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Precious_operator6C13
Participant
July 27, 2022
Question

Retouching small jewellery

  • July 27, 2022
  • 7 replies
  • 5475 views

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

This topic has been closed for replies.

7 replies

L
Lumigraphics
Legend
October 31, 2023

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.

    D Fosse
    Community Expert
    D FosseCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    October 31, 2023

     

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

     

    Jane


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

      jane-e
      Community Expert
      jane-eCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      October 31, 2023

      ChatGPT. Someone please remove.


       

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

       

      Jane

        D Fosse
        Community Expert
        D FosseCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        October 31, 2023

        ChatGPT. Someone please remove.

          didiermazier
          Community Expert
          didiermazierCommunity Expert
          Community Expert
          July 28, 2022

          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

           

            War Unicorn
            Community Expert
            War UnicornCommunity Expert
            Community Expert
            July 27, 2022

            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?

              P
              Precious_operator6C13Author
              Participant
              July 27, 2022

              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
              Community Expert
              War UnicornCommunity Expert
              Community Expert
              July 27, 2022

              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.

                lambiloon
                Community Expert
                lambiloonCommunity Expert
                Community Expert
                July 27, 2022

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

                 

                https://youtu.be/Qk9SHo5ITV8

                Ali Sajjad / Graphic Design Trainer / Freelancer / Adobe Certified Professional
                  P
                  Precious_operator6C13Author
                  Participant
                  July 27, 2022

                  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. 

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