About Gemstone Images

Mountain Lily Gems is proud of the gemstones offered for sale. I take great effort to present accurate images of all the stones presented on my web pages. Gemstones and minerals are photographed using either traditional 35 mm Ektachrome film under intense tungsten light (3200 degrees Kelvin), or digitally using a Canon A560 digital camera with daylight-approximating fluorescent light (5000 degrees Kelvin). Lighting is carefully controlled to present the optimum beauty of the gems and minerals. The beauty of my gems cannot be appreciated under ordinary fluorescent light, subdued light on a grey over-cast day, etc. For film photography, the 35mm transparencies are scanned at 700 dpi resolution, color-corrected using Adobe Photoshop, and converted to a sharpened 72 dpi image using a web-safe color pallet. Digital photographs are likewise subjected to minor color correction using Photoshop or video editing software. My goal is to present the color of the gemstones as accurately as possible; what an individual would see under full sunlight. Unfortunately, not all web browsers render color in the same way, and color monitors are often not properly calibrated. I do the best I can, but if you feel the gem is less beautiful than you expected; I encourage you to return it for a prompt refund (See my return policy on the Order Page).

Some of our gemstones are presented with both a still image and videos. Preparing gemstone videos is a labor intenstive endeavor that is reserved for our more spectacular gemstones. The advantage of viewing a gemstone image is that it provides a better perspective of a gemstone's clarity, proportion, and the quality of cutting. Any inclusions that may be present are actually better seen through the back side (pavilion) of the stone. Viewed from the back, small inclusions are less likely to be lost in the bright light flashes seen face-on. A video also gives the customer a better sense of the precision of the cut. Do the facet junctions come to a well-defined point? Is the girdle too thick or thin? [ Too thick a girdle simply raises the weight and cost of a gemstone, but adds nothing to the stones brilliance. Too thick, or too thin, a girdle makes it more difficult and risky for a metalsmith to set an expensive gemstone.] Are the stone facets flat? It is actually possible to tell if a facet is flat, or rounded, by the way a beam of light glints off a surface. A scratched facet can also be seen by a video of good resolution. Video is no replacement for personal inspection of a gemstone under 10X magnification, but it is one step up from a static image. Lastly, video is a good way to display the scintilllation observed when a well-cut gemstone is moved in bright light. I hope you enjoy looking at the videos of my finest gemstones and mineral specimens.

Please note that gemstones are clarity graded using 10X magnification (See my web page on clarity grading). In most cases I present gemstone images at a magnification of 20X or greater (Resolution is limited by image file size). For flawless gemstones, high magnification simply confirms my clarity grades. But most colored gemstones are not flawless. Look carefully, at high magnification, and some type of inclusion can generally be observed in almost any gemstone. When I present a gemstone image at greater than 10X magnification, you will see wisps, veils, bubbles, included crystals, etc., that one would never notice by eye. I present my gemstone images at high magnification because I have nothing to hide. Minor inclusions, even those barely visible by eye, do not detract from the beauty of my custom-cut gemstones.