February 27th, 2013 | 
The Beauty and Sadness of Jewelry Photography Retouching.
This is a re-post about jewelry photography from our retoucher’s blog, www.PerfectPhotoBlog.com with some additions I’ve made to make things more interesting:-)
by Genia Larionova:
This is the before and after post production and 100% crop from one of our commercial jewelry photography assignments last year. Posting to show the amount of work required from a jewelry retoucher, when the jewelry is worn and not clean. Sometimes I had to almost completely re-create part of the item: it appears to be faster than trying to restore lost finish and colors.
Note: Most of the “before” images came from pure RAW files with default raw converter settings, before any adjustments.
We made about 50 images for a talented jewelry designer Elizabeth Dupree Lynch for her Fine Jewelry collection. All jewelry was hand crafted by an Italian jewelry master; therefore, retouching was not easy. It took us many hours (big thanks to my helper Anna Yenina:-) to do it.
All “before” objects showed as-is (Camera RAW default settings) photo without focus stacking applied. The first image from a sequence is what you’ll see. Images “after” have a focus stacking applied.
I am going to do “focus staking in Photoshop cs5″ post next time, but for now you can check out this photography video tutorial how we do a focus stacking.
Some images may look overdone, (especially at 100% crop), but this is what we were able to do considering the items’ condition (not new) and an extremely tight schedule for post production.
Jewelry Photography Heavy Retouching: Before and After
This shot (above) was composed using the focus stacking technique, and “before” is a single shot from the sequence. See 100% crop from the stacked version before the cleaning and after below
Another example of jewelry and how to use digital background in jewelry photography. Note the additional contrast and “over sharpening” on the small gemstones around the large one.
100% crop from the image above. Again: cleaning, adding contrast, and smoothing scratches without killing the details.
This image was combined from two different shots in one, below:
100% crop for the above. Crazy amount of work to make this earring look shiny and new:-)
[ois skin="Jewelry Photography"]
Hope this post was interesting. If so, most likely you’d like to check out the rest of our jewelry photography projects:
Jewelry Photography tutorials, and behind the shot videos.
Also, take a look at Jewelry Photography Masterclass Alex has recently, right now I am working on the post-production part of it. Soon we’ll have it released, stay tuned!
Genia Larionova
About The Author: Alex Koloskov
The lighting magician, owner of AKELstudio, Inc.
I am amazed at the difference from before and after. You should make more videos on postproduction. The one I did see on this site was not very clear and difficult to follow.
I have been coming to this sight for the past year to get pointers at work. Your work is amazing. I shoot everything here at work. Everyone says my fragrance shots are the best. I have trouble with jewelry. Maybe its the light box I use. I think I need to change my setup for jewelry. Light boxes sap all the life out of silver, gold and diamonds. I really want to start shouting bottles and wine. I use a canon 7D with a 100mm macro L lens at work. At home I just have the 50mm compact macro (need to upgrade). I want to start my own studio. Slowly building my set up with cheap strobes and make shift light boxes.
http://www.jamieshortphoto.com/#!home/c206b
I have just started experimenting with Jewellery photography and have realized that it is far more complex as compared to other products photography. Armed with a Canon 450D and Tokina 100mm Macro, this is the best that I can produce: http://digitalstudio.in/jewellery-photography-mumbai.htm
Any suggestions are most welcome, to enhance the final results.[img]http://digitalstudio.in/images/jewellery-photography/jpeg/1.jpg[/img]
@pashminu mansukhani, yes, I can suggest plenty of things on how to improve your result on this, but i need you to submit your shot to photigy forum, “Q&A” thread. I’d be glad to provide your with feedback