FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[ploum]

Sorry for my english....

I try for some days / weeks a new system to realize photos of microminerals.

It is a modular system. I always keep(preserve) my bonnettes but I can add for sizes lower than 6 mm in width of field another system.

My system with bonnettes simple allowed me width of maximum 3.5 mm field to keep(preserve) a good quality.

I have imagined to use my first system of lens (close up) as an ocular and to add the second system as the objective. So i have a photographic microscope. The limits are given by the resolution of the best objective ( numerical aperture 0.4 ). My limit is 0.5 mm of FOV now but begin i keep 1 mm for limit.

[John S. White]

It would be helpful if you would include locality details with your photos. Very nice cacoxenite photo, by the way.

[ploum]

New examples

[Jordi Fabre]

Superb Ploum!

[ploum]

A pleasure Jordi :). In fact I search also small minerals, photogenic and not expensive too :).

If someone wants to see photos with my technique .... MP.

[Debbie Woolf]

Gorgeous photos, I would be interested in your set-up & what camera you use.

[ploum]

My system is not usual, i think that I am alone in using it in our small world...

In fact I use a bridge FZ28 or FZ48 panasonic

I also use close-up lenses: raynox DCR 150, 250 and msn 202 (505 is not interessant).

And for less I use a microscopic system with additional lenses. For this I use a lens tube of 200 mm (Nikon) APO. I can use also finite objective but normally I prefer this system. With this lens tube I can use all infinite objective and I have now a complete game of lenses :

=> Nikon CFI 10X, Nikon CFI 4X, Seiwa APO 20X (not used here for the moment), I should make an adaptor for 28mmx0.75 thread, I thought that it was like Nikon or Mitutoyo but not in fact !

=> Also very good lens like Componon 40 mm APO and 28 mm (not APO but as APO !)

And the OPD APO 10X that you can find on ebay. For beginning it's possible to make a system very interessant for not expensive price. You can use a DRC 150 raynox as a tube lens and a Chinese objective 4X on ebay (excellent until 2.5 mm of FOV)....

Some optic knowledge is useful. For the moment I can make photos between infiniti and 1 mm. But with Seiwa normally I can until 0.5 mm of FOV.

I hope than my English is not too bad for you...

[Herman van Dennebroek]

Very beautiful pictures Ploum!

I am very interested in the way you make these pictures.
Can you show us pictures of your equipment and how you use them?

Greetings,
Herman

[ploum]

I can show the first generation of my system (one month ago).... But you must discover some details....

In fact, I have been so criticized for my "artificial picture" (in my state) that I am careful and folded up on me.

Now the system is the same but just a little better. I have done here my way for this evolution (in French but this forum is very interessant...). It speak about optic and different systems.

https://www.lenaturaliste.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=9486
(link normalized by FMF)

On page 7 you can see my system....

You must build a primary image with your objective (and also for me a tube lens) and you use your camera (with close up) to see this image.

The magnification could be for me 20x 4.8 = 96 X..... For that I use a 20X objective and a Raynox with my 600 mm zoom.

Good luck but this system is able to be better than others and relatively simple and also not expensive....

For beginning it's better to know how to use perfectly close up and a stacking software.

[Debbie Woolf]

Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge & set up info, very interesting, one day I would like to achieve such stunning photos.

Look forward to more !

[chris]

Salut Fred,

Wonderfull pictures, would you have some more ?

Thanks

Christophe

[ploum]

Yes Chris.... :)

[John S. White]

Wonderful photos and wonderful micromounts as well. Very nice. I am impressed.

[ploum]

Ok if you like my photo a lot of could arrived !

[Jordi Fabre]

[ploum]

Ok Jordi.... compliment = photos !

Each photo is ever a compilation with stacking technic. For each 15 mn to 30 mn of work.

I have a new computer for win some time. Before 60 minutes for computer a double core. Now 1 minutes for last core i7. But photos are not automatic but some system exist but no personnality in this system.

[chris]

[Susan Robinson]

Your photos are spectacular! Finally, there is a way to have photos of micro minerals fully in focus. Keep up the good work.

[ploum]

When you take a photo of a small object, depth of field is very small. To compensate for this, 3 mathematics software exists to make a compilation = stacking. You take a picture in manual mode and you sweep all the object with micrometric system.

I take 30 - 150 picture for one photo.... And when I am done, the computer works hard at the same time.

I use the free software: Combine ZP

In fact, all photos of small things are made like this. But if photos before compilation are not good, there the final result is not good !

[weaver]

Guess for stacking pictures:

I cannot say what the original poster was doing, but I am reminded of the techniques used for animation.

Back in the day, the 2d animators invented some cameras that allowed for parallax. In recent times, 3d animators use computers to take virtual snapshots. In the 3d world of animation, computers are still often not powerful enough to achieve the ultra realism that our current film/video/CCD cameras can shoot. So they fake it.

In the 3d world, they use the same camera many times over. So they might render 3-30 "render passes." This means they take the same photograph 3 times in a row, on the same spot, but with wildly different settings. One might be a specular pass, where it simple catches B&W for the highlight of the subject. Another might be a color pass, that simply catches the colors, without other details. Ambient lighting, occlusion, etc.

Perhaps, since the rock is a fixed subject, you could have the camera do just this. Think of it as a hand-made HDR setup, that you dial into your camera manually (do they make cameras that shoot HDR at macro sizes? I am out of touch with the real camera world.) The "stacking" would be perhaps the technique of layering pictures? Similar to photo manipulation software's (Photoshop, GIMP) "Layers."

Anyway, perhaps there is a way to "fake it" using the same equipment you already have- yet achieve similar results.

~

Awesome thread. Wow! Thank you for sharing!