Jewellery retouching methods

[ray12]

Janice,

Sorry to hear you're having a hard time. But, please understand that most retouchers also feel that jewelry is very tough to do - you picked a very demanding area to start with.

I worked on your original image for a short time - just to generally make some corrections. Im going to spend most of my time going over the thought process and principles I used in getting there - since you indicated your need is urgent. Here are the steps I took:

Image was generally dark - so I used the curves adjustment (Shortcut ctl -m) to brighten up the mid levels of the image. Click and push left on the center of the curve.

There was not a good white or black reference point in the image - so I used the levels adjustment to bring up the whites - and bring up the blacks (ctl -L).

The overall contrast of the image was low - so I did a contrast adjustment to make the image pop a little more. (Adjustments>Image>contrast)

The color of the gold seemed to be pale and thin and not strong and vibrant. I increased the overall saturation of the image using the saturation adjustment. (ctl-u)

There were some small surface blemishes on the metal so I set up a separate layer and used the spot healing brush (set to sample all layers) to remove the small imperfections - then merged that layer down to the original layer below when I was happy with the result. (merge down).

The metal looked blotchy in several areas - so i copied the image to a new layer (ctl-j) and did a surface blur (Filter>Blur>Surface Blur - new in CS2) on the metal. I used a black mask and painted on it with a white soft brush to place the surface corrections on only certain areas of the image to smooth out the color.

The diamonds looked blurry - copied image onto another layer and did a smart sharpen to the whole image and made it a bit stronger than needed - I then used the black mask and white pen masking technique to limit the strong correction to only the diamond area on the image. Used the opacity slider to adjust the final intensity of the sharpness.

Im trying out a new plugin called Vertus Fluid Mask to make masks and cutouts from images. So I did a fast cutout so I could isolate the rings to place them over a background. Added a royal purple background with a diffused white oval placed on it to give it some depth and interest.

Wanted some sparkle in the diamonds - so I created a new layer and added some white sparkles from a brush I found in the Adobe Resource Center free download page.

This is just a start - Hope this helps out some - good luck!

Ray

[Janice Ong]

Thanks Ray,

I've tried the steps you suggested but I still can't get my jewelleries smooth at the surface.

I've tried using surface blur to blur out and mask it. However, there's still patches around the ring. That's beacuase there's a harsh black shadow which seems hard to remove.

[creeduk]

Hue sat, levels and some color balance, all with a noise reduction. sharpen on the details and and some manual blurring. Finally masked and added to darker background.

[ray12]

Creeduk,

Nice result. Love the color contrasts. Image really pops.

Ray

[MBChamberlain]

Jewlery retouching is more about the way the jewlery is shot than the way it is retouched. Retouching well shot jewlery is very easy, whereas a shot with textured reflections are near impossible.

I was a photographer before I was a retoucher, so I have a great appreciation for the "in camera" philosophy. Pure and simple: they were taking beautiful pictures of jewlery YEARS before they ever thought of retouching, I'm afraid that we too often use photoshop as a crutch rather than a tool. We try to do things in photoshop that are easier, faster, and ultimately better if done in camera. That being said, Janice, you can't really get the perfectly smooth textures you are looking for with this shot. The reflection of the florecent lights, textured table, and room objects prevent it. On the other hand, if you didn't have those reflections, you can easily smooth the surface and get that magazine look. Remember that for large product displays (like those 5 foot posters in jewlery stores) the piece being photographed is probably a couple of feet across.

I don't have the equipment to do product photography so I can't post an example, but here is a link for some basic techniques and equipment requirements.

Hope this helps,

Michael

[dkcoats]

I shot my share of jewelry over the years when I was in the photography biz and I can second the motion of previous posters who've said in essence that if it ain't on the chrome, you ain't gonna get it. Jewelry photography falls under the heading of "kids, don't try this at home." If the photographer doesn't have the know-how or the equipment to do it right, no amount of retouching is going to fix it. </.02>

dc

[creeduk]

Originally Posted by ray12

Creeduk,

Nice result. Love the color contrasts. Image really pops.

Ray

Thanks Ray for the compliment, I always like the way that style of effect makes the shot look.

Like MC said it is in the shooting, I read a lot on jewelry shots (never done and doubt I will) but it seems a hard subject especially diamonds, I have heard from those in the know that what you need is multiple pinpoint sources of light, (not too strong though, softer is better)

I also came across this article.

http://www.photoflexlightingschool.c...ing/index.html

[MasterP]

old thread but i like this ring

[Quantum3]

here is my attempt...

[DiamondPlatinum]

Hi
Although this is an old thread ,here is what I have tried... Feedbacks are appreciated ...

[asokkanna]

R u looking for something like this..

[CathyH]

askkanna, can you explain how you did this.

[acpgraphics]

Here is my, very quick, submission. Not sure if it is what you are looking for, let me know you thoughts.
CRW_1294-01_acp.jpg

[acpgraphics]

Originally Posted by MBChamberlain

Jewlery retouching is more about the way the jewlery is shot than the way it is retouched. Retouching well shot jewlery is very easy, whereas a shot with textured reflections are near impossible.

Can I get you to talk to the people I work for? Maybe they will listen to you... ;-)

[CathyH]

acpgraphics that looks really nice, can you explain how you did that?

[asokkanna]

Originally Posted by CathyH

askkanna, can you explain how you did this.

U liked it?

Well i used the following tools.

Gradient, Burn Tool, Dodge Tool & Pen Tool.

Concentrate on Curves & reflections.

Hope this will give u some ides.

Cheers..!

[CathyH]

Yes, asokkanna, I really like it.
thanks for the help.

[acpgraphics]

Hi Cathy,

Like asokkanna I used the gradient to create some of the transitions, the pen tool for clipping/masking, but I did not use the dodge & burn tool. Instead I use a different method of dodging & burning to emphasis shape. I also used the paintbrush for smoothing as well as the patch & stamp tools to clean up.

There really is no way of briefly outlining what I've done, even though it is not difficult or time consuming. This work can be done relatively fast, this image took me about 15-30 minutes with interruptions from my kids. You need to be subjective and creative. First start by cleaning up blemishes and imperfections. Paint in areas to smooth and polish. Then move onto the color.

When working with well photographed jewelry it is much easier to produce great quality images. But when you work with poorly photographed, low quality costume jewelry, as I do at times you really need to bring out your creative side.

I hope this gives you some help, maybe one day I will get around to making a video tutorial.

[CathyH]

Thanks acpgraphics that is helpful.
have you been to the contest this month is a watch retouch?
http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/con...tml#post261758

I would like to see what you and anna could do with it.

[acpgraphics]

Yes, I have started it and have a good bit completed. I need to get some time to finish - I have actually been looking for a jewelry retouching expert to do a few weeks in-house freelance work for the company where I work so my free time has been limited.

[Verywierd]

A quick try. Repair tool, clone, contrast adjustments, some painting.

[cainam]

Airbrushed.

[mediaspin360]

Shooting jewelry is one of the toughest project for us. It involves a good lighting and placement of the ring. We normally take anywhere from 12-72 shots around the 360 degree with a single elevation at 0 degrees. Talking about retouching all 72 images...yikes...that's why we want to make sure that the ring is properly setup before the shot.

[sinbin]

Hi what do you think of this? I messed around with the levels, contrast and hue saturation.

[sinbin]

how did you do that with the metal?

[mistermonday]

Sinbin, welcome to RetouchPro.
FYI, no one has posted in this thread for 6 months. You might try sending a personal message to the member whose technique you are inquiring about.
Regards, Murray

[ray12]

Old threads often come back to life. After looking at this thread again it dawned on me that what I need to do is to shoot surfaces of jewelery that I can map onto the rings. The blurred approaches here lost all that realism of gold. You can tell the jewelery has been plasticized.

Take the inside edge of a good ring shot and make a Photoshop smart object of it...position and warp it into place...or even use the new 3d feature of photoshop to make a 2d shape behave in a 3d manner...then carefully mask it into position. You are using an actual ring image...a snipet of texture, glow, sheen and edging and masking it into the image after you have aligned and registered the new cut in piece. Since you are adding in a new piece of metal shaped and colored as your original...it will look more natural. I dont know of anyone making or selling jewelery parts. I know I make skin pore parts and eye parts and fingernail and eyelash parts...but I never thought of making jewelery parts that can be scaled and rotated and laid over existing jewelery. A ring with its edges and inside curves could be shot and recolored and placed on a transparent background.

Might be a good project for someone!

Cheers