diamond photography

A google for "photographing diamonds" without the quote marks, will get you lots of tips on lighting, which is the secret to photographing gemstones and jewelery.

Look around in a Jewelry store and notice all the little almost point sources of light they use to "bring out the fire" in their diamonds. You want to do something similar with your lights. If your only option is to post process already existing images, they won't look as good as if you lit the diamond properly in the 1st place, but the change will hopefully be in the right direction, eg increased contrast, color saturation, more (fake) depth of field, etc.

...and for comparison, here's the original, just downsized to allow it to display properly in this thread.

In addition to the lack of contrast issue touched on in my previous post, people expect diamonds to look hard and sharp, so there also is a major depth of field problem in your image. These days, probably the best way to get superb depth of field is to use focus stacking software.

Unfortunately, while capable of yielding superb results, the use focus stacking SW dramatically slows down your workflow. Not only do you have to carefully take a series of multiple exposures, but you also have to blend them (... more time spent).

You shot this image at f/11. I would suggest you "damn the diffraction" and stop as far down as your lens will allow. The end result won't be as good as if you learned and correctly used focus stacking SW, but with a little sharpening, it can be quite good.

Cheers,

Tom M

Is the straight-on composition a requirement for how the image will be used? I ask, because it makes an expensive, fancy, three-dimensional item look two-dimensional and boring. Jewelry shots that are for something other than mere record-keeping need a bit of drama - whether it's from light, or composition, or background transitions, etc. - it's important.

Use a ring flash, not low-power continuous lights.

@Tom Mann thanx for suggestion would try it out and see the result... cheers :)
@Matt Laur yes the straigth on composition in my field work is necessary , as we use these imagezs for sales purpose of diamonds ... yes and have tried out various lightting to create drama in pictures and backgrouds wen shooting for different reason ,but in sales v have to give them a straight on composition so they can easily make out inclusions in diamonds and cut ,luster, polish,etc...
@Ariel S yes would try out ring flash and post result ...

Thanx a lot to alll of you ... :)

I'm glad to have helped, if only a little bit.

If you want the customer to see inclusions, the entire depth of the diamond must be in focus, otherwise your firm could be accused of deception. Because of this, I strongly recommend focus stacking software (to get more depth of field) AND better lighting (to get better contrast).

In addition, because of the very low contrast of the image you posted, my guess is that you did almost no post processing of the image. There are very few images from digital cameras that wouldn't benefit from some post processing. Use whatever techniques you use to make your ordinary non-macro shots (eg, family and vacation shots) look good.

Tom M

Tom M

For what it's worth, I assume you want to see every flaw in a diamond rather than actually making it look good? If that's true then I can't argue with the ring flash (or soft box, or lighting tent) suggestion. If you want the diamond to look nice, diffuse lighting is exactly what you don't want to do - you need bright point light sources to bring out the colour. I've found LED torches are your friend for this, if you don't mind doing things with a tripod and a longish exposure, although they probably don't have the spectrum of natural light; halogen spotlights may be better. Although, with that advice, I now have a vision of you shooting diamonds in a car park in front of some headlamps... The comedy solution might be to use direct sunlight and some mirrors to get multiple, distant, bright light sources - but not if you want something reproducible.

I agree with the focus stacking advice, regardless.

Disclaimer: I only have amateur experience in trying to do this.