Photography HELP!!

[lonewoodminer]

We are in big trouble geting decent pictures of our cut gems. We seem to be going okay with rough stone but hopeless with cut
So frustrating when you know you have a gem to die for sitting in front of you and we cant capture it properly on image.


We are using a M K Gem e Box (light box), trying to get even and consistant lighting.
The camera is a Fuji S7000 with a macro lense.

Any help appreciated!!


Andrew Lane

 

[The Joker]

You should be able to get good macro pictures with that camera (6.3 MP). And the camera has two macro settings (normal and super). Are your pictures not in focus? If so you may not be at the correct distance from the object.
You may find this web-site helpfull.

http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/fuji/finepix_s7000-review/

Hope this helps.

Joker....

 

[The Joker]

This information is from the middle of that web-page:

The S7000 offers two macro modes: normal and super. In normal mode, the focal range is a fairly normal 10 - 80 cm. The real action i with super macro mode, where you can get as close as 1 cm to your subject. Do note that the lens is locked at the wide-angle position in super macro mode.

Joker....

 

[lonewoodminer]

Date: 5/3/2005 9:17:22 AM
Author: The Joker
This information is from the middle of that web-page:

The S7000 offers two macro modes: normal and super. In normal mode, the focal range is a fairly normal 10 - 80 cm. The real action i with super macro mode, where you can get as close as 1 cm to your subject. Do note that the lens is locked at the wide-angle position in super macro mode.

Joker....

yes we are doing super macro mode and the problem is not focus but clarity, brightness and colour accuracy of the cut gem. If you look on our website www.aussiesapphire.com.au you will see that we are not doing a bad job of photographing the rough gems (mostly sapphires) but we just cant seem to get a good result with our cut gems. Our sapphires are mostly blue so images being over dark is a problem but if you drop the shutter speed down too far, the images are washed out. But we are even having trouble with our light coloured gems. We have some spectacular yellow and orange beryllium treated sapphires (not from our own mine - got them in a swap) that should be easy to get a good photo of but the photos are just ordinary - not as good as real life. We have tried holding them up in the light box, sitting them on the floor, on a mirror, trying outdoors in full sunlight. Just looking for some suggestions as this is getting very frustrating.

cheers
Andrew Lane

 

[lonewoodminer]

Problem Solved!!

Thanks to the pricescope crew for helping with private messages.
Special thanks to the joker and especially Richard M.

We still have some fine tuning to do but we are on the right track now. We chose to try and do all our work ourselves and keep our product at affordable rates. Using an expert in photography would be the easy way out but despite all the frustration, not as satisfying as knowing we have done it all ourselves.

Cheers Andrew Lane
www.aussiesapphire.com.au

 

[The Joker]

What did you change??? Can you share???

Are you using filters or a different light source?
I am having trouble with the color not looking just right on a lot of my pictures of my gems.

The gem in this picture should be "olive green".
Mrs. Joker calls it "ugly green",
I call it "unusual".
We settled on "unusual ugly olive green"

Joker....

 

[Michael_E]

Andrew,
The problem that I see with your pics is that you are using a light box. Throw it away. I use a bunch of really cheap light sources that work great if you can get the angles and your body in the correct position, take a bunch of pictures and keep only the best ones. The cheapest light source is outside. Here''s a shot of a sapphire somewhat lighter then the material that you''ve got, shot outside on a cloudy day sitting on a stone wall as a background.

 

[Michael_E]

Here''s a deeply colored sapphire using a high color temperature florescent ring light to light the front of it and a fiber optic light to provide a spot on top of it.

 

[Michael_E]

Here''s a tanzanite that I used a diffuser above the ring to soften the light. The diffuser is a plastic storage bowl that has been scientifically altered to be more usable, (you may read into this that I chopped it up on my bandsaw so that I could hold it in the right positions and then drilled a BIG hole through it for the camera lense). This tanzanite was designed to fit this antique setting and has a very high domed crown and shallow pavilion that gives O.K. brilliance from the top, but outstanding brilliance from a tilt of about 30 to 40 degrees from face up. Weird isn''t it ?
Anyway the object is to get the light into the stone and back out again. The camera see''s light differently than we do and it only has one "eye". If you were to place your stones on a light background, a cloth, piece of wood or stone and then have no backlighting, with the only strong lights coming from the front of the stone, I think that you''d see a dramatic improvement in the look of your pics. Another thing that can help with darker stones is to either build and use a diffuser or wear white gloves and cover yourself with a white cloth. This will make your body and hand reflections lighter and make the stone look brighter. (I would suggest the diffuser and not the sheet, you don''t want to scare your family by making them think you''ve gone crazy !)

 

[lonewoodminer]

Hi all

Good guess Michael E,a couple of $30 halogen desk lamps made all the differnce. The expensive light box is still in use but with some major but simple changes. I still believe in trying to standadise my lighting so as to try and show a consistant Gem , this may not be possible but I havnt given up yet. We dont need to hire the best phographer in the game (but it would probably help!)
Our costumers come back with bigger orders everytime so they must appreciate the quality of the Gems and sometimes overlook the photo.

Cheers Andrew Lane
www.aussiesapphire.com.au

 

[The Joker]

Michael_E and Lonewoodminer:

Thanks for the helpful tips.

"a couple of $30 halogen desk lamps made all the difference". I''ll have to try that.

Joker....

 

[strmrdr]

Try ge reveal lightbulbs in a standard light.
They have a very white light without the harshness of halogens.

 

[Richard M.]

Date: 5/10/2005 8:59

8 AM
Author: strmrdr
Try ge reveal lightbulbs in a standard light.

Do you happen to know offhand what their Kelvin rating is? Are they designed to simulate daylight?

Richard M.

 

[strmrdr]

2700K
same as most camera's flash are.
But the coating on them blocks yellow so they look whiter.
Most camera lens combos are tuned to that range so they work very very well.

 

[Richard M.]

Date: 5/10/2005 12:41

6 PM
Author: strmrdr
2700K

same as most camera''s flash are.

But the coating on them blocks yellow so they look whiter.

Most camera lens combos are tuned to that range so they work very very well.

Interesting, thanks. I''ll have to play with them a little. It appears they simply eliminate the need for a blue filter for indoor tungsten color photography. It''ll be interesting to see how they work at various white balance settings with a digicam.

Richard M.

 

[Richard M.]

I just received my June copy of Lapidary Journal. It contains the first portion of a 2-part article on jewelry/gem photography, calling upon such experts as Tino Hammid, Tinnee Lee, John Parrish, etc. The guidance is brief and very general: I call such L.J. pieces "almost" articles -- they "almost" give enough technical information to help! But by reading between the lines and brainstorming a bit, anyone in the gem photography trenches can gain helpful insights from it.

The first part deals with basic concepts like choice of camera, general observations on lighting, etc. The second will deal with manipulating digital images in Photoshop and similar programs, which despite some opinion to the contrary, have become almost essential to the gem and jewelry photographer. The purpose is not to gild the lily but to make the lily appear truly natural and lily-like. People who haven''t yet tried gem photography may have no idea how incredibly difficult it can be!

Richard M.

 

[The Joker]

Richard M.:
"The guidance is brief and very general: I call such L.J. pieces "almost" articles -- they "almost" give enough technical information to help!"

I was think the very same thing, when I read the article. Maybe "part two" will be more helpful.

Joker....