FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[basti]

Nothing against Jeff Scovil and his book - I actually like it. But as Jesse Fisher already mentioned - it was written for analog photography!

I have this book and I think at least half of it is absolutely useless as we do not shoot on film anymore. But whats worse, there is lot of critical things missing. I would not recommend this to a beginner.

I think its still a great book, but for advanced photographer, who can recognize what is still valid and what is not.

For digital photography, I strongly recommend starting with looking for some tabletop or product (stock) photography tutorials. There are zillions of tutorials online with every detail about gear used, settings, backgrounds etc. Especially tutorials about product photography for e-shops - simple and not too technical. Use this, set up that, click, done...

AFTER you have some basic overview how backgrounds/backdrops, lights and of course cameras + lenses work, you can start testing your own setups.

Even very primitive setup (attached) can be used to produce photos suitable to pro stockphoto agencies and magazines. But it takes some practice...

[Jesse Fisher]

Another good resource is the website/blog by Zbyněk Buřival, "Photographing Minerals" at
http://www.photographingminerals.com
(link normalized by FMF)
He has also published a book on the subject, which you can order from the site.

[fuss]

Duncan, your pentax should have a manual white balance setting where you can adjust the temperature in kelvins. Try starting at 5-6k and adjust up or down as needed. Might save some time/frustration I find auto WB can be inconsistent even in a controlled setting.

[R Saunders]

[basti]

I'm honored to by mentioned by a talented photographer like you Jesse! Thank you very much!

I do not consider myself as an expert - I just publish "as I do it", so people do not have to learn everything the hard way.

[Duncan Miller]

[marvinlewinsky]

FMF input has been phenomenal – thank you all.

The next obstacle is how to take great photos of large-cabinet to Museum size specimens. I have a beautiful Calcite specimen that is about 14 inch by 14 inch by 6 inch in size. I would like to get a full view photo, rather than a group of individual photos. I do not think photo stacking would be an option here, but I could be wrong.

Anyone ever taken photos of minerals in this size range, and here I am excluding photos taken at a Museum.

[basti]

Duncan, if you use a LED light source, that might be the problem. There are 4 things which often ruin the colors - of course I tried all of them :D

1) Most LED lights except some pricy pro photo equipment cause problems with color calibration. The source of this problem is the color spectrum of LED itself. Normal lights have very broad spectrum of colors which are mixing together into one final color. Many LEDs have just very sharp and narrow peaks in the color profile. (see attached picture)

2) Other very common issue is with cheap fluorescent bulbs/LEDs, which have color temperature bellow 3500K. All camera sensors have big issues with rendering proper colors under 3000K, resulting in strange hues and/or dull colors.

3) Make sure you have no color reflections on your specimen. I have very bad experience with shooting in bright colored T-shirt. Even the very pale brown painted walls somehow managed to ruin the color calibration. This is likely not your problem, light tents solve this.

4) Mixing various light sources, like daylight + LED or halogen + LED etc. Even if the LED/other bulb is "daylight", it does not mean that daylight has the same color temperature. Try shooting in the complete darkness with only one light source and you will see if that helps.

All these things are technical limits of lights and camera sensors. Getting reliable and good light source is often very challenging - unless you use a diffused daylight of course :D

[basti]

Yes, that is fun :) So first example: I had big calcite cluster about 30 cm (13") large. I needed a daylight photo and also UV light photo, as it is fluorescent.

Both shots were made from tripod from decent distance. For daylight, I simply put several white printer papers on the floor and used 2 lights from sides. Then I had to swap the background in Photoshop.

More fun was with shooting UV fluorescence. I did that in bathroom, where I put it on the (non-fluorescent) floor tiles - unfortunately the spacing between them was filled by pale filling visible in UV. So I made my best to remove the dust from the specimen, used a self-timer and hand held UV lamp. Then I swapped the background in Photoshop too. Result is attached.

[basti]

Second example: Long elbaite crystal about 28 cm (12") shot at Munich show, directly at the dealer stand. KARP Minerals should be mentioned for their hospitality.

I used a light tent (40 cm), my headlamp as a backlight and then small reflection plate made from cardboard and alu foil. The tourmaline was very dark and quartz pale - and I had only one light source. So I used a headlamp for backlight and then also from the other sides. And because of the size, I had to focus-stack the tourmaline. So pretty complex problem.

I used a tripod of course, so all shots taken were then merged in Photoshop into layers. In the end, I used 8 shots to cover the focus stacking and various light angles and "mapped" everything into final picture. The background is Photoshop made of course.

This is a pretty extreme example of course, but sometimes you do not have a proper studio available. Where the HW is missing, the SW (and some tricks) can help.

[marvinlewinsky]

[marvinlewinsky]

What recommendations for Calcite (white) on Calcite on Quartz? It would appear that taking pictures of ‘white’ minerals always presents extra challenges. Any examples (with setups) would be appreciated!

[Matt_Zukowski]

I do not shoot through glass like many others because i find that edges of the glass limit how i can stage the shot. I use two backgrounds: black and white. I generally use black backgrounds for white minerals, white for black minerals, and then generally whatever i have up for colored minerals. The backgrounds i use are Savage Seamless Background Paper.

I attach the background paper to the edge of the desk in the foreground and then curve it up to attach to the wall behind the desk. The curve keeps any creases or seams from appearing in the picture, and sometimes adds something of a gradient to the background. Some examples of my results are attached.

BTW - i am not saying that i am a good photographer. I am just telling you what i do and showing you the results. Perhaps the info will be useful to you. Good luck.

[Bob Harman]

Mr Lewinsky,

Here are 2 examples from my collection. Both self-collected and previously pictured on this site. Both are white calcite on white quartz. Both self-photographed; altho not great, they get the message of my very large specimens across to the viewers. For the 2nd example, using a flat dark background would have been a help for me. But still they were adequately photographed!

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. For me it is time for a few pictures of your specimens to help get further suggestions. Without further discussions, some pictures now please! BOB

[marvinlewinsky]