richardh
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 391
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Post by richardh on Dec 30, 2016 23:50:15 GMT -5
This afternoon I pulled my latest batch of rocks out of the tumbler and they seemed shiny enough for me to call them done. I have been having some challenges with what I assume is bruising so I was running mostly ceramic media and only a few rocks. This seems to have mostly solved the bruising problem. By the time I have this much invested in my rocks I get a little paranoid about messing them up. For Christmas I got an external flash and a soft box and this was my first opportunity to really try them out. I’m still figuring out how to get the exposure the way I want it right out of the camera. I am having trouble getting the photos bright enough. I tried adjusting the flash exposure compensation but for some reason it seems to have no effect. I think the flash isn’t powerful enough to get the amount of illumination I need. Anyway, here’s the group shot: In this group there is a piece of San Jacinto pet wood and to the right of it another rock from the San Jacinto. I don’t know what it is but thought it was really neat looking. In this shot are three rocks that I picked up near Zapata, TX on a bird watching outing. The red one is carnelian I believe. The bottom left rock is one I found in the San Jacinto, I think it is a piece of pet wood. The plum colored rock on the bottom right is another from the San Jacinto (jasper?). The top right is another rock from the Rio Grande near Zapata, TX. The lower middle rock is a piece of “sea jasper” I bought on ebay. I’m not sure what the top two rocks are or where they came from but I believe they are the same material. Maybe they came from Garagerocker? Thanks for looking!
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Post by wigglinrocks on Dec 30, 2016 23:59:28 GMT -5
Darn nice looking bunch of rock . I think the lighting is great , shows off the awesome polish you put on the rocks .
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richardh
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 391
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Post by richardh on Dec 31, 2016 0:02:05 GMT -5
Thanks wigglinrocks! I forgot to add this shot to the bunch:
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Post by Jugglerguy on Dec 31, 2016 0:04:58 GMT -5
I love that bottom middle rock in the second picture, the red and gray one. Great batch, and I think the pictures look great.
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richardh
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 391
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Post by richardh on Dec 31, 2016 0:09:54 GMT -5
I love that bottom middle rock in the second picture, the red and gray one. Great batch, and I think the pictures look great. Thanks! I am pretty sure that came from a bag of mixed rough from India.
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Post by accidentalrockhound on Dec 31, 2016 4:14:32 GMT -5
Some very nice tumbles can't ask fir anything more in a random batch like that them there some nice rocks !
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sdrockgal
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Member since December 2016
Posts: 87
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Post by sdrockgal on Dec 31, 2016 8:43:49 GMT -5
These are gorgeous!
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ChicagoDave
has rocks in the head
Member since June 2016
Posts: 720
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Post by ChicagoDave on Dec 31, 2016 9:53:56 GMT -5
I agree with Rob, that red/grey rock is great. Also like the red rock in the middle of your second post. Great shine and I think the pictures are also really good.
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Post by MrMike on Dec 31, 2016 22:07:25 GMT -5
Great batch Richard. Agree with Rob & Dave on the cool metallic gray/red rock.
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Post by pghram on Dec 31, 2016 23:12:41 GMT -5
Beautiful batch and great photos too.
Peace,
Rich
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Post by Garage Rocker on Jan 1, 2017 17:14:41 GMT -5
Nice work on those. Props for the all rotary tumble, that takes real patience. The pics look good now, did you have to brighten them? Is your flash close enough to the rocks? If they aren't bright enough at first, have you adjusted the speed or aperture? We may be able to figure out how to get you what you want.
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richardh
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 391
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Post by richardh on Jan 1, 2017 19:05:26 GMT -5
I did have to brighten them on the computer to get them the way they look here. The ambient light was pretty minimal so pretty much all of the light came from the flash.
I am using a rebel camera so it isn't terribly sophisticated. I used an adapter that is plugged into the hot shoe to control the flash which is on a second tripod to the side of the camera.
At first the pictures looked dark so I adjusted the flash exposure compensation. First +1 then +2 but there was no obvious change in the brightness of the photo. I guessed that the flash was just not powerful enough for the camera settings and lightning so I opened the aperture and used a longer exposure time and eventually that made things brighter but I am wondering if the automatic metering was throwing things off somehow.
I need to play around with it when it isn't so dark and also read the manual.
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Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,426
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Post by Wooferhound on Jan 1, 2017 19:17:51 GMT -5
The All White background is causing your autoexposure to compensate for all that whitespace. If you have a "backlight" setting you should turn it on for those backgrounds. Your camera is adjusting the brightness of the Flash but is compensating by adjusting the exposure.
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richardh
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 391
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Post by richardh on Jan 1, 2017 20:23:55 GMT -5
The All White background is causing your autoexposure to compensate for all that whitespace. If you have a "backlight" setting you should turn it on for those backgrounds. Your camera is adjusting the brightness of the Flash but is compensating by adjusting the exposure. That is what I thought as well but I switched to manual exposure so unless I am misunderstanding how manual exposure works (and there is a good chance I do have a misunderstanding) I should overcome the white background problem. Shouldn't the exposure compensation cope with it? Anyway, I will be trying with a gray card and exposure lock to see if that does any better.
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richardh
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 391
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Post by richardh on Jan 2, 2017 12:53:48 GMT -5
I’ve been playing around with the camera a little more in better lighting and believe I have made some progress though the images are still coming out a bit darker than I intend. More playing needed! I ran a few rocks for a few extra days in the polish stage and took them out last night. I don’t think I can see any difference between the shine on them and those that I took out a couple of days ago. Here are the last ones from this batch: These are a couple of Lake Superior Agates. The bigger one had a couple of cracks that I just couldn’t get rid of. And here are a few individual close ups. This first one is one I picked up around George West, TX. One side shined up really nicely and the other was just full of pits. No matter how much I ground it the pits didn’t go away. This seems to be similar to what happens to 90+% of the rocks I have tried to tumble so far. Here’s the red-and metallic jasper piece. As I said earlier this one came in a mixed bag from India. You can also see that it has some pits on the left side. I couldn’t seem to get it perfectly smooth. Here is a piece of San Jacinto pet wood. This one is pretty representative of what I have been able to do with pet wood so far. I can get it pretty shiny but there are always little imperfections in the surface, no matter how much I tumble it. Any tips for a better finish? This is the piece that I liked the most; again, lots of pits in it so I never could get a perfectly smooth surface on it. The interesting thing about this one to me is that when I hold it in my hand the brown areas actually look olive green to me and in the photos they look brown. Not sure what is going on with that. Here’s another San Jacinto pet wood piece. This probably has the best finish of any that I have tumbled so far. It is a pretty small piece though. This is a piece of chert(?) that I picked up along the Rio Grande. I thought it came out pretty neat looking and is probably the most solid rock I have gotten so far. I don’t believe there are any pits or other noticeable imperfections in the surface. This one is a Bajia Agate that someone gave me.
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Post by pghram on Jan 2, 2017 18:05:37 GMT -5
I'm liking your tumble and photos very much. I especially like the metallic one. I don't think that there is anything wrong with your process, some rough just has has some issues.
The issues look minor to me.
Peace,
Rich
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grizman
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since July 2011
Posts: 878
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Post by grizman on Jan 2, 2017 19:41:38 GMT -5
Very nice photography and what a great polish. Here's my take on your concern regarding the "blems" you think you see in the larger piece of pet-wood. These are not your fault in any way. Because it was originally wood, the decay/mineral replacement occurred at different rates or times with different minerals at times. The blems are merely the "grain" of the wood showing up with a little different mineral make-up than the rest. Some minerals are softer than others and will not take the "glass-like" shine. That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it!
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richardh
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 391
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Post by richardh on Jan 2, 2017 23:23:50 GMT -5
Very nice photography and what a great polish. Here's my take on your concern regarding the "blems" you think you see in the larger piece of pet-wood. These are not your fault in any way. Because it was originally wood, the decay/mineral replacement occurred at different rates or times with different minerals at times. The blems are merely the "grain" of the wood showing up with a little different mineral make-up than the rest. Some minerals are softer than others and will not take the "glass-like" shine. That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it! Thanks for the explanation. I guess I still need to get better at selecting rough. I see so many fantastic photos of rocks from several people here and I really want to get results like those. Before I was trying to convince myself that it was the great photography skills that were making them so good but good ole TXRockhunter sent me a little box of rocks and in there was a little pouch of a few of his tumbled/polished pet wood and on my goodness they were perfect!!! My experience agrees with what you say. There are pieces that I just grind and grind and grind and there are always the grain showing like that. The rock just gets smaller and smaller and the grain pits just move slightly with the wear but they never seem to disappear. I am really getting an appreciation for the challenges of finding a really solid chunk of rock without pits, fractures...
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,182
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Post by jamesp on Jan 2, 2017 23:39:19 GMT -5
You have access to all the purty rocks you'll ever need in Texas. 6 rotary's and 2 vibes in your future ? More ? Good job on the tumbles and finds. Photos too.
With all the fine rock in your area you can be particular and collect solid stones that make perfect tumbles. if they just have divots you cab grind them off till you start with concave rocks. Fun part is tumbling rock you cleaned up and shaped for easy tumble.
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richardh
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 391
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Post by richardh on Jan 3, 2017 0:28:02 GMT -5
Yes I need to learn to identify the solid stones. I seem to have a great talent for picking out ones with deep fractures and tiny bubbles... I need 6 rotary and 2 vib. I have two rotary tumblers now. One six pound and one three pound so I guess I had better get pretty motivated about being picky about what I feed them. It would be pretty great if I could get my tile saw running again. I don't know if that will ever happen. It is the $100 one from Home Depot and the inside is all burned up.
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