2 new fancy colored diamonds, blue & green
- Thread starter kenny
- Start date
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2005
- Messages
- 33,276
Thanks Ideal.
What did you buy?
Start a new thread with pics please.
BTW, I don't own the above deep blue any more.
If you care to you can follow the changes in the collection in this long saga: [URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/fancy-colored-diamond-collection.159746/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/fancy-colored-diamond-collection.159746/[/URL]
What did you buy?
Start a new thread with pics please.
BTW, I don't own the above deep blue any more.
If you care to you can follow the changes in the collection in this long saga: [URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/fancy-colored-diamond-collection.159746/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/fancy-colored-diamond-collection.159746/[/URL]
vinkalmann
Shiny_Rock
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2009
- Messages
- 231
acebruin|1315938927|3016662 said:oh man kenny... i thought you got a new blue and a new green!!!
I thought the same thing and thought "He's a man possessed!"
PS: I'm very jealous of your pictures. As hard as I try, I can't seem to take anything decent. Either the color comes out completely wrong or I end up with big flashes from the stone's facets. Back to the drawing board I guess. It's totally frustrating since I'm right behind the camera and the stone looks just like a want, yet it doesn't ever seem to translate right. Any tips? I definitely don't have close to the camera setup you do, but any pointers you can give with a Canon G12?
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2005
- Messages
- 33,276
Well buying a Fancy Vivid Green VVS1 4 ct and a Fancy Vivid Blue 5 ct IF was in my plans but my banker laughed me out of her office.
Macro gem work requires three things.
Good Gear
Good Lighting
Good Technique
Maximizing the later 2 can help a great deal if you lack the first.
I looked up your Canon G12 camera.
Unfortunately it does not have interchangeable lenses so you cannot put a full on macro lens onto it, but the following will help you, or someone with the best equipment, to get groovy results.
Even with my fancy photography gear (certainly not the best but quite good) I need a lot of time and experimentation and must plog through a series of rejected pics to finally squeeze the best results I can get out of my equipment.
Be patient; expect to devote many hours or even days to reach the limit of what your gear can do.
BTW your camera CAN use a $149 Tele Converter TC-DC58D, but I don't know if it helps you focus closer or enlarges the image on the sensor for macro work - I'd call Calumet, B&H or Adorama in NY and ask them.
If it does not make the image larger on your sensor at closest focus for your camera's macro setting then don't waste your money.
Set your camera to its macro setting.
Buy a tripod, as heavy as possible, or set your camera on stacked books that are positioned so you don't have to touch the camera during the exposure since that would shake the camera and blur the pic.
Set your camera to take the pic with its timer because just touching the camera to take the pic at high magnification results in vibration that takes 10 or 15 seconds to die down.
In macro work maximum light is your best friend.
I just buy cheapo aluminum light reflector fixtures from Home Depot for $4 and cheapo CFL bulbs that have a color temp of 5000K.
Look in your camera's owner's manual for how to properly white balance for the light source used.
Get TOOOOOOOOOOOOONS of light into a light box you can buy . . . http://store.tabletopstudio-store.com/ezlite.html..........
You can make one yourself by cutting the middle of 5 sides out of a cardboard box and replace the sides with white cloth or very thin translucent white paper.
Cut a hole in the white cloth of the front for your camera to see through.
Set your camera for macro and ISO = 100.
If you get enough light into the box your camera will force the lens to stop down to the setting with the smallest aperture which will give you the best depth of field.
Close up photography means shallow depth of field so you want your camera to fight this as much as it can by providing VERY bright light.
Shadowless and even light from a light box will reduce the contrast in gems and help you see the color of the gem instead of just bright and dark facets.
Often I hand-hold and move around the light sources to optimize the lighting and reflections while looking into the camera.
Experiment a lot with positioning of your diamond placed on a raised piece of glass or plexiglass.
Next, if you have a mac don't be shy of using ALL the settings in iPhoto to bring the exposure and white balance back to what you remember seeing with your naked eye.
Even the best camera are not as smart and good as your eye/brain/memory.
Photoshop is even more flexible than iPhoto.
Macro gem work requires three things.
Good Gear
Good Lighting
Good Technique
Maximizing the later 2 can help a great deal if you lack the first.
I looked up your Canon G12 camera.
Unfortunately it does not have interchangeable lenses so you cannot put a full on macro lens onto it, but the following will help you, or someone with the best equipment, to get groovy results.
Even with my fancy photography gear (certainly not the best but quite good) I need a lot of time and experimentation and must plog through a series of rejected pics to finally squeeze the best results I can get out of my equipment.
Be patient; expect to devote many hours or even days to reach the limit of what your gear can do.
BTW your camera CAN use a $149 Tele Converter TC-DC58D, but I don't know if it helps you focus closer or enlarges the image on the sensor for macro work - I'd call Calumet, B&H or Adorama in NY and ask them.
If it does not make the image larger on your sensor at closest focus for your camera's macro setting then don't waste your money.
Set your camera to its macro setting.
Buy a tripod, as heavy as possible, or set your camera on stacked books that are positioned so you don't have to touch the camera during the exposure since that would shake the camera and blur the pic.
Set your camera to take the pic with its timer because just touching the camera to take the pic at high magnification results in vibration that takes 10 or 15 seconds to die down.
In macro work maximum light is your best friend.
I just buy cheapo aluminum light reflector fixtures from Home Depot for $4 and cheapo CFL bulbs that have a color temp of 5000K.
Look in your camera's owner's manual for how to properly white balance for the light source used.
Get TOOOOOOOOOOOOONS of light into a light box you can buy . . . http://store.tabletopstudio-store.com/ezlite.html..........
You can make one yourself by cutting the middle of 5 sides out of a cardboard box and replace the sides with white cloth or very thin translucent white paper.
Cut a hole in the white cloth of the front for your camera to see through.
Set your camera for macro and ISO = 100.
If you get enough light into the box your camera will force the lens to stop down to the setting with the smallest aperture which will give you the best depth of field.
Close up photography means shallow depth of field so you want your camera to fight this as much as it can by providing VERY bright light.
Shadowless and even light from a light box will reduce the contrast in gems and help you see the color of the gem instead of just bright and dark facets.
Often I hand-hold and move around the light sources to optimize the lighting and reflections while looking into the camera.
Experiment a lot with positioning of your diamond placed on a raised piece of glass or plexiglass.
Next, if you have a mac don't be shy of using ALL the settings in iPhoto to bring the exposure and white balance back to what you remember seeing with your naked eye.
Even the best camera are not as smart and good as your eye/brain/memory.
Photoshop is even more flexible than iPhoto.
vinkalmann
Shiny_Rock
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2009
- Messages
- 231
Wow, thanks for taking the time to write all that up. There are some really good tips in there. For example, I never would have thought about using a timer. I was using a tripod, but was always bumping the camera so slightly when hitting the shutter button.
I will definitely try the light box idea. I was using the camera in macro mode with aperture priority mode with a small aperture and then fiddling with the shutter speed which worked fairly well, but I was getting lots of facet reflections. It sounds like the box may help with this. I'll do as you suggest to give it lots of light and leave it in auto mode and see what happens.
Thanks again, I appreciate it!
I will definitely try the light box idea. I was using the camera in macro mode with aperture priority mode with a small aperture and then fiddling with the shutter speed which worked fairly well, but I was getting lots of facet reflections. It sounds like the box may help with this. I'll do as you suggest to give it lots of light and leave it in auto mode and see what happens.
Thanks again, I appreciate it!
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