Is this image informative?

[boody09]

This is supposedly an image of the stone that I am interested in from an online vendor. The vendor is reputable and I do trust that this is a real image, but.... is it informative? I have no idea what to learn from it. Is this a standard way of photographing diamonds on black background? I guess I would have rather seen a nice sparkly pic. Pros... what do you think about the image? This would likely be a 1A, 1B cut princess 1.2ct.

Thanks,
Ryan

 

[pqcollectibles]

I'm going to toss out a guess and hope an expert gives you a correct answer.

This pic appears to have been shot so there was not light entering the diamond thru the pavillion. The pic gives the viewer an idea of what will happen to light that enters the diamond thru the table/crown. It's kind of like a black and white version of an Ideal Scope image.

Just a thought. Maybe right. Maybe wrong. At least you got a bump back up for another opinion.

 

[valeria101]

Plenty of info!!!

First... the disclaimer: since this is my best guess, technical processing of some type unknown to me could have led to the same result (appearance of the picture). I admit that this way of analyzing a diamond picture could be overly critical and lead to inconclusive evaluation of great stones.


Ok:
#1: the photo of the diamond has been placed against the black background, which does not appear to have been part of the original picture.
#2; there is no color in this picture - it is a grayscale image.
#3: the high contrast of the image enlarged the 'white' areas (which indicate brightness) and reduced the visual impact of symmetry and possible inclusions. Also, almost no detail of the crown facets is visible, the image of the table got lost.

Conclusion? The picture is indicative of what the stone may look like. The moderate magnification makes it more 'realistic'(after all the object itself is much smaller) but less informative regarding detail indiscernible to the eye (such as 10x picture is, for example). The high contrast and color scale of the picture may enhance the brightness of the stone - this is not to be judged from the image. As far as visible, the stone appears to have pleasing appearance: perfect squareness, good symmetry, elegant facet execution (some deep cut princesses have sets of large pavilion facets, creating areas with severe light loss) and, most likely, even light return with no 'dead' areas (as could be expected in a princess cut).

 

[boody09]

Thanks for the help. I'm still waiting for more opinions on this one though. I'll probably ask for other images in addition to this one.

 

[strmrdr]

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On 3/12/2004 9:33:16 AM boody09 wrote:

Thanks for the help. I'm still waiting for more opinions on this one though. I'll probably ask for other images in addition to this one. ----------------

Ask for an ideal-scope image.
That will settle the light return issue.