Gemstone Photography - Technical Topic

Mr Magoo said:

Theduke said:

After days of researching and racking my brain with the exact words to search to define what I want to know I found a interesting read. Its surprising easy if I read right lol

https://petapixel.com/2017/09/21/using-ultraviolet-light-make-nature-fluoresce-photos/

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Should of just followed that link when I gave it to you two days ago.

"surprising easy". Possibly. But surprisingly expensive filters.

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:lol: :lol: I dont know what I was thinking I thought I looked through all those links

Interesting subject by the way. :Y:

Hi Folks; Been crazy busy of late and not had a chance to do any macro photography, however today I shouted myself a belated Christmas present. I had been toying with the idea of acquiring this new glass for some time and looking at what you folk were doing with gemstone photography, I thought why not, it will be very handy for product and food photography which I do frequently, anyway that was my thoughts on justifying the cost.

I've had a quick play in the backyard and the lense is super sharp and the dual image stabilisation makes hand-holding shots a breeze.
Thanks to Mr Magoo I have some cut stones to try some different ideas on producing some interesting gemstone shots, just got to put some time aside to do a bit of experimenting.

Above is a hand held shot of the top of one of the better halfs flowers.
Cheers, SinHof.

Nice new tool Sinhof. erfect:

Thanks Jaros, looking forward to putting it to good use, got a couple of projects on-the-go at the moment that will require a fair bit of photography to complete them.
Cheers, Sinhof.

Nice hunk of glass, does it have the 1:1 button like the Olympus 60mm?

Hi Dihusky, no does not have a 1:1 button; the lense focuses to 1:1 though, I've only had a shot trial run with it thus far, perhaps tomorrow or certainly next week I will have time to really have a good trial with it. I have to illustrate an article I'm working on including some close-up shots so will be a good chance to put it through its paces. The reviews that I've read rave on quite a bit on how sharp the images are taken with it; when I've had a play with some cut stones I'll through up some images here for critique from you folk.
Cheers, SinHof.

Hi Folks, Just had a shot at photographing a cut stone with the new lense, still early days with the new glass and trying different backgrounds/lighting; anyway here is the first attempt, not too worried about the dust at this stage.

Cheers, SinHof.

Awesome ... that lens doesn't miss much! Lighting looks simple, good and effective, shows the stone in all its glory

Hi Dihusky, Like you said simple lighting; open shad window lighting, also had a small black disk on a thin wooden skewer to tame a couple of the highlights. Thought I would give non-reflective backgrounds a try also, anyway still plenty of options to experiment with going forward, fun fun fun.
Cheers SinHof.

Now that does the trick, nice clear and crisp image. :Y:

How far away from the stone does the camera lense need to sit?

Fun indeed, the colour and detail has come through so well, not sure there are too many improvements and still avoiding the 'bling' shine.

Hi Wally, the new glass is a 100mm macro that focuses to 1:1, the lens in this shot was 5.5 inches/140cm; from the stone; lens to subject distance will vary depending on lens focal length and the degree of magnification required.
Dihusky, I must admit I'm having a bit of fun with macro stuff, I have a project coming up shortly that will require some macro shots of that yellow metal in its many forms and shapes, it's good to run up a few hours with the new lens and get a feel for how best to use it.
Cheers, Sinhof.

That looks fantastic SinHof. That shot has breathed some real light into that stone. :rainbow: :Y:

Hi guys, A footnote to the above shot. The image was shot in Canon Raw format and Adobe RGB colour space. While the "as shot" image was quite nice there were a few aspects that required some minor attention in post processing with Adobe Lightroom. First up in Lightroom, the colour space was converted to Pro RGB 16 bit, a small amount of cropping was applied, the white balance was corrected slightly. The overall exposure was increased slightly, the over exposed highlights were reduced by a small amount so as to reveal the detail in the facets; no attempt was made to spot out the dust. Finally an appropriate amount of sharpening was applied ( not that the image was not sharp in the first place) sharpening to some degree is always applied to most digital images during post processing. To round out the shot the colours space was converted to sRGB for web presentation to exhibit the stones true colours on most computer monitors, the image was exported as a JPEG file 2000 pixels wide to display on the PA forum. There you have the full story, hope this has not confused everyone too much; the take-away message is to strive for the best possible image "in camera" and the finer details polished in post processing. Cruising the web looking at youtube videos etal; pro jewellery photographers for the most part use appropriate adjustments in post processing, being very careful not to over state the subject they are photographing
Cheers, SinHof.

Wow, Ok... have used Raw occasionally, never used Adobe, play a little with Corel but mainly for a bit of cropping and some contrast tweaks and that it. Never do much else, just try to get it right in camera as I have no clue about what you've described

Good evening Dihuski,
I was fortunate to have a mentor who coached me through the film to digital transition; the above footnote is pretty much standard practice for the photographic work I do for the publishers that I submit material to, other than the final export, for the most part TIF file format for printing rather than JPEG/sRGB for the net. Adobe Lightroom is fab post processing software, very intuitive to use and does not take all that long to become proficient with it. For anyone serious about their digital photography in this day and age LR could be said to be a must have on their editing computer.

Here you go, work in progress earlier today in Lightroom.
Cheers, SinHof.

Hi Mr Magoo, Thanks for the nice comment, this gem stone photography is bloody contagious, can't get it out of my head at the moment. Just at the moment the dinning table in the family room is covered in props and a load of other photographic stuff, like I commented to Dihuski, it's a lot of fun and quite challenging. Thanks again for the stones to experiment with, more to follow.
Cheers, SinHof.

Morning Folks, Tried another background with the amber coloured stone, had to be careful not to distract attention away from the stone, the hero so to speak. When time permits I will have another crack at this one with the stone lifted out of the reef gold far enough so that the background is nicely out of focus.

Till next time, have a great day.
Cheers, SinHof

Oooo, that's not being kind to the polish, hope they're smudges not 'cathair'