Capturing Realistic Images & Videos of Gemstones

[roshanravan]

In my line of work, accurately communicating the color of gemstones is absolutely crucial. However, I often see that many dealers, wholesalers, stores, unknowingly or intentionally use filters and editing techniques that enhance the colors of gemstones, making them appear much more vibrant and appealing than they are in reality. This practice can be highly deceiving to end users who rely on these images to make informed decisions.

The challenge doesn't end there. Many individuals lack the skills and knowledge necessary for proper post-processing and editing. They often fail to adjust colors in a way that accurately reflects the true appearance of the gemstones. This is where understanding and implementing standardized color communication systems becomes indispensable.

Capturing the true beauty of colored stones and fancy colored diamonds can be challenging, especially with mobile and amateur camera sensors. This is primarily due to the technical limitations of these sensors, which often struggle to accurately reproduce certain hues, particularly greens and blues. Here’s a comprehensive guide on the technical issues, tips for color adjustments, and the importance of standardized color communication systems.

Technical Challenges with Mobile and Amateur Cameras
Sensor Limitations: Mobile and amateur cameras typically use small sensors that have a limited dynamic range and color depth compared to professional cameras. This can result in poor color accuracy and inadequate representation of the subtle nuances in colored gemstones.

Color Reproduction Issues: Greens and blues are particularly challenging for these sensors due to the Bayer filter array, which tends to favor red and green over blue. This can lead to inaccuracies in capturing these hues.

Lighting Conditions: The light source significantly impacts how colors are captured. Inconsistent or inadequate lighting can cause colors to appear washed out or overly saturated.

Tips for Better Color Accuracy
Use a Non-reflective Surface and Neutral White Background: Place the gemstone on a non-reflective surface to minimize glare and reflections. Use a neutral white background to avoid color contamination.

Daylight-equivalent Light Source: Use a light source with a Color Rendering Index (CRI) of 90 or above and a color temperature between 5500 to 6500 Kelvin. This mimics natural daylight and helps in achieving more accurate color reproduction.

Avoid External Light Interference: Ensure the shooting environment is free from external light sources that can alter the color appearance.

Consistent Viewing Distance: Maintain a consistent distance of around 10-12 inches (25-30 cm) from the light source to the gemstone. This helps in capturing uniform lighting and minimizes shadows.

Color Adjustments and Settings
Manual White Balance: Set your camera’s white balance manually to match the color temperature of your light source. This helps in neutralizing any color cast.

Exposure Settings: Adjust the exposure settings to avoid overexposure or underexposure. Proper exposure ensures that the colors are captured accurately without losing details.

Post-processing: Use photo editing software to fine-tune the colors. Adjust the hue, saturation, and brightness to match the gemstone’s actual appearance. However, be cautious not to over-edit.

Importance of Comparing with the Real Gemstone
Despite all adjustments, it is crucial to compare the captured image or video with the actual gemstone under the same lighting conditions. This ensures that the digital representation is as close to reality as possible.

Standardized Color Communication Systems
To communicate the true color of gemstones effectively, standardized systems and tools are essential. Here are some widely used systems:

Digital Color Communication Systems:

GemeWizard: This system offers a digital platform for accurate color communication, providing a comprehensive database of gemstone colors.
Physical Color Communication Systems:

The ColorCodex™: A standardized set of color references for gemstones.
GemDialogue & GemDialogue Color Toolbox: Tools designed to help in the accurate description and communication of gemstone colors.
The World Of Color Communication System: A system that provides a universal language for gemstone colors.
Munsell Color System: Adapted for gemstones, this system offers a precise method for identifying and communicating colors based on hue, tone and saturation
By following these guidelines and using standardized systems, you can achieve a more accurate and realistic representation of colored stones and fancy colored diamonds in your images and videos.

Systems like GemeWizard, The ColorCodex™, GemDialogue, and the GIA Munsell Color System for gems provide a reliable and consistent framework for accurate color communication. By using these tools, we can ensure that the colors represented in images and videos are true to life, allowing for a more honest and trustworthy exchange of information in the gemological community.

Supplementary Tools for Accurate Gemstone Photography
To aid in capturing accurate images of gemstones, several products have been developed that can significantly improve the quality of your photos and videos. Here’s a look at two popular solutions and their pros and cons:

GemLightbox by Picup Media:

Product: GemLightbox
Description: GemLightbox is designed to be a simple and effective solution for jewelers to capture high-quality images and videos of their jewelry using a smartphone.
Pros:
Ease of Use: It is user-friendly and requires minimal setup.
Consistent Lighting: Provides consistent lighting conditions which are crucial for capturing accurate colors.
Portable: Compact and portable, making it convenient for jewelers on the go.
Cons:
Size Limitation: Limited space for larger jewelry pieces, which can restrict its use for bigger items.
Smartphone Dependency: The quality of the output still depends significantly on the smartphone camera's capabilities.
Color Accuracy: Using this tool does not guarantee capturing the correct color of the gemstones; it’s convenient for people in the trade but can still result in unrealistic filtering and enhancements.

The ShowCase - Professional Photographic Studio:

Product: The ShowCase
Description: The ShowCase is a professional photographic studio designed specifically for jewelry photography, offering advanced features for capturing detailed and accurate images.
Pros:
Professional Quality: Delivers high-quality images with excellent detail and color accuracy.
Advanced Lighting Options: Offers multiple lighting settings to suit different types of jewelry.
Versatility: Can handle a wide range of jewelry pieces, including complex designs.
Cons:
Cost: Higher initial investment compared to simpler solutions like GemLightbox.
Complexity: Requires more setup and expertise to use effectively.
Zoom and Quality Trade-off: While it can stream from a distance, this often sacrifices zoom and image quality.
Size Limitation: Although it can handle more significant pieces, there are still limitations on very large items.
Color Accuracy: Like GemLightbox, using this tool does not guarantee capturing the correct color of the gemstones; it’s convenient for people in the trade but can still result in unrealistic filtering and enhancements.

Both of these products can be highly effective tools for jewelers, but it's important to understand their limitations. While they can provide significant improvements over amateur setups, achieving true color accuracy often requires comparing the captured images with the real gemstone under controlled lighting conditions.

By leveraging these tools and understanding the principles of accurate color communication, we can improve the reliability of gemstone representations, ensuring that our clients and colleagues receive the most truthful and precise information possible

[Barbra Voltaire, FGG]

Excellent post.

[roshanravan]

In addition to the this topic, I will provide some examples:

The following diamond is a Natural Fancy Purplish Pink.

Here is a very close true color of the diamond in real life to human eyes after post-processing and editing:

Video: https://youtube.com/shorts/1DpX-_pDP-4


And here is the picture without any editing, where the color appears more saturated and almost looks like a Fancy Vivid or Intense:

Video: https://youtube.com/shorts/cfhSNKpmadU


In this example, you can clearly see the importance of color adjustment and how deceiving it can be if not addressed correctly. Buyers deserve and need to know the real color, not a beautified fake color! There are many challenges in capturing the right color, and unfortunately, most vendors don't pay enough attention to this crucial fact.

Sometimes, when you adjust the color to get close to the realistic color, you might sacrifice the background. You can explain to the client that in order to get the correct color, the adjustments made to the media might result in a weird background color, but the gemstone itself is very close to its true color in real life.

[Barbra Voltaire, FGG]

If I was doing the shot, I would remove the background entirely once I got accurate color representation. I find the textured grey background a wee bit distracting. The tones are almost identical, therefore the diamond disappears.

I like white with a generated reflective shadow. This pic is NOT your diamond.

[roshanravan]

yes removing background is even better, as i mentioned the background gets different color because of adjustments being done to the gemstone. that's why in my picture the background looks gray. but in reality it's white cotton.

[Barbra Voltaire, FGG]

yes removing background is even better, as i mentioned the background gets different color because of adjustments being done to the gemstone. that's why in my picture the background looks gray. but in reality it's white cotton.

Holy toledo! White? I'm gobsmacked!

[roshanravan]

to keep this post updated, there is a new Digital Color Communication Systems that is called:
The ColourWise Colour Grading System by Geoff Dominy
according to him ColourWise, a color grading system that was created using the HSL color model. this System incorporates 1,550 digitized colour samples in thirty-one (31) different hues, five (5) saturation levels and seven (7) levels of luminosity. You can view ColourWise on your laptop, PC, iPad/iPhone or mobile.
this system also offers grading Pearls (White, Black and Melo) and Jadeite.

The system includes grading criteria for colour, clarity and cut, is fully compatible with GIA / Gemewizard and the World of Color and can be used in conjunction with GemGuide.


I did test this a little bit but seems to be a mixture of Gemewizard & GemDialogue, personally i still prefer GemeWizard but they have not update their app for a long time.

[Barbra Voltaire, FGG]

Yes I heard about that new color system as well.

Like with any "system" used for color grading and reproduction, it must be universally accessible.
In other words, when a system is being sold only to an esoterically related clientele, it is only useful to those who have purchased it.

GemeWizard briefly had a free download of their software so it could be accessed by anyone needing to decipher what precisely a vstgB (19) 2/2 aquamarine looked like.
Without having direct access to the software it was speculative at best.

I still use GemeWizard myself (the free download version) for my appraisals but I always accompany it with a graphic of what I am describing:

[roshanravan]

This is what I have for Aquamarine in that color range

[dchallener]

My problem with these is that I am not certain that my display is showing the same color as your display. I think you need a known camera to point at your display to determine how to calibrate your display..... Something needs to be calibrated, anyway. How is that done?

[Stephen Challener]

The way my phone displays it is a color range that doesn't occur in aquamarine, but of course phone screens go for vibrancy over accuracy.

[roshanravan]

the colors are wrong cause it's a screenshot

[Barbra Voltaire, FGG]

OK, correct me if I am confused, but isn't the descriptive nomenclature almost the same?

[roshanravan]

OK, correct me if I am confused, but isn't the descriptive nomenclature almost the same?

faint vs Slightly Grayish