Frustrationnnnnnnn!

[JewelFreak]

Received the tourmaline from Steve Wallner -- it is really pretty, can't stop looking at it. Cushion, 8.9 x 8.9 x 6.8, 3.04 cts. He describes it as peach...kind of....but it's a tad soft peachy tangerine, has a copper modifier, it's beautiful & subtle & saturated. In low light it glows neon.

Can't describe it and can't get even a bad photo showing its color, been trying all afternoon. I look at it -- peachy/tangerine with darker coppery lines where the facets are, you can look from above right through to the culet. I peek in my viewfinder -- and see a ]brown lump. Have tried sunlight, shade & in between. My camera is a Canon point & shoot w/ a lot of possible adjustments -- tried adjusting saturation, contrast, white. Brown lump each time. Ditto shutter speed, lens opening. Finally laid the little uncooperative beauty on my scanner & scanned it -- at least achieved an orange & brown lump!

Steve's vendor pic doesn't do it justice either -- has a yellow cast which isn't there at all. Will keep trying -- this is a harder color to get than greens. Unfortunately I don't have the $$$ for a fancy camera, nor the smarts to figure out how to use one! Ho hum....want your advice on how to set this child but got to show it to you first!

--- Laurie

 

[Largosmom]

Sometimes the sensors that capture the color in the camera just are not able to "see" what we see with our human eyes. It's not your fault, and I think it is a beautiful stone even if I have to use my imagination a bit regarding the color.

Have you tried some different color backgrounds such as black, grey or blue? Sometimes those can help the camera adjust.

Mine has difficulty picking up some blues.

Laura

 

[VapidLapid]

well if your canon is like mine you can try pressing the func-set button in the middle of the navigation ring thing. Menu opens on left (all this in manual) from top scroll down through exposure compensation (which you should get familiar with if you arent already) white balance next on mine is a thing called "my colors" in this you can select for a bias to a tone, say green if you're trying to photograph an emerald or tsav. there is a neutral setting and a vivid setting. I find the vivid is good for stones though bad for people. try setting it to vivid. then scroll down one more to metering mode. choose spot. With spot you meter and focus in just that center spot in the frame by pressing the shutter button halfway and holding it there. This will set the exposure for that spot at 18% gray which means halfway tween white and black. With the button still halfway pressed you can now recompose the picture anyway you want, except for moving closer or further away which would require a new focus.
With the exposure compensation setting I mentioned you could chose say -2 then when you meter the spot you want is will expose 2 stops under that which can be useful with over lit subjects, or go +1 or 2 to increase the exposure for subjects in shade

 

[LD]

Sometimes the sensors that capture the color in the camera just are not able to "see" what we see with our human eyes. It's not your fault, and I think it is a beautiful stone even if I have to use my imagination a bit regarding the color.

Have you tried some different color backgrounds such as black, grey or blue? Sometimes those can help the camera adjust.

Mine has difficulty picking up some blues.

Laura

+1 It's the only way I can get near to some colours.

 

[JewelFreak]

Thank you, Largosmom, VL & LD -- Sounds like our cameras are alike, VL -- I did some of what you suggested but didn't try the Vivid selection, will give that a shot. Took pics on white background, then a gray rug, neither was a winner - maybe a dark one would do better. I really want to get something decent so you can see what a pretty thing has come to live with me & give me suggestions for setting it. Cannot see it with diamonds, halo (no! no!) or sidestones. It's big enough & has enough flash to stand on its own, might do best in a simple prong setting.

Anyway, back to the grindstone -- hope to have better results tomorrow & thanks again for your help.

--- Laurie

 

[Arcadian]

Thats a beautiful stone and I can see why your having grief taking pictures of it. So you have my sympathies...lol

I have a Panasonic G1, which can turn really red into tomato-red. My sony dosen't have that problem but does have issues with purer green.

Its all in the sensor of these cameras. They can only do so much, but they can't always mimic what our eyes actually see. all I can say is um... keep trying? ~runs~

Hmm.. rose gold or high carat yellow gold maybe? I can see it with some lovely side stones, but a halo would be chancy given its coloring.



-A

 

[ruffysdad]

Hi JF,

Sounds like you've got a camera like mine also. I've been taking a lot of shots against a piece of cardboard sprayed with a cheap primer gray spray paint. I also use the center button to go to the type of light I'm using and shoot my pics from a distance of about 10-12 inches then crop them to a close up view using gimp software provided free at gimp.org. I have difusers over my lights (2 GE Reveal, 60 watt bulbs) set about 18 to 24 inches away. Lately I've replaced the cardboard with a flat bottomed piece of tupperware that lets a little light in from under the stone. Either way, it's still hard to duplicate the color return of some stones that you get from sunlight but here in the Pac NW we don't get much of that . Hope this'll help you out.

Pete

 

[JewelFreak]

Ruffysdad, thanks for the suggestions. I'll give it a try today. Lower light might help, at least it's something I haven't done yet & different backgrounds are a good idea.

Arcadian -- yes, I see it in yellow gold too. Think rg would clash a little with its peachy/coppery tone. I wish I could take it to a B&M store & try it w/various types of settings -- a halo would drown it out, but maybe sidestones. That's why I'm annoyed not to be able to get even close to its unusual color & flash in a pic; advice would help a lot! Will keep trying.

--- Laurie

 

[baby nurse]

JewelFreak, it looks like a really cool stone! I love the faceting on it; I've never bought from him. Keep trying to get those pictures, I would love to get a better idea of what it looks like!

 

[Sizzle]

I'm thinking yellow gold, milgrain bezel to accent the shape.

 

[JewelFreak]

Sizzle, funny, I was thinking of milgrain today. Great minds, huh?

-- Laurie

 

[ruffysdad]

One other thing I've tried that helped in a few cases was to take a shot of the stone against a multicolored background. In my case, it was some agate and jasper slabs I had laying around. It seemed the the colors would balance themselves that way as long as I had the camera set up for the proper light source. Looking forward to seeing the revised pics. Good luck

Pete

 

[stci]

Sometimes the sensors that capture the color in the camera just are not able to "see" what we see with our human eyes. It's not your fault, and I think it is a beautiful stone even if I have to use my imagination a bit regarding the color.

Have you tried some different color backgrounds such as black, grey or blue? Sometimes those can help the camera adjust.

Mine has difficulty picking up some blues.

Laura

I would like a camera who can catch the color like human eyes! I'm the first in list to buy one!

 

[JewelFreak]

Good thought, Pete, that other colors might help the camera adjust. I'll see what I can find around here that wouldn't overwhelm the stone's color. Many thanks for the suggestion.

Sylvie, no, I"M first!!!!

 

[Largosmom]

I'd be in line behind you for that camera...

 

[Harriet]

Hi,
Which Canon model do you have?

 

[ruffysdad]

Canon SX200IS

 

[CaraMish]

It's a gorgeous gem, even if you cannot accurately capture it's true colour on camera. We of all people understand how truly difficult it is to photograph gemstones-I have several lovely gems that simply refuse to pose pretty for the camera regardless of how I try to photograph them.