Re: photographing diamonds so they don't look dull?

wrybread@xxxxxxxxx wrote:

> I'm trying to take some pictures of diamonds, and am having problems
> with the pictures looking very dull. I'm seeing the same problem with
> most of the diamond pictures on teh web: they lack sparkle.
>
> Does anyone have any tips to take good pictures of diamonds?


One part of the problem is that we look at things with both eyes. Each
gets a slightly different picture. When one eye is seeing a highlight
that the other doesn't, the result is an active scintillation that
occurs in the brain.

Another part is that we tend to see the diamond with some relative
motion so the highlights are constantly changing.

Both of these aspects are impossible to convey in a photograph. Try
holding your head still and looking at a stationary diamond with one
eye. If you can get that to look good, put the camera where your eye was
and take the picture.

You need a number of broad-spectrum point-source lights to begin to
capture the sparkle of a diamond. I haven't tried this but, I bet you'll
get your best results if you arrange them in horizontal pairs. This
should offer the one-eyed camera about the same reflections as a single
light offers a two-eyed person. (minus the scintillation, of course)



--
Carl West carlDOTwest@xxxxxxxxxxx http://carl.west.home.comcast.net

>>>>>>>> change the 'DOT' to '.' to email me <<<<<<<<<<<<

"Clutter"? This is an object-rich environment.

.

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