photographing peristerite, labradorite?

[Icehut]

What's the best way to show the amazing blue flash of a piece of opaque white peristerite, or the spectacular colors of a slab of labradorite?

This is opaque material; shoot it rough, slabbed, polished, under water, or...?

Thanks for any help!

[Alan F.]

The colours in labradorite and peristerite are developed inside the stone, so you are going to need a lens with sufficient focal length not to hit the surface and sufficient depth of field to pick up all the colour. As long as the surface of the stone allows the colour to shine out the nature of it seems unimportant, although intuitively, a polished surface feels like it would be better.

[Icehut]

Interesting info, thanks!

[Alan F.]

On re-reading this post it seems like one of Dr Hanneman's famous terse responses, so I will expand a little. Use a DSLR, if you haven't got one you can pick up a Nikon D60 or D80 on Ebay very reasonably (I recommend Nikon because they are solid, reliable and don't keep changing the lens mount). If if comes with a lens, check and see if it will adjust fstops on the lens, if yes, ordinary auto extension rings will do. If no, you will need electronic auto extension rings. If no lens get a 50 or 75 mm lens, a prime focus will be cheaper and give slightly better resolution. Get a table top tripod and a remote release, fit everything together, extension ring to suit the subject and view the subject through the viewfinder. Turn off the aotofocus, roughly focus by hand, then, viewing the subject through the viewfinder, play with the illumination until you get a good display. Readjust the focus until the image is at it's best, then, note the recommended exposure, turn off the autoexposure and set manually. Then make exposures adjusting the exposure and fnumber as you go until you have one that looks good. Note what you have done and soon you will be rated an expert!

[navneetagarwal1993]

Hello guys.

So I am GG - from GIA, Carlsbad 3 years ago. Last year we did a project on Labradorite and we had a call from our customer to send some amazing photos (since they know I am a photographer of gemstones). I dont think I am very good at it, simply because I have not done enough practise. Like they say practise makes a man perfect.

However when I was taking pictures of the labradorite, I came across a piece with inclusions inside and also it had a flash. So I took this picture at 45 degree anti clockwise, tilting the stone accordingly. This may have helped me because the "flash" orientation was perfectly at 45 degrees.

Hope this helps.
Navneet Agarwal

[Alan F.]

Hi Navneet, nice photo, but if I could recommend, treat yourself to a set of extension rings or a long focus lens (or maybe both) so you can get a larger image of the gem in question.

[ROM]

Icehut, I don't think it requires any fancy equipment -- just a little patience setting up lighting and orienting/framing properly. After reading the posts above I remembered a semi-polished piece of Mada labradorite I had on my bench. In the image you can still see the rough sanding marks. I shot it with my ancient Nikon Coolpix 4500 on a table-top tripod. Set-up took about 2 minutes. Not National Geographic quality but I could do better with a little more time setting things up.

DSCN1587 (375x235).jpg (74.02 KiB) Viewed 8532 times

[navneetagarwal1993]

Hi Navneet, nice photo, but if I could recommend, treat yourself to a set of extension rings or a long focus lens (or maybe both) so you can get a larger image of the gem in question.

Are you saying I need a better lense? If I do, can you suggest which one?
If I understand it correctly - Gemology online doesnt let us post images that are big. This was a 7.50 MB file which I had to reduce because of restrictions on this forum.

Navneet
Navneet Gems

[Alan F.]

Hi Naveet, When considering equipment it is important not to confuse price with quality. Often really good quality items of equipment go cheaply because they are not fashionable. This is the thinking behind my original recommendation in this thread. Think about what will do the job best, rather than what is trendy. That is why I recommend Nikon, almost all the lenses fit almost all the bodies, some of the auto exposure/focus things may not work, but the combination will still take photographs. Equally with lenses, zoom lenses are fashionable (and expensive) but prime lenses, particularly 50mm can be very reasonable, and because many millions have been manufactured quality problems are likely to have been ironed out. I would recommend getting older, but quality items (hence less expensive)and practicing.