Photographing Opals - Tips, Tricks & Techniques
Moderators: PinkDiamond, John
- opalcreations
- Posts: 624
- Joined: Thu Jun 04, 2015 4:01 pm
- Location: Nova Scotia, Canada
Re: Photographing Opals - Tips, Tricks & Techniques
Re: Photographing Opals - Tips, Tricks & Techniques
you should also white balance... as it looks like your using automatic and under tungsten lights (incandescent light-bulb)
Re: Photographing Opals - Tips, Tricks & Techniques
easy to make diffusers.
1) wax paper
2) greased paper
3) grease glass
4) sandpaper plastic
and for fun... cut a star pattern on the bottom of a cup and photo through that..
its a dream view with white blurry sides..
[you can use vaseline too, but you have to clean it too]
and when you dont have a tripod and are doing macro.
and a foam diffuser cup for flash
here is a bounce diffuser for flash
macro flash diffuser
i have used white trash bag put over a chair..
then use lots of lights on the outside and photograph underneath where the legs are
you can ALSO get a semi transparent white storage box..
you can make a wire frame and put the trashbag on that. you can even select semi clear, full white, and even other colors
use your imagination.. the image only cares about the light, and how you get that mechanically isnt recorded.
the white trashbag i use when i have to do this (in a pinch)
to do a shot like this, use the techiques above
but ALSO, have a tiny stick, and glue the ring to it, and put it through a tiny hole
then you can swivel the ring and make it float.
1) wax paper
2) greased paper
3) grease glass
4) sandpaper plastic
and for fun... cut a star pattern on the bottom of a cup and photo through that..
its a dream view with white blurry sides..
[you can use vaseline too, but you have to clean it too]
and when you dont have a tripod and are doing macro.
and a foam diffuser cup for flash
here is a bounce diffuser for flash
macro flash diffuser
i have used white trash bag put over a chair..
then use lots of lights on the outside and photograph underneath where the legs are
you can ALSO get a semi transparent white storage box..
you can make a wire frame and put the trashbag on that. you can even select semi clear, full white, and even other colors
use your imagination.. the image only cares about the light, and how you get that mechanically isnt recorded.
the white trashbag i use when i have to do this (in a pinch)
to do a shot like this, use the techiques above
but ALSO, have a tiny stick, and glue the ring to it, and put it through a tiny hole
then you can swivel the ring and make it float.
- SwordfishMining
- Posts: 4286
- Joined: Fri Jun 05, 2015 3:06 pm
- Location: Denio, NV USA
- Contact:
Re: Photographing Opals - Tips, Tricks & Techniques
Thanks for the tips. Definitely shows the effort.
I'll jump over my shadow. https://www.virginvalleyopal.com"
Opals & more at my ESTY store https://swordfishmining.etsy.com"
Opals & more at my ESTY store https://swordfishmining.etsy.com"
- PinkDiamond
- Posts: 15704
- Joined: Thu Jun 04, 2015 9:30 pm
- Location: Ozark Mountains
Re: Photographing Opals - Tips, Tricks & Techniques
Ingenious homemade equipment Art. Thanks for the tips.
Oh, and nice pendants m76.
Oh, and nice pendants m76.
PinkDiamond
ISG Registered Gemologist
· ´¨¨)) -:¦:-¸.·´ .·´¨¨))
((¸¸.·´ ..·´ There are miracles left for you to do .... -:¦:- -:¦:-
-:¦:- ((¸¸.·´* It all begins inside of you.
ISG Registered Gemologist
· ´¨¨)) -:¦:-¸.·´ .·´¨¨))
((¸¸.·´ ..·´ There are miracles left for you to do .... -:¦:- -:¦:-
-:¦:- ((¸¸.·´* It all begins inside of you.
Re: Photographing Opals - Tips, Tricks & Techniques
Very good advise & some trade tricks that are effective-thanku-
Re: Photographing Opals - Tips, Tricks & Techniques
All my pics are with tripod, my lighting is led's, fluorescent, & incandescent very basic, my camera is point & shoot auto-focus that should be upted to a manual focus for better results, so i work with basics-one of my better sets of pics is the alexandrite pendent photoed in a lighted room, in a dark room using 2 candles w/tripod, & same condition under UV light in a dark room, the pics show pretty well what good alex shows under different light conditions-no photo-shop just time involved with good results-
Re: Photographing Opals - Tips, Tricks & Techniques
Wonderful stuff... keep em coming...
photography as an art form is VERY interesting compared to others...
and here is a hard lesson... a whole days work it affected
took a bit to get that off my sensor... sucks.. eh?
whole mornings work (which is the day for light), gone...
yeah, i can remove it from the second shot, but SOOL on the first.
photography as an art form is VERY interesting compared to others...
and here is a hard lesson... a whole days work it affected
took a bit to get that off my sensor... sucks.. eh?
whole mornings work (which is the day for light), gone...
yeah, i can remove it from the second shot, but SOOL on the first.
Re: Photographing Opals - Tips, Tricks & Techniques
Ive posted pics of my pendents before, this is a little info on what i used for the shots & rotating the lights to best show the stones. the dumortierite stones & the ruby pendent were hung on a bannana stand with a movable hook for rotation, lighting was moved, shaded or altered for best results, all pics on tripod w/timer to reduce movement of camera. The dumortierite 3 stone item is a timed shot, the upper stone is in the mounting,
crown side down to show the crystals in the quartz, all 3 stones are brazilian & show the slight blue color of the dumort crystals pretty well. The ruby pendent shows 4 stones, the 3 rubies are quite clean & show untreated silk in all stones, the pendent was shot to show clairity & color while reducing glair on the stones. The pendent is shown in daylight & UV light, the rubies show as hot coals & are mozambique origin. The 2 stone topaz & tourmaline is a favorite, the stones were extremely well cut in Pa. The material is flawless, colors & clairity are such to appear as clean crystal, both stones are over 11cts. The pics show even color, & cut about the best-