Which online vendors have photos of diamonds for sale?

[katealt]

I am seeking to upgrade my diamond and used Pricescope last time to find the best one. Now I'm back at it and noticing James Allen with great interest because of all the photos. Funny how before I never cared about actual photos and now I am feeling like it is so important along side the HCA- looking for another 'excellent' cut.

So my question is: are there other vendors that have photos? There are no others on PS as far as I can tell, but will vendors be able to get photos if requested?

I am after a lower color eye clean SI2 around 1.5ct and even considering a K if it faces up white and/or has strong fluorescence and seeing as photo really makes such a difference to note the color and inclusions.

Thanks for any help.

 

[stone-cold11]

Huh?

GOG, HPD, NiceIce, WF all have photos of their in-house diamonds loaded. Are you talking about virtual listing?

No, photo is not a good judge on color or eye-cleanliness of an inclusion. Depends too much on the set up, lighting, focus. Also, most lighting will not have UV to activate fluorescence so you will not see it in the images.

 

[katealt]

Thanks- if you check out James Allen's photos it gives such a good picture of the diamond and it is easy to compare them. When looking at the lower end of color and inclusions it makes such a difference to see it for yourself- obvious big black inclusions on the table are quickly ruled out or example and some Js look like Ks and vise versa (face up of course). I'm assuming the setup for photograhy is the same for one company but maybe not...?

Who is HPD?

 

[stone-cold11]

Nope. Orientation of the stone, positioning of the stone, focus of the camera all changes. Some inclusions will not be visible in the lighting conditions of the setup, location and orientation of the stone in the setup, but turns up to be visible inclusion. Color depends on how your display is setup, how much white balancing is done on the image by JA, etc.

HPD = HighPerformanceDiamond. Wink's new company.

 

[diamondseeker2006]

Actually I think Good Old Gold gives the most info. It has an actual photo of the stone as well as x-ray photos to show the inclusions, not to mention reports on light performance, etc. WhiteFlash and Brian Gavin also have diamond photos and idealscopes, etc.

 

[WinkHPD]

Thanks- if you check out James Allen's photos it gives such a good picture of the diamond and it is easy to compare them. When looking at the lower end of color and inclusions it makes such a difference to see it for yourself- obvious big black inclusions on the table are quickly ruled out or example and some Js look like Ks and vise versa (face up of course). I'm assuming the setup for photograhy is the same for one company but maybe not...?Who is HPD?

That is what it is, the setup for photography is pretty much the set up for photography for THAT one company. Each of us has our own preferred setup and some are done professionally and look better than those of us who try to do it ourselves. There are $15 light cocoons, and three thousand dollar light boxes with cameras from a hundred or two to several thousand plus the lenses. There are a thousand little things that make the diamonds look good or bad in real life, and even more in a picture or video.

I tried to shoot some videos in my kitchen one time and even my D colored diamonds were looking like M colored diamonds.

One store I know who was selling millions of dollars per year repainted their showroom on the advice of a diamond expert friend and immediately started selling more diamonds because their G color diamonds no longer looked like K's due to the yellow background paint on the walls. The new neutral paint allowed the diamond's true appearance to shine.

If someone could ever figure out a way to release the true look of a diamond in a photo we would all be clammoring for it, but I think that it is the scintillation of a diamond that releases its beauty, so I do not see that ever happening, except perhaps in a very expensive video set up.

Wink

 

[malnik]

Actually I think Good Old Gold gives the most info. It has an actual photo of the stone as well as x-ray photos to show the inclusions, not to mention reports on light performance, etc. WhiteFlash and Brian Gavin also have diamond photos and idealscopes, etc.

I don't like the pictures from Good Old Good and Brian Gavin because they make the stones look so unnatural. JA and WF do a better job showing how a stone would look like in real life.

 

[katealt]

I think this illustrates the challenge of buying a diamond online- at least for the lower clarity and color diamonds. Also, the discussions and photos on the forum of such diamonds are skewed by the quality of the photo and the ability to capture a true likeness of the diamond. Of course no photo is ever going to really show what it looks like in real life and the diamond looks different in various conditions in real life, but at least when shopping for diamonds a photo gives more information than just a cert and someone else's word for it. But photos can be deceptive in not showing all inclusions or the true color- but that goes both ways- some inclusions shown are so magnified they won't be seen by the naked eye and some colors will look stronger than they are. Still, I can tell a lot by the photos, even just by seeing the cut and the 'clearness vs. grainyness or milkyness' a big factor for me.

 

[stone-cold11]

Ya, agreed but bottom line, just do not assume, ask the vendor to take a look at the stones you are interested in to confirm if eye-clean but you might miss some stones that are eye-clean but looks bad in the photo.