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[toby]

Help!
I'm trying to get results like the Tiffany shots.
I'm nearly there but how can I get hard blacks fading out to highlights? I can get nice diffused highlights but the shiny jewellery looks satin. If I put in blacks they're black from edge to edge. How do I get a black line in jewellery that fades and hence makes the surface look shiny? I have a circular plinth with diffusion paper wrapped around leaving a vertical slit for the camera to see through. The base is perspex so I get my reflection. I've tried lights in almost every position. I've tried soft boxes and point sources. I've hung felt strips inside, and outside, the diffusion paper but nothing gives me that Tiffany look completely. With any jewellery that has stones, or complex shape, the results are great as the black from the vertical slit gets bounced around by the jewellery itself. But when photographing a simple polished band it looks satin. I'm using Nikon D3x with 100mm macro at f22. Can it all be done in camera, or is the zing put in post capture?

Thanks in advance,

Toby