What do you use to shoot your photos?

[ebadevil]

So after browsing many many many threads on here, I've been incredibly impressed with the level of photography that I see

I'm very clearly not a professional photographer but my diamond arrived about a week or so ago and I've tried snapping a few pictures with no luck. I simply cannot replicate the same magnification that I see without my macro lens. Granted, my macro lens is at my parents' house so I'll have them send it to me. It's a Minolta 50mm f2.8 1:1. I'll be honest and say that I don't do much macro photography, hence why I never took the lens with me as I couldn't justify the bag space. However, from what I remember, even that lens can't achieve magnification of that kind. I'll get my parents to ship it to me in a week or so (or whenever it is that they get around to doing it), but for now, I'm wondering how it is that everyone here gets their hands on these high magnification photos.

I'm not talking 40x photos here because that's clearly not done with an SLR. I'm talking about pictures of rings and diamonds that people take in their living room or back yard.

What do you all use to shoot your photos? Is everyone running around with $700 macro lenses here? (I know the pros probably have them, but can't be everyone) Are you using smaller frame cameras to get higher magnification? I haven't brought myself to the possibility of using my P&S for this, but I can see how the tiny frame on it would allow higher zooms. That said, are most people using P&S cameras? Or are you just cropping? For those that use macro lenses, which ones do you use?

The photo below is the best that I managed to get. It's done with my Sony 28-200mm at 200mm stepped down to something like f11 I think? Clearly not the same magnification level. I can crop but quality goes out the window and you're already not starting with particularly good quality @200mm on a zoom lens...

 

[OoohShiny]

If you click my name
you can see the threads I've started (I think?), one of which contains the pictures of the CBI diamond I have bought for the other half, as in my little avatar pic.

EDIT: found it for you [URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/crafted-by-infinity-0-67ct-f-vvs2.202616/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/crafted-by-infinity-0-67ct-f-vvs2.202616/[/URL]


Like you I used a DSLR with decent zoom lens set to a small aperture to get a suitable depth of field (I can't remember the exact details now but it was something like F10 probably) but I did 'cheat' by cropping the end pictures - I don't have a macro lens so I couldn't get the diamond close to the lens to fill the image up and still be in focus. Staying away from the very ends of a zoom lens's range (so perhaps shoot at 180mm rather than 200mm) might still give you decent magnification but reduce the softness/CA that can creep in at the ends?

I'm probably teaching granny to suck eggs with the following but if you shoot with lots of light and a low ISO (sunlight or a bright but cloudy day should mean you can use ISO100 to 400) you will be able to minimise camera shake and also have low noise in the image, which will mean that quality once cropped will still be reasonable. Make sure the camera is also on the highest image quality setting as well!

All you can really do is either buy an expensive macro lens with very close focusing ability, or buy a high megapixel camera so you still have high image quality once cropped, I reckon

You could perhaps try placing a magnifying glass or a loupe between the stone and the lens, in order to increase the size of the image?


Although, all of the above said, my old Fuji bridge camera had ultra-close macro ability, like I could place things virtually touching the lens and it would still focus on them, so I might have to dig it out from whatever safe place it is currently hiding...

 

[ponder]

A $120 point and shoot with a decent macro setting. With a little patience I have achieved some really good shots.

 

[junebug17]

I use my iPhone and an app called Mag Light - it's a magnifying glass app but you can take pics and it will transfer to your camera app on your phone. I've gotten some nice pics using it, at least I think so (but a lot of trial and error involved ). Diamonds are hard to photograph.

 

[baby monster]

I use my phone for all photos. Galaxy S4. For high magnification photos, I've used a trick someone posted here. Put jeweler's loupe next to phone camera lens to take photos. Works great.

 

[ebadevil]

Thanks Shiny!

I just read the data on the photo, it was shot @ 100ISO f8 200mm (max... yuck)... I probably should've stepped it down to 200ISO, since it seems slightly underexposed and not lose much quality, or possibly go down to 400ISO and step up to like f10 for additional sharpness...

Hehe, no need for a loupe lol they sell magnifying adapters. They usually come in the 1.4x-2x form. The issues are:

1) They are still pretty expensive, $100 on the low low low end used. Probably a nifty thing to have in your bag regardless, but still, $100 ($150-$200 much more likely) can be used for something else (like putting it towards a better macro lens?)
2) I've never owned one but I hear it doesn't do good things to image quality...

You're right... it seems like there are two ways to go about this... expensive macro lens, or the most likely scenario... cropping... my 10.2MP isn't the best camera to do that on lol...

And bridge cameras... I forgot about those, I remember when I had my Panasonic bridge that I've since sold off, it had a nice macro mode... hmm... I'm not gonna go out and buy a bridge camera for this, but still... very interesting idea, can't believe I forgot that those existed as well lol...

 

[Niel]

My phone, good lighting, and lots of tries.

Currently I have an HTC one.

 

[ebadevil]

junebug... not sure if you know, does it post-process the magnified image to sharpen it afterwards or is it essentially just cropping for you?

monster... you're actually right... louple can work... I for some reason thought that it would be difficult to manage since you gotta get it a certain distance away to make sure that the image isn't inverted... but the diamond is round, so what do I really care if it gets flipped upside down lol... plus I can always rotate in post-processing... now, where do you get a 55mm wide loupe?

 

[ebadevil]

Neil,

That's pretty impressive for a phone camera... I tried with my S3 and it just didn't look right... I guess cell phone cameras took a big step since the S3 lol... good thing I'm due for an upgrade soon...

 

[yssie]

Canon S95 point and shoot @ f2.0 with a set of +2/+4 filters and occasionally a x10 loupe. I've tried a couple of "full-spectrum" lights and none of them work nearly as well for me as sunlight... black curtain behind the background and sometimes a sheet of white paper with a hole cut out for the camera lens to avoid adding reflections of myself to the pics.

 

[ebadevil]

wow impressive... looks like P&S is pretty sufficient for this task in the absence of a good macro lens... those are awesome photos Yssie... the second to last, is that with a loupe?

PS Are any of those photos cropped or is that the full image?

 

[yssie]

wow impressive... looks like P&S is pretty sufficient for this task in the absence of a good macro lens... those are awesome photos Yssie... the second to last, is that with a loupe?

I don't think so - pics with the loupe tend to have shallower, narrower DOF... the first pic of the earrings was w/ through the loupe. Based on how much of the ring is in reasonable focus I'd say no extra magnification, at most +2

Yes, they're cropped, and PS 'optimises' further. For some reason PNGs fare better than JPEGs on here - PS washes JPEGs out.
There was a thread on this several years ago...
ETA: [URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/what-would-be-a-fairly-cheap-camera-for-taking-pics-of-gems.156752/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/what-would-be-a-fairly-cheap-camera-for-taking-pics-of-gems.156752/[/URL]
First pic is my original JPEG uploaded to PS as PNG. Second is my original JPEG uploaded to PS as JPEG.





Nope, no fancy pricey equipment needed to get decent pics! Of course, I won't be getting pics like Kenny's any time soon with my tools and setup

 

[junebug17]

junebug… not sure if you know, does it post-process the magnified image to sharpen it afterwards or is it essentially just cropping for you?

Oh boy, I'm not sure I understand the question ebadevil lol! I think it just takes a pic of the magnified image and then transfers it to my camera roll. I don't think the image is processed afterwards. Here are a few I took

 

[junebug17]

Here's one just using the phone camera

 

[ame]

sometimes my DSLR (a canon) and sometimes my iPhone with either the Olloclip or the EasyMacro attachments. Both are macro attachments. The Easy Macro doesn't require you to remove your case nor does it mess up your screen protector, but I carry both with me. The Olloclip now has a free app that works well with the device for great images.

This thread has a good mix of DSLR, iPhone and EasyMacro/Olloclip images:
[URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/hubba-hubba.198793/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/hubba-hubba.198793/[/URL]

 

[ame]

Here's one just using the phone camera

Swoon.

 

[ame]

Canon S95 point and shoot @ f2.0 with a set of +2/+4 filters and occasionally a x10 loupe. I've tried a couple of "full-spectrum" lights and none of them work nearly as well for me as sunlight... black curtain behind the background and sometimes a sheet of white paper with a hole cut out for the camera lens to avoid adding reflections of myself to the pics.

*dies*

 

[WinkHPD]

I use a Nikon D 300 with a 105 mm lens in a macro filter lens that screws onto the 105 mm lens. I have it slaved to my computer through program that I purchased from Nikon that I believe is called Camera Control Pro 2. That allows me to Micro Focus on the part of the picture that I want to be in focus.

I have tried many time to focus properly without the camera being slaves to the computer, but I have never been able to do so properly. I have a great deal of respect for those who are able to get good photographs without the expensive equipment I have been forced to use.

Macro photograph is not at all easy to do without expensive equipment.

Wink

 

[WinkHPD]

By the way, when photographing a diamond, it helps to be 12 to 15 inches away from the diamond at least. This allows for enough light to hit the diamond which would be obstructed if the lens is closer to the diamond than that. I tried getting good photographs of diamonds with a close-up macro lens and the results made brilliant bright beautiful diamonds look dead and lifeless.

I have also found that cutting a hole in a white square of cardboard or stiff paper and shooting through that hole further alleviates the excessive obstruction that results in being that close to the diamond. Many of you have seen my photos, and you know that I am far from an expert photographer. Still, with enough work it is possible to get excellent looking photographs of diamonds and jewelry.

Good luck to you all,

Wink

 

[kenny]

It's a Minolta 50mm f2.8 1:1. However, from what I remember, even that lens can't achieve magnification of that kind.

I believe most people crop in after taking the pic.
This often works well enough if the camera had a high enough pixel count, especially since Pricescope squishes all the pics down to around 4 inches and drastically lowers the resolution the pic MAY have had before it was uploaded.

I'm not talking 40x photos here because that's clearly not done with an SLR.

Actually DSLRs can take very high magnification pics.

I took the above pic with my DSLR, a bellows, and a 30 year old reversed wide angle lens.
(A reversed wide gives you even more magnification than a good macro lens, but it is VERY limited in what it can do.)

The diameter of this round green diamond is 3.8 mm so that GIA laser inscription is under 1 mm long.
The inscription now measures 115 mm on my monitor; that means the magnification is over 115x for me.
If you are viewing it on a small screen like an iPad or iPhone your magnification is much lower.
(It's annoying how vendors claim a pic is 40x since they have no clue what kind of device is used to view it. Plus any device can enlarge or shrink the size of the viewing window. )

My bellows is a Nikon PB-4 I bought used from www.KEH.com for around $250.
The PB-6 is also good.
Nikon stopped making bellows long ago.
If you have Minolta gear you may need lens mount adaptors to use a Nikon Bellows.
If your lens has an aperture ring then you probably can use it with a bellows.
If it has no aperture ring you can't because the bellows has no electrical contacts to transfer the signal from the body to the lens to change the aperture.
You can buy a lens like mine at KEH for under $250. https://www.keh.com/220671/nikon-105mm-f-2-8-micro-ais-manual-focus-lens-52



The bellows goes between the body and the lens.
There is no optics/glass/lenses in it; it just holds the lens away from the body and adjustable distance.
Here is the whole set up with bellows extended only about half way.

 

[kenny]

Here is a demo of what a bellows does and why it is so useful, even if you have a good macro lens.
(Legal fine print: my 105 lens is called macro by Nikon even though it can only reach a magnification ration of 1:2.)

I took two pictures.
Both are posted here full frame.
That means no cropping was done.
You see everything that the camera saw.

Amazingly both pics used the same body and lens, and again, no cropping was done.
They only difference is a bellows was used for the lower one.

Just the body and lens:


With the bellows, fully extended, almost 10 inches ... notice the astonishing enlargement that results from just moving the lens 10" away from the camera.

 

[kenny]

Like Wink said a 50mm macro lens must be so close to the diamond that it blocks the light from getting into the crown and presents a huge black monster that the diamond has no choice but to reflect back.
A 105mm lets the camera be further away from the diamond.
A 200mm macro gives you even more working distance, 1.6 feet, but Nikon's costs $1,800.
Even at that price this holy grail of macro lenses seems to always be out of stock.
http://www.nikonusa.com/en/Nikon-Products/Product/Camera-Lenses/AF-Micro-Nikkor-200mm-f%252F4D-IF-ED.html
I want one so much but ...

I also push a white card (with a hole cut into it) onto my lens.
I made mine from those styrofoam sheets, used to insulate walls, from Home Depot.
This drastically reduces the ugly black reflections of the camera that the diamond reflects back into the lens.



You can also point light at the white card and it will be the light source for the pic ... but only if you use a lens hood, (with the card well behind the hood) and are careful to NOT let the light shine directly into the lens. (See pic above.)
If light does directly strike the lens it will bounce around in the lens and fog (wash out) all the parts of the pic that were supposed to be dark.

 

[WinkHPD]

Kenny, you are obviously seriously into photography. Those are some seriously nice quality images. What I liked most was seeing the equipment and bellows that you are using. I think it shows the amount of work that it takes to get such "effortlessly good" photos.

Wink