obstruction and leakage. However, unlike rounds, this pattern will be formed more importantly by leakage and less by obstruction. This is why it could be interesting to check the idealscope-view with a black background and no back-lighting, because it makes the contrast-pattern more obvious. I think that in this case, it is very important to have nicely divided areas of leakage, while avoiding great chunks.

Garry is talking about an ASET-scope, which I think is another version of the Idealscope, with two colours (green and red) unlike the usual all-red.

I would like to stop the whole discussion about the real-view-picture, since it has no relation to the question whether the use of an idealscope with black background is useful or not. I personally am convinced of this, but I welcome all comments.

Live long,

 

[WinkHPD]

Paul my friend.

Glad to see you taking the time to breathe. It may be nice to see the black in the firescope image, but it makes no difference to my clients here, they are LOVING your stone. I put it side by side with my best other princess cuts that I have here and they were all sent home in shame. Your stone rocks! Not one of my clients cared about looking at the ideal scope, they were too busy oohing and aaahing...

Thanks for cutting this! I will continue to take idealscope pictures for those who want them, but those who see them in real life don''t much seem to care...

Wink

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]