FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[James Catmur]

You are best taking photos of specimens on plain white backgrounds - that way the camera focuses on the specimen not the background. The first photo is a nice one of the background, but the specimen is out of focus.

[Jim Wilkinson]

"You are best taking photos of specimens on plain white backgrounds - that way the camera focuses on the specimen not the background. The first photo is a nice one of the background, but the specimen is out of focus."

I was told to use a black background when I submitted other photos to Mindat. White was a no no.

Here is a link to minerals in Delaware. Some are on dark and some on light background. Most are a little out of focus. Would you give the same comment to these specimens as you did to mine? I am curious because I usually do not see any comments on this site about photo backgrounds.

Thank you.

https://www.mineral-forum.com/message-board/viewtopic.php?p=15049#15049

[James Catmur]

I learnt about the 'plain white background' on MinDat.

The ideal, I think, is that the background must have no pattern so the camera does not focus on the background. I have used black myself, but black with no pattern and a manual focus SLR. With auto focus cameras plain white and no other objects seems to work well.

[Jim Wilkinson]

Good to know. Thanks!