March 2008 Challenge

[Doug]

Lets start off with some challenges that are related to rocks. If we want to create an image of our favorite crystal we often find ourselves dealing on the macro level.

Lighting
Steady Hand
F-Stop
Shutter Speed

These are some main topics of consideration when trying to capture the beauty of a cyrstal on film.

Lets see who can create the best image.

[Judy]

Hi Doug, I'm new to this group. Apachestone thinks I have done a good job on photographing my stones. I'm not sure what you are asking here. I use an older digital camera. I guess I do use a steady hand (someone suggested that I try a tripod, which I have but never thought of using it), I use the macro button and I zoom in, I use natural light from the window or use a full spectrum light and take the pictures on a wood table. Any other tips would be great to improve on my photos. I've tried using a towels or table clothes to take pictures on but it doesn't do any justice to the photos. Here are some samples of pictures I've attempted to take. I'm not always captioning the rainbows or inclusions in my quartz crystals.

[Doug]

Judy – I agree with Rick that the pictures are good. The rainbow is a first for me. It makes sense I’ve just never seen it captured.

In the event that you don’t want reflections or rainbows in your images you can always try diffusing your light source. Take a thin material, like a low thread count sheet, paper, and place it between your light source and the object to be photographed. If you have a work light you can set it up to directly work with your diffuser. This still presents a large amount of light but not a direct source, if you will.

Different colors would be fun to play with also.