Taking Photos of Crystals and stones

May 29, 2003

Peggy asked

<do you have any

<tips you could share with the list about taking good photographs of

<crystals and stones?

Hi Peggy,

Thanks for your compliment :-). I'm not an expert but I'm happy to

share with the list what I do when taking photos of stones and

crystals.

I use a Sony Mavica digital camera, one of the old ones with 1.3 mega

pixels.(Most cameras today are higher pixels) To compensate, I shoot

using fine quality setting at 1024 x768. Then I resize for the web

using a photo program. For thumbnail size I resize to 96 x72 (3K) and

half screen 480 x360 or larger approx. (51K) or larger. I think

starting with a larger better quality photo helps you to keep better

resolution as you squeeze the picture down to web size. Often times I

use the macro setting as it allows you to get very close yet stay in

focus.

In preparation for taking the pictures, I set up a light or dark

background and see how the stones look against them. Its amazing what

a background color will bring out in a stone or crystal. Then I use a

flexible fluorescent lamp that I can move around to highlight the

crystal but avoid glare. I also use candesant lighting along with it

if need be. I've found with crystals the lighting is key to bring out

their texture since they have so little color. Its all trial and

error really. You might have to take a lot of pictures to get that

really good one. I love fiddling around with the pictures and can

spend hours doing it. As soon as I get a new crystal or rock friend I

cant wait to get some photos of them. Well, that's how I do it in a

nutshell. Its really not to difficult to do especially with a good

photo program. I use Photoshop but I think most any program would do

just fine. I hope this is clear enough to understand.

Margie

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