Another Ruby/Diamond Ring For Analysis

[SteveB2005]

Here we go again folks.I'm posting another interesting ring I shot last week. I think we can all agree that photographing jewelry and getting it to look professional is a real challenge. Then there is the retouching work. I have posted the org shot out of the camera and then my enhancement. I tried out a gold gradient on the metal part and soft blur with a screen mode. I selected the rubies and applied some saturation, curves and a bit of dodge and burn. Not sure what to do on the diamonds, but going to try out something mentioned on the other ring.I used the high pass sharpening trick and unsharp mask on the flattened image. Go ahead and continue and see if you can take it to another level and explain what you did. It helps us all. Regards steveb

[Kraellin]

ok, see if you like this one:

Craig

[lkroll]

Do a search for starburst (lost my link unfortunately). I added two to the diamonds for sparkle. Before that, I did some saturation/color and brightness adjustments using a much used technique. I duplicate for two layers and run DCSpecial's 1969 filter on the top layer and adjust the opacity to taste.

[SteveB2005]

IKroll, that is a really nice sparkle effect. Is that located in photoshop in an optional palette? It really makes the stones pop. Jewelry retouching can make you want to pull your hair out somtimes, but I am constantly experimenting. So glad all of you are trying your tweaks as well. steveb

[Cassidy]

This was a really nice image of the ring, very clean looking also. I duplicated the base layer and set the blending to overlay and then repeated before adjusting the top layer opacity to around 58% Keep 'em coming Steve

[SteveB2005]

Hi Cassidy. Thanks for the comment. I worked on the ring with some of the techniques mentioned here and decided to post the result. I painted on the diamonds with a small soft brush with about 17% white on a single behind layer, then sel luminosity about 50%. I applied some white sparkle brushes, selected the rubies and pumped the saturation up about 15%. Used lens flare filter on lumisosity layer about 45%. Put in a velvet background for effect. Had fun with this but I need to speed up my retouching time. I'll post some new jewelry soon. regards steve

[lkroll]

Check this link out for the starburst effect.

http://www.escrappers.com/starfilter.html

[SteveB2005]

Hi lkroll. Thanks for taking the time to provide the starburst filter link. I tried some out on the ring and it has a realistic effect. Interesting how you drag one to the image and apply linear dodge layer mode and that eliminates the black background. Cool stuff. Now if I have the discipline to not overdue it! ha steveb