FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[ploum]

Hello John,

Your package is arrived for Christmas.... I'll make photo today with...

Thanks

Fred

Interessant specimen i can take 6-7 photo with.... I begin...

She is clean now, very interessant specimen John.... Hum i try to make the best photo.

[ploum]

some photos of the specimen,

I can send better size John.

Bigger here
https://www.alpinismeetmineraux.fr/mineralogie/macro/macro3/supermacrosom36.htm

https://www.alpinismeetmineraux.fr/mineralogie/macro/macro3/supermacrosom37.htm
(links normalized by FMF)

[John S. White]

Well that really is exciting. I knew that specimen had great potential and that is why I wanted it to go to someone who could take wonderful photographs of it. You did not disappoint me Frederic, your photos are fantastic! Thank you for sharing them.

[ploum]

Hi John,

i'm happy if it's good for you. I try to do others photos it's a pleasure.

I must change lightning for that....

Fred

[ploum]

Hello everybody,

2 others photographs. When crystal is dark the difficult increase and i present my new result....

On the link also (better definition)

[Pete Modreski]

Yes, those are certainly great pictures! Fine photographic work, Frederic, and thanks for sharing them.

[Pete Richards]

I have been amazed by your photographs (as have many others), Fred (aka Ploum). I would think that the distance between the lens and your sample must be very small. I have two questions:
1: are these single images or are they composites?
2: more importantly, how do you do the lighting? So often, multiple faces of crystals in your images all show up with their own brightness, none burned out, and none in the darkness. This is usually very hard to accomplish!

[ploum]

Thanks for your comments.

Pete i'll try to explain with my english.... Not easy.

Ligthning is not so hard when you understand some principle. For dark and shiny cristal the best solution is a perfect diffusion of the light. The colour of rutile is done by reflection in a white box for example Dark becomes grey. The most simple is tracing paper....

The distance is not a problem in these example. With DCR 250 the focal lenght is ~ 10 cm.

For the monazite i use a microsocpic objective like the nikon CFI achromat (not plan). Working distance is 30 mm it's very good in fact. But the definition was not enough also i have take the componon 28 mm. Working distance is ~ 25 mm and it's good too.

Problem begin for smaller specimen than monazite. In this case i use a nikon CFI 10x with WD 10.5 mm.... It's not perfect. Or you can use clone or true LWD objective as mitutoyo but pricses are important. Nearly i try to find a true mitutoyo but for the moment i have clone.

I hope than you can understand these informations.

Tracing paper is interessant beacause diffusion is important and light is enough directional too with spot.

And image are all composite.
Fred

[ploum]

Last generation photo.....

[ploum]

I try i try :)

I begin this specimen.

Thanks John.

[ploum]

Better soon....

[John S. White]

Hi Frederic:

Your photos are much finer than I imagined they could be. This is a very old specimen collected perhaps 100 years ago. All I can say is WOW!!

[ploum]

;). Not easy to take.

[ploum]

;)

[Mark Randle]

Wow. I dig this material and I rarely get to see it that way. That first monazite image is especially wonderful. Thanks for posting and thanks to John for sending it to you.

Cheers,
Mark