Jewelry photography: before and after, or never shoot worn stuff!

[Koloskov]

We had this photoshoot few month ago.. very expensive set of jewelry. Everything was really cool and entertaining but nightmare began when we moved to a post production part.
All the jewelry was worn, and ... you'll see yourself:

Jewelry photography retouching: Before and After. Photo retouching in Photoshop

I can't post these images right here, as client exclusive license for the images and can only have them on the blog. But it worth to see how much retouching can be involved in jewelry photography..

The shot details can be found here:
Jewelry photography Atlanta: 3 lighting setups for your inspiration.
There are TONS of the info for those who are on the same field as me. The lighting setups I show can tell you a lot of how shot was done. Unfortunately, there is not many things explained on this particular shot, but I plan to write a tutorial for jewelry photography soon.

I'll be glad to answer any question that you guys may have.. just let me now.

Alex

[stacymarie]

Originally Posted by Koloskov

I'll be glad to answer any question that you guys may have.. just let me now.

Alex

Hi Alex, just wanted to mention that I love your blog! Some really great tips and ideas in there, plus your retouching is awesome!

that is all

stacy

[High_Speed]

Wow, great retouching! But I must admit concerns as to the intention of these images. I can see cleaning up a persons portrait a little bit...I can see cleaning up an image of a nice landscape by removing some trash cans or power lines (for example). I'm all for "photoshopping," but wow...these are basically taking old worn, scratched, pitted jewelry and making them look like NEW. If these were for advertising/sales purposes...holy crap talk about deceiving.

I mean no disrespect for you, I'm just thinking aloud here. I mean, to me that much "touch-up" is no longer "image cleaning" but more like using one image as a base to create a whole new image of something else.

[Koloskov]

Originally Posted by High_Speed

Wow, great retouching! But I must admit concerns as to the intention of these images. I can see cleaning up a persons portrait a little bit...I can see cleaning up an image of a nice landscape by removing some trash cans or power lines (for example). I'm all for "photoshopping," but wow...these are basically taking old worn, scratched, pitted jewelry and making them look like NEW. If these were for advertising/sales purposes...holy crap talk about deceiving.

I mean no disrespect for you, I'm just thinking aloud here. I mean, to me that much "touch-up" is no longer "image cleaning" but more like using one image as a base to create a whole new image of something else.

Yes, it is hard to call it cleaning or tocuh up.. I know retouchers who use 3D rendering to 'touch up" the jewelry. But this is a part of the job, if you position yourself as hi-end photog: you may not shoot hi-end stuff and work for hi-end clients, but the result should be always excellent.



Than you all!

[BigFuzzy]

Originally Posted by High_Speed

Wow, great retouching! But I must admit concerns as to the intention of these images. I can see cleaning up a persons portrait a little bit...I can see cleaning up an image of a nice landscape by removing some trash cans or power lines (for example). I'm all for "photoshopping," but wow...these are basically taking old worn, scratched, pitted jewelry and making them look like NEW. If these were for advertising/sales purposes...holy crap talk about deceiving.

I mean no disrespect for you, I'm just thinking aloud here. I mean, to me that much "touch-up" is no longer "image cleaning" but more like using one image as a base to create a whole new image of something else.

Yeah, agree, there's no doubting the skill involved in creating these images, my hat off to you. But I'm also curious as to the intent of the images. Are they done for the purpose of re-selling? If so, I'd agree on the "deceiving" part. I'd be pissed if I bought these based on the images. Really really pissed.

Still, amazing work..

[High_Speed]

Originally Posted by BigFuzzy

Yeah, agree, there's no doubting the skill involved in creating these images, my hat off to you. But I'm also curious as to the intent of the images. Are they done for the purpose of re-selling? If so, I'd agree on the "deceiving" part. I'd be pissed if I bought these based on the images. Really really pissed.

Still, amazing work..

Right, I mean again, hats off to the OP for the amazing skills. That's obviously a lot of time and effort that's gone into those images.

But yeah, let's just say for example if someone wanted to resell something like this and took a crap product and made it look like new....holy crap I'd be pissed too, because that would basically just be blatant fraud.

Again, not attacking you Koloskov at all! But again out of curiosity, could you lend us some hint as to the potential intent your client has with the use of your work there? I'm seriously just curious.

[Koloskov]

Originally Posted by High_Speed

Right, I mean again, hats off to the OP for the amazing skills. That's obviously a lot of time and effort that's gone into those images.

But yeah, let's just say for example if someone wanted to resell something like this and took a crap product and made it look like new....holy crap I'd be pissed too, because that would basically just be blatant fraud.

Again, not attacking you Koloskov at all! But again out of curiosity, could you lend us some hint as to the potential intent your client has with the use of your work there? I'm seriously just curious.

Ops, missed your question. Need to turn on email notification for the reply on topic.
BTW, I'll be 100% fine even if you want to attack me, so do not worry next time;-))

As for the purpose for such images, here you go:
Client was designing and made individually crafted jewelry. After some time she decided to go public with this and wanted to represent the whole jewelry line in a catalog and needed images for it. Images also will be used for advertisement and promotional purposes.
Because everything was made only in single count, she did not have new, unworn (she was wearing these jewelry) for us. So, we worked with what client has.
It is not a common situation, but it happens.
Thank you!