I need to retouch my jewelry but I cant do it

[Devinhullphoto]

Retouching Jewelry | Jewelry Retouching

I like this quality of retouching, anybody has any tips?

The thing I dislike about some of the before and afters are that they completely recreated the back of the ring and it looks super fake.

 

[Scatterbrained]

I gave it a quick 5 minute run through with Ps. Getting rid of the black corner is just a matter of using the selection tool to select it and then fill it with white. Then I used a copy of the blue channel to make a mask of the ring; using a levels adjustment on it to get a solid black and white, then using a brush to fill in the highlights. Using this selection to make a mask on a curve layer I then boosted the mids till the background was white. After that I used the patch selection tool to get rid of the wax, replacing it with the bottom of the outer band and then using the free transform warp tool to align the shifted section of band. Some quick dodging on the bands and then a levels layer, another curve layer (set to luminance) and then an inverted surface blur layer and a double high pass to really bring out the detail. I didn't bother masking them or fine tuning their opacity because for this purpose it doesn't matter.


As far as the image itself goes, I don't like that the back of the ring is soft. I would recommend using focus stacking, or getting a tilt shift lens, or adapting a large format camera. Any of those three options would allow you to get the entire top of the ring in focus for a shot like this. I also think this ring would look better against black acrylic, the silver/white gold would stand out much better that way. Another thing to keep in mind is that if you have reflections that you're having issues with, sometimes it's actually easier to relight the subject specifically to deal with the problem reflections and then merge the two exposures in post. Anyway, that's just my two cents.

This has nothing to do with the topic or thread but what is focus stacking? I always hea it mentioned on here.

An Introduction to Focus Stacking

 

[Light Guru]

Retouching Jewelry | Jewelry Retouching

I like this quality of retouching, anybody has any tips?

The thing I dislike about some of the before and afters are that they completely recreated the back of the ring and it looks super fake.

Exactly they look fake. I find it odd that the OP used that as an example of what he wants when he also said this.

I want to retouch it so it will not look fake

 

[Devinhullphoto]

Exactly they look fake. I find it odd that the OP used that as an example of what he wants when he also said this.

Ha! I didn't realize. I personally prefer the real deal even if it isn't perfectly smooth.

 

[Devinhullphoto]

An Introduction to Focus Stacking

Awesome, thanks!

 

[Buckster]

I think the "fake" factor is mostly attributable to the fact that we see the "before" shots and have a way to compare them. Without that, our brains would just assume they were properly cleaned, polished, lit and photographed in the first place.

I think they look great for their purpose: Advertising.

 

[Devinhullphoto]

I think the "fake" factor is mostly attributable to the fact that we see the "before" shots and have a way to compare them. Without that, our brains would just assume they were properly cleaned, polished, lit and photographed in the first place.

I think they look great for their purpose: Advertising.

Maybe to most but I've done my fair share of digital illustrations and it just jumped out at me.

Mainly the sharp edge and the shine just isn't quite there. It can be done easy though just more tweaking.

 

[Buckster]

I think the "fake" factor is mostly attributable to the fact that we see the "before" shots and have a way to compare them. Without that, our brains would just assume they were properly cleaned, polished, lit and photographed in the first place.

I think they look great for their purpose: Advertising.

Maybe to most but I've done my fair share of digital illustrations and it just jumped out at me.

As do most jewelry advertisements with static images then, no doubt. Apparently, it's not something that jumps out at the average person who sees them, so it's really not a problem at all.

I guess it's kind of like how when you post a photo, people here on the forum who are used to spotting problems, tear them to pieces for you, even when you don't like it or think it's fair to nitpick them like that.

 

[Devinhullphoto]

As do most jewelry advertisements with static images then, no doubt. Apparently, it's not something that jumps out at the average person who sees them, so it's really not a problem at all.

I guess it's kind of like how when you post a photo, people here on the forum who are used to spotting problems, tear them to pieces for you, even when you don't like it or think it's fair to nitpick them like that.

True. As you said the average person wouldn't see or even notice and in advertising (if that will become its purpose) is all that matters.

 

[Nahin]

Did you add light properly and color perfectly. Might it will help you and really not possible to explain all lighting in here.