# How to shoot/edit yellow diamonds



## sjacks8n (Mar 5, 2013)

I have trouble shooting yellow diamonds. Every time I shoot them they tend to washout in color. But when I see them in jewelry catalogues they are very saturated, clear, and sharp. Is there a setup that would help me with this or is it all in the editing process? Any help with this is appreciated. I have included a sample pic just to show where my skill level is with product photography
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## Robin_Usagani (Mar 5, 2013)

Maybe post the yellow one?


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## sjacks8n (Mar 5, 2013)

Robin_Usagani said:


> Maybe post the yellow one?



This is unedited, actually one of the better ones.


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## sjacks8n (Mar 5, 2013)

Here is another


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## Robin_Usagani (Mar 5, 2013)

You have to think about the reflection. Is it better to have white behind the camera or black?  Im not sure... Try it.


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## Designer (Mar 5, 2013)

The light looks white, so maybe you need to gel your light to some complimentary color.  Anything but yellow or orange.  Try a different background also.  Maybe black?


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## sjacks8n (Mar 5, 2013)

With white it's even more washed out and with black it's too dark.


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## sjacks8n (Mar 5, 2013)

Designer said:


> The light looks white, so maybe you need to gel your light to some complimentary color.  Anything but yellow or orange.  Try a different background also.  Maybe black?



Black makes it too dark, but yes the light is white maybe I should try another color.


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## skieur (Mar 5, 2013)

Have you tried shooting through a reflective dome on a light table?


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## Bitter Jeweler (Mar 5, 2013)

Your diamonds don't look very yellow, to begin with. You should be getting the right color, with the right exposure, no tricks...

This was shot on a piece of paper, no gels, no light tent...


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## sjacks8n (Mar 5, 2013)

Bitter Jeweler said:


> Your diamonds don't look very yellow, to begin with. You should be getting the right color, with the right exposure, no tricks...
> 
> This was shot on a piece of paper, no gels, no light tent...


Wow that looks great, and you're right. Can you give me a little more insight on how you achieved this? I have tried shooting on paper and it looks nothing like this.


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## Bitter Jeweler (Mar 5, 2013)

It was shot with overhead flourescent lighting, 100mm macro lens. Nothing special. Just plunked it down and took the picture. It's not catalogue quality, but shows you should be able to get accurate color doing nothing special.

But if your diamonds aren't that intense, there is not much you can do to make them more yellow, besides selectively upping the saturation, or painting an overlay layer of yellow. But that would be misleading, wouldn't it?


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## sjacks8n (Mar 5, 2013)

Bitter Jeweler said:


> It was shot with overhead flourescent lighting, 100mm macro lens. Nothing special. Just plunked it down and took the picture. It's not catalogue quality, but shows you should be able to get accurate color doing nothing special.
> 
> But if your diamonds aren't that intense, there is not much you can do to make them more yellow, besides selectively upping the saturation, or painting an overlay layer of yellow. But that would be misleading, wouldn't it?



Thank you. Yes it would be very misleading, I will try what you said. I think I may have my strobes up too high for the yellow diamonds. One more question, how were your surroundings, regular lit room, enclosure, dark room?


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## Alex_B (Mar 5, 2013)

ever thought of giving it a dark background? yellow contrasts much better with black or dark grey or a very dark blue, than with white.


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## Bitter Jeweler (Mar 5, 2013)

It was just regular lit room, you know, drop ceiling tile flourescent fixtures.

You could maybe under expose a little, and bring the exposure back up in post, that kinda intensifies colors.
Your image in the first post looks over exposed a bit to me.


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## ceeboy14 (Jun 16, 2013)

It wasn't that I found the yellow overly "wrong," but that the yellow migrated into the white diamonds. A simple color cast adjustment with a small levels nudge keeps the yellows yellow and the whites white.


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## Derrel (Jun 16, 2013)

I read a still life book years ago, in which the author suggested using yellow fill cards instead of white when photographing yellow diamonds, citrine, etc. He said he often did the same thing with gold jewelery--used yellow fill cards surrounding the set. I think in the OP's shots, a lot of white light is being blasted around, and it is washing out the yellow as all that stray light bouncing all over is basically, overexposing the diamonds.

I think the reason Bitter's yellow diamond ring is looking yellow is that he is using just an overhead light, which is NOT bouncing all over the entire set. When there is tremendous back-lighting blasting through material, it can wash the material's color intensity out. The OP's lighting setup appears to have a lot of light coming from multiple directions.


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## ceeboy14 (Jun 16, 2013)

sjacks8n said:


> Robin_Usagani said:
> 
> 
> > Maybe post the yellow one?
> ...



Perhaps a bit more PP work.


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## Gavjenks (Jun 16, 2013)

Bitter Jeweler's photo looks more yellow than anything I can find on google images.

Since he said he used no special technique at all, and I doubt he has a magic camera, I'm guessing that this means it is indeed some sort of washing out effect from lots of lights bouncing around off of white surfaces in studio setups_ in general_, since that's the main variable that changed there.

I'd start with the absolute minimum setup. I don't know anything about photographing jewelry, so I can't suggest specific simple lighting arrangements, but try to just start with one light, or maybe one light and a simple fill, none of it on overwhelmingly high powers.  Then only add lights (few in number and low in power) if truly necessary.

Having a nice yellow diamond and then maybe having to photoshop the paper it is sitting on to be more pristine is a lot better than having nice white paper and isolation, but having to photoshop the diamond (misleadingly).



Also, you might consider HDR (where the diamond itself comes from just one lower exposure, for yellowness and so as not to mislead, but the background and such might come from a more highly exposed one to cut down on drab shadows)


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