Photographing Gems

[Griegan]

Hey all,

I have just been down to Grabben Gullen with a few friends and found a couple of small Sapphires.

What I was curious about though was a good way of photographing them while they are lit up. I have a macro lens I would like to use so the gem needs to be unobstructed. I have seen something that looks ideal but was not sure if it was a good idea to post in that forum (Grabben Gullen Fossicking, page 2) as it is off topic from the original poster and not sure about the etiquette of mentioning the poster as I have not talked to them. It looks like a glass rod with a concave surface that the stone can sit in.

Does anyone know what this glass rod is called? If they are easily obtainable? Or have any other suggestions on a good way to present your rough gems in a photo?
Any information would be greatly appreciated.

 

[mattr]

suggestions on a good way to present your rough gems in a photo?

What about sticking a piece of printer paper over a desk lamp, putting the gem on it, taking a photo,

then turning off the lamp before the paper catches fire?

 

[Westaus]

Simple tips but really need to know what you are using to take the photo's

Macro lens? Is it on an DSLR or macro as in it says macro on my camera.

Generally the most common mistakes are -

1. Trying to get too close, all lenses have a minimum focus distance, if you go below that you will get a blurry photo. It may say 25cm people think macro is 1mm away from the thing you are trying to photo. Which it can be but that is a different type of macro.

2. Use a tripod or steady support, do not hand hold even the best in the business use a support of some sort. On a forum I used to moderate, on there was the best Macro photography I had seen, his trick (apart from years and many mods) was a broom stick he used to support the camera while he took the shot. Simple but effective.

3. Light, if you do not have enough light the camera is going to slow down and all types of bad things will happen, plenty of light is good.

A little tip most don't know but when photographing objects that are white or bright, you should push up a setting called exposure compensation or ev+ / - for dark objects you take away the ev. The camera wants to put everything in balance and a white object looks to bright so the camera says hang on lets make this a little darker it looks too bright, whereas by adding + ev you are saying NO I want it white, the reverse for black. Try this one tip alone and see an improvement in your contrast and exposures.

Start there and lets see some results.

Best of luck

 

[Varts]

 

[Griegan]

Hey again
Thankyou for the replies.

@mattr Thanks for your suggestion. I tried the paper technique with an LED torch I have which is much brighter than any light in the house. Lit through the paper results in a softer light but still too bright for the camera directly overhead or from an angle and leads to under exposure of the stones.

@Westaus Thanks for the tips. My camera is a digital SLR Canon Eos-350D and the macro lens is a true macro. I do use a tripod as I wish to avoid using the flash and lighting isn't great. I have posted a couple of pics with lighting from below through plastic using my standard 18-55mm lens and then using the macro at 1x and 2x. With the macro I have, you do need to get fairly close to focus and this is probably one of the issues I am having as well as light coming from an ideal angle. I'll have a look at my camera manual and see what results I get playing around with the ev settings.

I guess I am trying to figure out how to orient the stone while being well lit without the light dominating the picture. The 3x on the macro lens will likely have parts of the stone out of frame but I thought it might be interesting to see some surface detail. You do begin to see some surface detail at 2x but unfortunately due to picture size requirements you won't see this on the uploaded picture.

 

[Dan_Dan]

I'm a photographer by trade and work in the industry. The problem with lighting from underneath is that you will just end up silhouetting the stones, you need a brighter light source on top to get what you are after. If I wanted to keep it simple i would just pop them on a mirror and shoot them outside during the day. But to get good macro shootsuyou do need a fast shutter speed and high aperture to get some depth of field....... or maybe get a tripod.... if you don't want a tripod rest the lens on a bean bag

 

[user 1769]

Have you thought of trying them in a light tent? You could use a DIY one cut out of a cardboard box...