Retouching Silver Jewelry in Photoshop

[Cyberchic]

Hi all, I am helping my boyfriend to sell his sterling silver jewelry online and trying to figure out how to make pictures of jewelry on my own. It's lots of fun but often so challenging, oh well. I was hoping to get some advice on your forum.

These are a few samples of pictures that I've managed to take so far. I would really appreciate if you could point me in the right direction on how to retouch shanks and backs of the rings, how to make them look smooth all the way around. I'm really struggling with it. As you can see on my pictures, ring shanks look kind of messy, uneven. This is the result of my efforts with Brush tool:

View attachment 44057
Here is the examples of what I am trying to achieve (or at least get a little bit close to):

Per TPF policy, please only post images to which you own rights, thank-you. You may post links to the other images.

All your tips, ideas and suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[DGMPhotography]

First off, they look fine and you don't want false advertising, and second, the mods are going to remove those bottom pictures if they're not yours. Only post links to pictures that don't belong to you. Personally, I would just fiddle with the blur tools a little bit on low opacity and a small brush. Just experiment

 

[tirediron]

This is ALL about the lighting. Grab a copy of the bible and all will be good!

 

[Cyberchic]

Thank you DGMPhotography , I will do that. They look much better in real life than on my pictures, so false advertising is not an issue (rather under-advertising). Just trying to get rid of reflections and hot spots on the shank.

 

[Cyberchic]

Thanks, Tirediron. I'm using Digital Imaging Lightbox (Medalight) which I thought was a solution for lighting.

 

[bianni]

Yes, it is best to light it up correctly so there will be less touching up. But about your question about retouching, make a selection by tracing the shape of the shank and in another layer apply a gradient using the darkest and lightest color of the shank. Lock this layer (lock the transparent pixels) so when you brush some highlights, the transparent areas won't be affected. Use a very soft brush with low opacity to build up your highlights. you can also use the dodge and burn tool with a soft brush and low opacity.

.

 

[Cyberchic]

Bianni, thank you SO MUCH! You are the best. This is exactly what I was struggling with.
It would be a big help for me if you could attach your original photoshop file (psd) or send it to me please.

 

[bianni]

Here is the work flow.

 

[Tony S]

Try a doing a few identical images with the light source angle slightly changed, then stack the images so you can remove the highlights there. Look up some posts from Bitterjeweler here on the forum, he has given some top notch info in the past on shooting sparkly baubles.

 

[Cyberchic]

Here is the work flow.

Bianni, WOW! I am so happy that after a month of trying on my own, with your kind help I now know what to do. You made my day!

 

[FacetFlash]

No offense but these are horrible examples...

Private message me or fill out a contact sheet on my website and I will get back to you and help you out a bit!

 

[de_tec_tive]

wow those rings look great, so much better than i would be able to do! what were your techniques for the top part with the stones?

 

[crianchi]

good pictures, I like them, I just shoot a bunch of jewelry items today, still looking a way to retouch them properly

 

[crianchi]

i bought a dvd from this site and it is really good Jewelry Retouching DVD - Learn How To Retouch Your Jewelry Images i can share some tips if somebody want me to