hi everybody!
We get many requests for photos of two diamonds next each other, so prospective buyers can compare subtle shade differences.
I thought this would be a good place to showcase some of these photos.
First, let's look at a photo that has three Original Radiant Cut Diamonds, and one generic cushion modified brilliant.

Can you see the color differences?

I'll post this photo again, with the titles showing the color for each stone. In the meantime, would anyone like to guess?

I can see the differences..
But let's give one hint.
There's one stone which is a D color- and only one.
Which do you think it is?

I say the second as well~!

I'll go for the cushion, although OMC is right that you can't see what the graders saw at this angle.

The angle of the cushion makes it tough to guess where that one falls.  That D stuck out like a sore thumb to me.

I'd guess the first stone is a G, the 2nd D, the third F and the 4th E? (edit there since I typo'd)

That's a very quick guess though.

There's another aspect here at work, David - apart from the quality of the monitor and that of the retinal cells/brain, which both count. That's psychology: knowing what you are looking at makes a significant difference to the probability of finding it and finding the "differences".

It's like those "random dots" painting that if looked at the right way turn into 3D pictures: once you have figured one out, calling it back is relatively easy. If you don't know what the hidden picture is, you can stare at it for 20 minutes and all you get out of it is a headache (at least, that's what happens to me!!!).

Now, I have cropped and rearranged (moved and rotated, but not altered in any way other than that, apart from bleeping compression due to photobucket) an equal section - as large as I could cut a square without revealing the shape of the stone - of all four stones, which I numbered 1, 2, 3, 4 from left to right in the original pic. Now of course the numbers are jumbled; if anyone can rearrange them back based on colour, I'd be really impressed.

Cutting patterns are still too distinctive, clearly!

I agree OMC, that knowing the colors does make a difference.

I do think that in real life too it makes a difference.  I know in my head I went back and forth on the color of the 1st and 3rd... which was higher/lower color.  There were times when I thought the 1st was higher and times when I thought it was just the angle of the 3rd making it appear lower (more contrast in that stone) which now I know isn't right.

Unfortunately the cushion's angle made it tough to even try to guess so I picked a letter randomly 

That D though stands out though.  For some reason they always do.  Years ago, I had a jeweler show me D-H in person.  The D was the easiest for me to spot but the E and F were actually more difficult for me to guess which was which.  The G and H were increasingly obvious to me too.  I was picking stones for earrings and it was then that I realized I am happy with E and F for colorless diamonds.  D is nice, but sometimes it is almost too "white" where G and H start to be too "yellow" (for colorless obviously I like the way lower colors for ones with warmth)

Holy crap... that's two fold.

First I looked at this on my tablet (it has an excellent screen for a tablet) and I thought the difference was very noticable.  I was surprised that the two would be that far off.

The 2nd part is now on my "beast" machine the difference is even more apparent.  The W-X looks like lemonade in color and the FY looks more like the insides of the lemon before squeezed (I love lemons btw)

Thanks guys!
Here's another interesting shot.
Both stones graded "Fancy Yellow" by GIA.
Some people feel GIA is stricter on Medium and Strong Blue yellow stones
Can you see a difference here?

Well, F...ancy Yellow me! On my work computer the W-X looks nearly white. And there is next to no difference in the two FY. On my home computer (I'm working at home today, so I can get them side by side, and before the snide remarks, this is my lunch break!) there is a definite difference between the MBF and the inert FY, with the fluorescent stone clearly showing more colour.

I think it's an unavoidable result of the fact that the grading light is NOT UV free.

The W-X shows more tint on the "home" PC too. Lenovo 1 - HP 0

D, are you implying that R4018 might be rich enough in color to have been titled FIY if it didn't have the fluorescence? Did, in fact, the blue fluorescence visually knock-out enough color to make the stone appear one grade lighter?