Photographing minerals

[Eu_citzen View Profile Find User's Posts Find User's Threads PM User E-Mail User]

Taking a good picture of a mineral specimen is a quite tricky business.

Firstly a neutral back ground can be desired.. I.e. black is often good.

Now the camera should be set to 'macro' mode, close up shots.
This is often marked by a flower on the camera.
Its often good to use natural day light, hence some lamps might fool you about the colour especially when a camera is with in the picture.
But a slightly more yellow colour flashlight might work should all else fail.

Often you get 'blurry' pics, not quite sharp detail.
The most common causes are: to close, shaking hands and bad light.
Either is pretty easy to fix...

The shaking hands are easy to just use something to rest the hands on so they can't shake to much.

The light can be solved by using a flashlight or a normal lamp.
Just make sure to check it looks like on the pics.

If your to close, get some distance.

Example of good shots.. Note the rocks are the interesting! Don't bother 'bout the surroundings.
Opal:



Some cabochon I made:
   

[Dave View Profile Find User's Posts Find User's Threads PM User E-Mail User]

EU good tips and pics
GREAT minerals

I've noticed that when doing a macro pic if I back out a little than zoom in using the lens some pics come out better than getting too close.

One of the hardest things I am trying to figure out is artificial light
I just have a rally hard time getting it soft enough to show detail but not glaring.

[mark View Profile Find User's Posts Find User's Threads PM User E-Mail User]

Good tips Eu.

[Eu_citzen View Profile Find User's Posts Find User's Threads PM User E-Mail User]

Hi Dave,
Yeah the light is the hard part... I find a black back ground does help to show the objects better when using artificial light.
Other then that different angles will usually do the trick, turn the camera and try to move around a bit from the light if you can.

Mark: thanks.

To show the effects of angles:
   

   

[Dave View Profile Find User's Posts Find User's Threads PM User E-Mail User]

EU Excellent shots.

For some reason I seem to get better shots using a dark brown background

I did try to build a light tent once but found it more effort than it was worth...must be design cause it can't be the user hu.

Macro shots can be very challenging or they can fall right in place.

[janyropal View Profile Find User's Posts Find User's Threads PM User E-Mail User]

Photographing mineral crystals is a challenge because you are trying to represent the outer shape of the crystal, while at the same time showing the transparency and color of the interior of the crystal. To do the first, you have to have reflections from faces. To do the second, you have to be able to see through the faces. Often setting up the lighting is the most time-consuming aspect of the shoot. You have to decide what you want to show, then decide how to arrange the specimen and the lighting to show it, then be able to accomplish what you have in mind to do. For a given specimen, it may be impossible, or nearly so.Two or more lights are often required, and in addition reflectors made from metal foil or white paper may be needed to create minor highlights.

[Dave View Profile Find User's Posts Find User's Threads PM User E-Mail User]

janyropal excellent summery of some of the lighting challenges

I never thought of using foil as a reflector, just seemed to be too harsh?
If ya have any cool shots, post em up for us


Ahhh and welcome to DetectorStuff.

[troy View Profile Find User's Posts Find User's Threads PM User E-Mail User]

Those are some neat pics..!!