Post by DeanW on Oct 25, 2008 1:46:05 GMT -5
Ok, wife (Karen) and I have been working on several large display pieces. One is a 16+ inch long, 9+ inch tall, 3/4" thick piece of M.H. Poppy Jasper. Another is a ~7 inch long piece of Stone Canyon. The shine is fairly decent, not 100% perfect but still pretty good.
I've done lots of ebay and photo'd rocks, miscellaneous jewelry, pottery, electronics, etc. etc. ad naseum. I have learned how to use a budget light tent with some budget lights. That works well for most everything. I have taken lots of outdoor photos of various other rocks and also done fairly well. But these two pieces are stumping me. And I'm want to have top quality pics to share for various reasons.
I've tried several different ways to photo them and just can't seem to show the shine very well. Specifically:
1) Outdoors, day time in late afternoon sunshine, partially diffused through the redwood trees
2) Outdoors, day time, very diffused through the redwood trees
3) Indoors, light tent, both without and with bright incandescent lights from the ceiling fan providing a little highlighting
4) Indoors, light tent, flash (got a BRIGHT white spot in the middle of the slab, yuck!)
I've tried adjusting different angles and different background material, all with basically the same muted/flat (not shiny) results.
About the only thing I have not specifically tried is direct daylight. But that has never worked for me in the past and my opportunities for it are limited due to the trees where I live.
I'm using a Minolta Dimage Z1 camera. I have not tried anything but the 'auto' setting, with fine resolution (2048x?). So, those of you getting nice polished/shiny photos: howzya doit?
I've done lots of ebay and photo'd rocks, miscellaneous jewelry, pottery, electronics, etc. etc. ad naseum. I have learned how to use a budget light tent with some budget lights. That works well for most everything. I have taken lots of outdoor photos of various other rocks and also done fairly well. But these two pieces are stumping me. And I'm want to have top quality pics to share for various reasons.
I've tried several different ways to photo them and just can't seem to show the shine very well. Specifically:
1) Outdoors, day time in late afternoon sunshine, partially diffused through the redwood trees
2) Outdoors, day time, very diffused through the redwood trees
3) Indoors, light tent, both without and with bright incandescent lights from the ceiling fan providing a little highlighting
4) Indoors, light tent, flash (got a BRIGHT white spot in the middle of the slab, yuck!)
I've tried adjusting different angles and different background material, all with basically the same muted/flat (not shiny) results.
About the only thing I have not specifically tried is direct daylight. But that has never worked for me in the past and my opportunities for it are limited due to the trees where I live.
I'm using a Minolta Dimage Z1 camera. I have not tried anything but the 'auto' setting, with fine resolution (2048x?). So, those of you getting nice polished/shiny photos: howzya doit?