Photographing minerals

[Eu_citzen]

Thought I'd give you some hints of how to make ID easier..
Best is to get one shot with a bigger view. And a few close ups.

Taking a good picture of a mineral specimen is a quite tricky business.

Firstly a neutral back ground can be desired.. I.e. black or white is often good.

Now the camera should be set to 'macro' mode, close up shots.
This is often marked by a flower on the camera.
Its often good to use natural day light, hence some lamps might fool you about the colour especially when a camera is with in the picture.
But a slightly more yellow colour flash light might work should all else fail.

Often you get 'blurry' pics, not quite sharp detail.
The most common causes are: to close, shaking hands and bad light.
Either is pretty easy to fix...

The shaking hands are easy to just use something to rest the hands on so they can't shake to much.

The light can be solved by using a flash light or a normal lamp. (what ever works!)
Just make sure to check it looks like on the pics.

If your to close, get some distance

Hematite on quartz:

 

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[Eu_citzen]

Normal "rocks" are easy to catch in sun light, which is plentiful often.
However I personally think a "white LED" light is a no no, it seems to show wrong colour for me.
The old style "yellowish" light bulbs do wonders!

The hardest I've ever tried to catch on a pic was rough Larvikite (Norweigan version of Labradorite).

Opal is also hard to get a nice pic of, especially if your getting a close up of it...

 

[Eu_citzen]

Ok, forgot to resize.
Fixed that now.

 

[Eu_citzen]

Using Sun light..

 

[Merlyn555]

Those are beautiful pictures you guys are putting up.....

This is a great threat keep it up I'm learning a lot here...........

 

[Cappy Z.]

EU Cit,

Sometimes taking an different view awakens the mind.

 

[Eu_citzen]

Merlyn, thanks. BTW any guesses on what the mineral in the pics is?
I know what it is... Just curious as to see if you do.

Cappy,
I think those pics just are psychedelic, the rock is more art then we ever could do!


More pics...


Maybe we should do a "Mineral galleries" kinda post??!
Including pics and name of a mineral.

 

[Merlyn555]

Eu I really would be just guessing my knowledge of minerals is very limited.

The color is a beautiful shade of orange and I want to say Imperial Topaz but some how the crystals look to be the wrong shape they appear more square or rectangular than most I have seen.

Now don't hold back tell me what they are LOL

I think your idea of a mineral gallery would be really good for some us poor uneducated souls.

 

[Cappy Z.]

a rock of a different color....

 

[Merlyn555]

Cappy what are you smoking and where can I get some LOL

 

[Eu_citzen]

Merlyn, Correct.. Topaz is in the orthorombic crystal system, so that's not it.

WizardOfTheStone,
Good guess. But its wrong to.


These crystals have a hardness of 4-5 Moh's.
Vitreous lustre, just as Flourite.

Ok you guys those orange crystals are Chabazite.