Contrast – Bringing Life to Lights

Swipe for comparison with the unmarked picture

As mentioned on yesterday’s IG post…, still diamond pictures can relay plenty of information about diamond cut, its symmetry, its distribution of reflected lights and more.

I marked yesterday’s picture with four point of references…, this diamond was photographed in a professional light box with just the camera lens playing the role of obstruction.

Black: facets reflecting the dark camera body taking the picture, we are able to envision how just a section (lower half)of the diamond face-up is actually facing the camera.

Red: this position doesn’t usually allow a clear view of the diamond’s girdle (a very important aspect in any diamond purchasing decision), looking through the two red rectangular marking exhibit internal reflections of the girdle…, enough to inform thickness and balance.

Yellow: shows an accumulation of the whole internal pavilion view through just one (upper) crown corner facet. It displays the efficiency in the balance of contrast.

Green: bonus view – Since antique diamonds are known for their super large facet surfaces (historically to accommodate low-warm candle lighting) producing large & slow flashing events.., historically in very large diamonds, cutters would further split main facets to minimize sizes of the flashing events and maximizing speed of events.

This diamond also possesses such facet divisions (split-facet junctions marked green) but only on the four crown mains, and this is due to its smaller size. The 128 ct Tiffany Yellow for example possesses such facet splits on all and both the crown and pavilion facets (8×8).

This diamond displays the usefulness of such facet divisions, sharp eyes will discern the optical effectiveness behind such divisions.