Retouching small jewellery

[Precious_operator6C13]

Hi there! 

I am photographer and product retoucher and my NUMBER ONE issue with retouching is getting the tiny jewellry to maintain their shine after editing. I always end up with a matte look after cleaning it up and I cannot find a way to really make them reflective 😞 Can someone please help me with some photoshop steps and guides? I work for an e-commerce company and we sell jewellery for piercings. So you can imagine how small these products are. Thankfully, I am quite well equiped and knoweldage with studio photography. However, retouching to maintain the reflective clean shine of the metal is by far the hardest challenge. I cannot find any courses on how to do this so your help is MUCH appreciated. 

Before and after image of a labret in rose gold attached. Please see if you can find a way to help ❤️ 

Regards, 

Tyler

[lambiloon]

Hi, check the following video hope it helps you...regards

https://youtu.be/Qk9SHo5ITV8

[Precious_operator6C13]

Thanks for replying. Unfortunately this video doesn't help me (seen it before) as it's not the step by step tutorial I need to refine certain jewelry. 

[War Unicorn]

Which is before and after? Is "Edit-2" the before? If so, it looks pretty good. Might it be just a case of masking so as to get that detail back?

[Precious_operator6C13]

Hi there😄 edit 2 is the un edited image. Edit edit is the polished up one. Images are quite low res here unfortunately. Thank you for the compliment! Masking out will bring back the imperfections of the metal as this has been photographed with a macro lens. If you zoom in on edit 2, you can see what I mean. 

[War Unicorn]

Mmm...well, couldn't you layer the edited version on top and then mask out the just the diamonds so that the original diamonds just show through?

You could also use Camera Raw's tools (either Camera Raw by itself or as a filter in Photoshop; I prefer the former) to enhance the diamonds before even getting to the masking/editing stage.

As done in Camera Raw.Masked in Photoshop. Edited image is above while original shot is below. "Punched through" the diamonds using a layer mask on the edited image. (Painted black using the Brush Tool on the mask.)

[Precious_operator6C13]

Thanks once again for the tips. Apologies for not clarifying further. I need to find a way to edit the metal surrounding the stones. As you can see in the edited version, the polished metal looks so soft (and that was with a light brush and a mix if clone stamp and healing brush) and as a result it looks matte and not very metal like. 

[War Unicorn]

Definitely try what didier suggested. Could also use a Curves or Levels adjustment layer and use its mask to isolate only the metal. For example (a simple "pulling the curve down" move):

Curves (my choice) or Levels are your friend when it comes to bringing things back.

[didiermazier]

For a speed work you could use black and white points with curves or levels. It should reequilibrate the image, suppress color dominants…

Some time time ago I did a video (in french sorry) to show how it works. Not on jewelry but the principle is the same : https://youtu.be/eKEvq5O1kpc

[D Fosse]

ChatGPT. Someone please remove.

[jane-e]

@D Fosse Reported as spam, along with several others.

Jane

[D Fosse]

OK. I'll report them as spam from now on, good to see they are actually removed.

[Lumigraphics]

If you use a grey background and try to change it to white, the subject will look like garbage. Put it on a light table and do two exposures, one with white bg (lights on) and one with bg dark, just top lighting. Combine those and you'll get a better result. Also use fill cards and flags to control specular highlights. This is not a retouching problem, its a bad photography problem.

If you don't have a copy of Light Science and Magic, go buy one and study it.