How's that ring working out?

Now that I have identified one of the culprits of the color tinting that I've focused on minimizing, I'm focusing on the compositions and such of jewelry.

There seems to be an infinite amount of ways to light them and would like to hear some words on how I did with this one. I only chose this one as the black ring holder is tough to shoot; it throws on too much black on the jewelry but I hope it worked out ok.

If anyone wants to see more (of the same ring or others), I'd be glad to show them for some more C&C. Thanks!

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An image of a ring shot from above (the ring is leaning slightly towards the bottom of the image frame) showing 3 brilliant cut diamonds, 12 claw tips (platinum?) and the shoulders of the ring (yellow gold?)

The light is not being reflected back through the diamonds (they are not reflecting the light in the plane in which you have them oriented) to show the fire (refracted light) that is typically associated with brilliant cut diamonds. The image you have shown depicts the two stones on the right as virtually white in colour and dead looking (blocked colour) across the table. There is a small amount of fire at the periphery and the left most stone appears slightly more colourful.

Light tents provide a soft and even light and are often thought to be ideal for imaging small items such as rings. What they don't provide is the harsh specular lighting needed to bring out the fire in a diamond. The lights are the sort you find in window displays and comprise tiny directional halogen lamps. If you are using that kind of lamp then you must ensure that the beam is perpendicular to the table. Depending on your arrangement, you may be able to use a rubber band to hold several small led torches (flashlights) around your lens. This would give you the on-axis specular light source that you need to bring diamonds to life.

The use of black velvet in jewellery photography is common, because it throws gold, silver, platinum and precious stones into sharp relief, besides killing all extraneous light and reflections. other colours such as burgundy, deep blue and dark green are also seen but black cloth has a way of making the products appear more luxurious.

The colour of the metal in this image does not look as if it is either rose or yellow gold and it suggest that your colours are being distorted by your processing workflow. I would be interested to see the side view of the mount and the shoulders. If the mount has a deep gallery rather than the stones just being held by the girdle in a plain claw setting which lets light in from the sides (which this appears to be) there is sometimes an issue with getting enough light back out of the stone if the pavillion facets are set below the the level of thick shank and the diameter of the light (which is cut under the mount) is too small for the stone size.

Can you say anything about your lighting set-up?

I don't think the composition do any justice to this masterpiece. It's a good thing you told us that it was a ring because right now, it looks like 3 stunning diamonds clamped on a canoe shaped piece of wood.

Appreciate the responses.

Mangler, I always forget to add important details, my bad. I need to put my gear down in the sig. I was shooting with two D-Lite 2 it's, inner baffle as a diffuser on one and the other is bare, shooting into top of box for a little harsher light for the diamonds. I dunno how to make them sparkle when the lights are really diffused, not that it's the most important thing anyway as I'm just trying to achieve decent quality while doing it as quickly as possible for volume.

I'm not sure what's going on with the metal but I have provided extra pics. I am going to be buying an X-Rite Passport system today very soon and hope that'll help the gold look better. I shoot JPEG only (for now). Also, the diamond set is tilted I think as I had the ring straight on the black ring-holder.

All I did with the photos is brighten up the diamonds and sharpen and crop. I had to save the second one twice because of the size, so hope quality isn't too bad.

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Does the gold look better in the second set?