Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 21, 2013 14:47:03 GMT -5
rockncajun Ray and I are working on a little project gift for wifey and hopefully more... As a practice piece Ray cut some clear quartz in a pattern I choose online from brazillians of possibilities. He sent me the practice piece so I could practice my photog skillz. I have been abundant and free with advice about photography and here is my chance to prove myself to everyone. I will state up front except for similar sized insects little tiny shiny stones are the hardest thing I have ever photographed. Below you will see my first effort. I already know I need to do a better job at getting the stone clean! sheesh. If you can look past the dust and fibers you will see Ray kicked this one into the back of the net. Or for the baseball fans present he hit a grand slam knocking it out of the park! His shine is flawless, his edges are crisp enough to cut you, the meetpoints are all spot on. Very nice work Ray. I am hoping you may chime in with some more details. 5.18 carat - 11.1mm tall and the sides of the triagle are 12.6mm        I have a few ideas on what to do better. I'll have to bust out the trusty ultrasonic cleaner to see if I can get the stone REAL CLEAN and probably use a brand new micro fiber towel too. Ray any idea on what cleaner to use in the ultrasonic for good cleaning, ease of rinse, zero residue. I guess I can rinse with distilled water. Any and ALL criticisms are welcomed with an open mind and a kind heart. I'll re-shoot soon. Maybe today?? Well, did I earn my cred?
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Post by Deleted on Dec 21, 2013 15:15:32 GMT -5
Blowing up something that small to that big takes some pretty precise settings to get them to look half way decent and you made them look good.
Jim
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Post by Deleted on Dec 21, 2013 15:28:13 GMT -5
Blowing up something that small to that big takes some pretty precise settings to get them to look half way decent and you made them look good. Jim On my screen it's ~12x life size. Yours will be different depending on pixel size. Manual focus required. Quartz is (apparently) transparent to the IR focusing laser. It made the focusing mechanism hunt back and forth repeatedly. Maybe because the facets were returning the IR from all sorts of angles! |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 21, 2013 16:34:26 GMT -5
Here is step two in my project with Ray. Ray's pics. 6mm stone Laser Alexandrite. Color change Chrysoberyl. Czolchralski pulled, chromium doped, ready for laser rod production, this boule ended up in the handes of a faceters supply house. It was too short for laser rods. Outdoors - Teal green  Indoors - Rasberry  I cannot wait to get my hands on that one!! |
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Fossilman
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Post by Fossilman on Dec 21, 2013 17:38:35 GMT -5
Scott,looks like Ray did an excellent job-Wow!
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Post by Deleted on Dec 21, 2013 18:15:59 GMT -5
Thanks Mike.
I think the cut & polish are exquisite.
I have a cleaning plan in place. Ultrasonic in soap, distilled water rinse, acetone to instantly dry it and then photograph. I am waiting on some jewellers "stone grabbers" and then I'll give it another go. Then maybe I'll have some Alex here by then too! Alex has to be done indoors and outdoors to see the color change.
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Post by Pat on Dec 21, 2013 19:38:04 GMT -5
Though I don't know anything about faceting, I"ll say that stone is superb! Good photography, too! Why did you select that color and tweedy background? Photos always show you where the dust is, even the invisible dust. Canned air doesn't work very well, but a makeup brush does. Get it at the Dollar Store. On the third photo, left side, looks like some numbers etched into the stone. What is that? Excellent job on such a small stone, Scott! I'm working on my photo skills, too. Gotta go frost cookies in a few minutes!  |
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ash
spending too much on rocks
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Post by ash on Dec 21, 2013 20:09:23 GMT -5
Those are pretty awesome
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gemfeller
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Post by gemfeller on Dec 21, 2013 20:15:08 GMT -5
Nice cutting Ray. And Shotgunner, welcome to the faceted gem photography madhouse. That’s a great first effort! I’ve made several thousand such images for my website and agree that shooting faceted gems is a difficult and exacting job-- one of the toughest I’ve ever tackled. Lighting, attention to detail and patience are everything. You asked for comments so here are some I hope will help. 1) Quartz has a relatively low refractive index so even well-cut stones like this one easily display a see-through tilt-window. Try to position the stone so the table directly faces the lens, or in a position where you’re getting maximum light return from the stone with no windowing. 2) Your images are picking up a lot of blue reflections from something in the room. If I didn’t know better I’d think the stone has blue tints. Try for neutral white reflections. 3) Yes, manual focus is almost always necessary for the reasons you mention. The autofocus goes a little crazy trying to decide which beam of light to latch on to. Color-change gems like alexandrite change hue depending on the color temperature of the lighting. But there’s no need to photograph them outdoors. Just set up your lighting with tungsten in the 1K to 2K range and daylight fluorescent in the daylight 5K range. I leave the stone in the same position and simply switch bulbs, white balance and exposures. Here’s an image of a natural alex I photographed that way:  [/URL] |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 21, 2013 23:30:11 GMT -5
ash, gemfeller, Pat - Thank you all, each and every one of you. Pat the makeup brush concept is indeed a path I will follow. Not even a thought otherwise. I hope I won't need it.  As for "What is that" regarding what looks like etched numbers? Plain and simple. It's filth. I completely and utterly failed at getting the stone clean. Next photo op will prove I have this issue solved. But only then. Regarding the color of "tweedy" background? That is a mauve'ish porcelain tile I got from work. A discontinued sample board with 6-7 colors and neutral texture. I chose this color because of the contrast with the sky. Would you have chosen otherwise? Wish I could photog the cookies. They'd be a snap (ginger snap?) compared to shiny/glassy objects like this stone. Rick, you numbered three but I see at least 5 solid aliquots of knowledge that I can utilize. The blue is the freaking sky, and that is because the stone is too perfect I wanted some color, so I photographed it outside under mixed blue/cloudy skies!! hahaha Good on you for noticing. Ray did too. He's a pro. Thanks for noticing the stone is well cut. Ray killed it on his execution and my photog are not up to snuff, albeit my first effort. Thanks for the attaboy on the manual focus. I was confident but that drives it home. I was a little put off about the table facing the lens because his polish was so good I could see my single chest hair. (!) Indoors I am a studio flash kinda guy, but I could indeed do flash and ambient tungsten for the two colors with one setup. Thanks for sharing your example. I feel like I can completely annihilate the next one with a properly cleaned stone, in better lighting, indoor light & out. rockncajun can cut rocks. If we are going to work together, I'd better be able to bring it too! So far, I do not deserve to work with him. At all.  Thanks to one and all. I did ask for criticisms and I am truly and humbly appreciative for all of them. Please accept my hearty thank you for taking the time to respond. If you have anything to add after reading this post, I ask, please do not hesitate. Dang I love this website! Feliz navidad!
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rockncajun
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Post by rockncajun on Dec 22, 2013 21:18:19 GMT -5
Nice job Gemfeller. Where did your settings come from? Those tearshapes are hard to cut. Did you do the faceting?
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gemfeller
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Post by gemfeller on Dec 23, 2013 11:41:17 GMT -5
Thanks rockncajun. I'll trade you settings for boudin -- just kidding, but I love 'em. I think those particular settings came from Tripp's.
Since it's unlikely I'll ever have another parcel of natural alexandrite rough in my lifetime, I had my stones cut by a very experienced pro. He did a great job. The pieces were small but even so he did some great custom cuts.
Rick
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As for "What is that" regarding what looks like etched numbers? Plain and simple. It's filth. I completely and utterly failed at getting the stone clean. Next photo op will prove I have this issue solved. But only then. Regarding the color of "tweedy" background? That is a mauve'ish porcelain tile I got from work. A discontinued sample board with 6-7 colors and neutral texture. I chose this color because of the contrast with the sky. Would you have chosen otherwise? Wish I could photog the cookies. They'd be a snap (ginger snap?) compared to shiny/glassy objects like this stone.
