How to create a 360° diamond vertical view with PackshotMacro DIS?

From your Loose Diamond Kit, available with the PackshotMacro DIS photo studio, you will need the following tools:

1- Acrylic panel

2- 5 mirror matrixes (1 for back light panel, 2 for front doors and 2 for side doors)

3- 2 black square matrixes (to cover the side doors matrixes)

4- Circular cover plate

5- Air caps

6- Black wall background

7- Reflector mirror

8- Hood

9- Tweezers

• Insert the acrylic panel on the top and then the mirror matrixes on the back, front doors and side doors. Next, enter the 2 black square matrixes in the side doors mirror matrixes (photo 1)
• Place the circular cover plate over the middle support of the studio (photo 2)
• Select an air cap according to the size of your diamond and place it on the middle support, making sure it locks with the air cap (photo 3)
• Set the black wall background, reflector plate and hood in positions as shown in picture 4

Adjust vertically your camera until the lens is pointing horizontally on the same plane as the air cap.

Tips: In order to save a great amount of time when centering the camera with the diamond, we highly recommend purchasing the MacroStand to combine with your PackshotMacro DIS

Before placing your diamond in the studio, clean it properly with a thread free microfiber cloth or a steam cleaner. Then, on the software, press the turntable controls and turn ON the air suction mode.

Next, with the tweezer, place the diamond vertically with its girdle sitting in between the air cap hole. Use the positioning rulers to correctly center it.

Note: If the diamond will not stay upright, try changing out the air cap to one with a wider opening. 

After your diamond is well centered:

• Use the turntable controls to turn your diamond until its table is facing the camera.
• Turn OFF the depth of field toggle
• Zoom in 10x for a more precise view
• Manually focus on the star facets adjacent to the diamonds table. The focusing area will depend on your diamond’ shape. Use the image bellow as a guide.
• When your diamond is focused, turn back ON the depth of field

Choose 360 as the capturing mode. After, click on options, then workflows and select the apply QuickShot mode box.

For your camera settings, choose an aperture value between 13 and 16 to obtain a sharp 360° diamond vertical view. Select 1/13 as the shutter speed and 200 for ISO. Then, click on the picture style button and adjust the sharpness to 7. The rest should be 0.

Turn off all lights in your studio leaving only the top light at 100%. Make sure all doors in the studio are closed and the outside lights are turned off as well . Diamonds are very sensitive to outdoor lighting.

‌Adjust the reflector plate to enhance the diamonds cut. Move it left, right, or forward until the diamond’s cuts and arrows become more visible and defined.

Under animation settings choose the number of images that will make up your 360° animation. We recommend to choose a value between 90 or higher. The more images, the better and smoother the view. Keep the turntable’ speed as normal or set it to high.

Now you are all set, press snap to start creating your view 360° diamond vertical view.

Your 360° vertical view is ready to be exported. Before, personalize it with buttons such as deep zoom, play/pause, full screen, hyperlinks and many more. Learn how  with our tutorial How to fully customize a 360° diamond animation?.