Two photographs on white paper — dry, then wet only if the material is safe to wet. One photograph held up against a bright overcast sky. One fifteen-second video, turning it slowly against that same sky. A metric ruler in the frame. Daylight, never flash.
1. If it is safe to wet, show the same material dry and briefly wet
A rough or abraded surface can scatter light and hide apparent internal colour and features. A consistent dry-and-wet pair can add information, but it does not establish species, treatment, clarity grade or value.
Use only clean water, briefly, and keep the material, camera and light the same. Do not wet opal, porous material, matrix specimens, water-sensitive coatings or anything you are unsure about. In that case, send dry images and say why it was not wetted.
2. Hold it up to the light — this shows the inside
A reflected-light view and a transmitted-light view reveal different apparent features. Where material transmits light, a bright neutral overcast background may make apparent zoning, inclusions, fractures or transparency differences easier to record.
The view is still a photograph made by a particular camera under a particular light. It is evidence for review, not a photograph of what the material is or what it is worth.
Point the stone at a bright overcast sky, or at clear sky well away from the sun — never at the sun's disc. Direct sun is so much brighter than everything else that a phone gives up and records a white blob with a black stone in front of it.
Clear blue sky can introduce a blue cast; direct sun can create hard contrast and clipped highlights. Bright white overcast is usually more neutral, but camera processing can still alter colour. Keep a neutral reference in frame and do not edit or apply filters.
3. The fifteen-second video
The single most useful thing you can send, and it takes fifteen seconds. Hold the stone up against that overcast sky and turn it slowly — right the way round, and then over.
Motion can show changes that one still frame may miss:
- Apparent zoning. Bands, corners and cores can appear or disappear as orientation changes.
- Visible internal features. Reflections from fractures, inclusions and surfaces can change as the material turns.
- Optical effects. A moving highlight, band, flash or apparent colour change needs motion and controlled lighting to document, but video alone does not identify its cause.
Slowly is the whole trick. Most people turn far too fast. Count to fifteen while you do one rotation, and keep your hand as steady as you can.
Not one instead of the other. Video is compressed hard by every messaging app, and colour is the first thing that compression throws away — so a clip is the best possible record of shape, structure and behaviour, and a poor record of colour. The still photographs provide a second record under the stated light. Together they reduce uncertainty; neither can answer every identification, treatment, origin, yield, title or value question.
4. Daylight, plain white, no flash
Outdoors in open shade is ideal — bright, but out of direct sun. Put the stones on plain white paper. A blue tarp makes everything on it look blue, a wooden table pushes everything warm, and it is the stone that gets blamed for it. Turn the flash off: it flattens the colour and blows out the surface.
If you can, keep a corner of plain white paper in the frame even for the backlit shots. It gives the reviewer a reference for an apparent colour cast; it does not make remote colour measurement exact.
5. Something for scale, every time
Use a metric ruler on the same plane as the material. Include the full ruler edge and readable markings. Coins and fingers vary and perspective distorts, so they are only a fallback rather than a measurement.
6. Stand back and crop
Every phone has a minimum focusing distance. If the image will not lock focus, move back, hold steady, tap the material on screen and use the sharp original. Cropping is acceptable; beauty filters, sharpening and colour edits are not.
7. The good ones on their own
Start with the complete parcel, then photograph selected pieces separately. State how they were selected. A selected image must not be treated as representative of the full parcel unless the evidence supports that claim.
Send whatever you like first
The form accepts an initial text submission before large files. If one photograph is all you can make, create the case and add it; the reviewer can ask for the smallest useful next step without making you begin again.
Everything above this line makes our answer better. None of it is a condition of getting one.
If we are interested, we send you a code
When we want to take a parcel further, we send you a short code — five characters, something like K7QM4. Write it on a piece of paper by hand, and take a few more photographs with that paper in the frame beside the stone.
The request states exactly which material must appear, the required views and the expiry time. A new code can be issued if the first one expires.
Media can be copied, forwarded, edited or reused. A correctly completed fresh challenge supports only one narrow finding: the respondent had recent access to the requested material. It does not prove ownership, authority to sell, identity, origin, treatment or value. The desk records those limits and keeps the challenge separate from the underlying seller claims.
If the weather is against you, or you are away from the stones, or the deadline simply passes — just say so and we will send a fresh code. It is not a test and there is nothing to fail. We would far rather send a new code than lose a parcel over a rainy afternoon.
What we can and cannot tell from a picture
Worth saying plainly, so nobody wastes effort. From photographs and video we can record apparent colour, shape, transparency, surface condition, zoning, visible fractures and how those features change with orientation. We cannot establish exact weight or dimensions, species, treatment, origin, ownership, title, certification, cutting yield or value from media alone.
A conditional range, if a buyer records one, must state its assumptions and uncertainty. A final offer is possible only after physical inspection and compliance approval, and it may differ in either direction.