I'm still not sure how to touch up my jewellery like the attachment picture :sad:

I've tried, smart blur and surface blur to blend but still can;t look like the atachment picture. I've also used noise and changing the layer blending.

Can someone PLEASE.. :cry:

Maybe if you post one of the pics of your jewelry, we could try.

studioj - pictures were posted in this thread
http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12717
and this one
http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10270&page=3&pp=15

Now I see, well, congrats for the ideas, but I think like everyone else, the shoot it's not good for the idea, I always take Product's pictures on day light, outdoors and try to put the product into a square of white sheets around, above and below the object.

Then, I use a semiprofessional digital camera, and take at least 10 pictures with different focus and speeds.

Then I could try to copy the lighting of a professional one object, like this jewelry that Janice posted. It's not easy, you have to creat the masks of the same lighthing effect, well, I'll do that, copy the reflections and try to use the "O" key tool (don't have the name in english) to increase lightness and darkness.

This might sound stupid but have you tried oiling up the jewlery before shooting. I'll test it out if i get a chance and see the effects..

Hi everybody,

Janice,

Is this what you are looking for?

1> your orirginal.

2> enhanced but kept the satin finish slightly softer.

3> enhanced.

Hey Flora

Sorry for not replying. What you did is just enhancing the picture.

What I basically want is to make the surface solid (yes I understand the pic is badly taken, by someone else and not me..and no..there's no other way for me to take it again).

You can see my attachment regarding the finished jewellery. You can see the surface is solid, colours blend with each other. There's some noise on the surface if I;m not mistaken.

I'm sorry..I know my post is annoying. :depressed

Janice,

this is just a real quickie, but is this more what you are after, it consists of using the smudge tool on a new layer and a little bit of dodge and burn on a grey overlay. As I said a real quickie.

Can you try in more detail ?? :)

In the morning Janice, 2am here and I have work TODAY

what do you mean by grey overlay ?/ I paint the surface grey and set the blending mode ?

new layer, fill with 50% grey and then set to overlay, using either black or white brush at around 3-4% you just paint in highlights and darken areas

sure .. godd night :)

happy dreams

Hey Flora

Sorry for not replying. What you did is just enhancing the picture.

What I basically want is to make the surface solid (yes I understand the pic is badly taken, by someone else and not me..and no..there's no other way for me to take it again).

You can see my attachment regarding the finished jewellery. You can see the surface is solid, colours blend with each other. There's some noise on the surface if I;m not mistaken.

I'm sorry..I know my post is annoying. :depressed

...so what you're talking about is changing the jewellry not retouching it. The surface isnt smooth, part of it is brushed metal, and another part has some other kind of texture - hard to tell on the pic, only 1 section of it is smooth polished metal.
You want a flat metal surface all-over?

nancy,

i think she wants the band, the backside filled in. this is actually a duplicate thread going here. there is another where someone filled in the band and that seemed to be what was wanted.

craig

Janice have you considered 3D modelling these items using the image for texture samples and reference for the model? It seems that would be the ideal way to get what you really want also then you can change the lights and render the way you would like.

...so what you're talking about is changing the jewellry not retouching it. The surface isnt smooth, part of it is brushed metal, and another part has some other kind of texture - hard to tell on the pic, only 1 section of it is smooth polished metal.
You want a flat metal surface all-over?

Exactly! I make my self clear now :)

nancy,

i think she wants the band, the backside filled in. this is actually a duplicate thread going here. there is another where someone filled in the band and that seemed to be what was wanted.

craig


No, not the band, just a smooth solid surface .

This is just a quicky I threw together in about 10 minutes, so its not perfect but should get you closer to what you're trying to do - obviously you'll have a lot more time to work on it.

First I ran surface blur with a fairly high radius to smooth out the surface, then masked that back over the original to preserve the edges.
Then I airbrushed out some of the larger blotches and dark patches to make the rings smoother allover.
Then I merged all visible layers onto a new layer (hold down alt layers-> merge visible on a blank layer)
Then I duplicated the layer and ran plastic wrap on it (filters->artistic -> plastic wrap) with max highlight, min detail, max smoothness
and set this layers blending mode to overlay.
Thats pretty much it - except for some curves adjustments - I can never get the colour right for gold though...

I love Nancy's job, it's really great!

Now I'll see where to use this technique

Janice,

I'm sorry..I know my post is annoying. ... No, it's not annoying ... it's just that it was never clear that with 'solid' you meant to completely change the whole metal surface, but not the form, of the earrings .... I thought you wanted a shinier 'polished surface' while keeping the satin and 'knitted' ("..There's some noise..") parts unchanged ....... :happy:

Thanks Flora

If you don't mind...

Could you try out one of the jewelleries ? If it doesn't take much of your time.

Janice,

Here's another go based on the previous conversations, unfortunately I have a new mouse which doesn't like the tablet and is wandering all over the place. Most of this is dodge and burn but gaussian blurring of the dodged and burned areas.

Wow thanks. It's almost the same final touch that I wanted.

Did you do it on different layers ? Or just the whole layer on a go ?? I tried touching different parts of the surface on different layers..will it make it any better ??

Did you enchance the colour ?/ What's the best way to enhance colour? Curves, colour balance etc ??

TQ!

Hi Janice,

I did not change the colour at all but did drop the colour profile that was attached to the ring.

Each adjustment was done on a different layer. All adjustments were gaussian blurred to taste

Hi,
i had work with pict like this, when some customer has an old picture taken by himself, and the jewel is not any more with him, then i had to retouch some very bad taken pictures, but still i dont know what exactly you want..
is it about the noise in surface???
or about the lines and shades that appear because the mirror effect in the surface???
if you want email me,
bye
D.

well., i did this, (check the link below)
i cant tell you exactly what i did, because i did a lot of things,
a lot of airbrush, a lot of rubber stamp... color correction..
bye, D,

http://www.afotoweb.com/img/test3a.jpg

There's no substitue for taking a better picture. Learn how to use your camera and Google for a table top tent.