What's Rockin'?

[Chunk]

A rock club I belong to is having a show in a few weeks. I decided about a month ago that I would set up a display to show people how they can photograph their own collections without spending an arm and a leg on photogear. Since I hadn't done that before but had read about some setups on the internet, I had to do a little experimenting.

I put together a light tent made of plastic pipe and a bedsheet for diffusing and using cheap goosenecked table lamps and clamp on utility light with 65W and 150W hardware store variety floodlamps for bulbs. Last week I spent a day at a friend's rock shop experimenting and learning. I found that some materials, like those that are sparlkly, do better without the light being diffused. Here's an example of a piece of amethyst and a link to a quick and dirty webpage showing some others.
http://webpages.charter.net/rkiesling/burnies

I'd appreciate any suggestions from anyone having experience in anything similar. I know that real photo lights and such would probably make for better results but I want to keep material expenses really low.

[SmartWombat]

Nice, you picked up the need a single strong light for the reflections off the crystal facets.
I'd want one more light on this, or a stringer light to take out that foreground shadow.

You can have interesting effects with flourescence, too.
We had a demonstration at our school science club 30 years ago and I still remember it !
I don't remember which rocks though

I googled a few:
http://www.uvminerals.org/photog.htm

http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/educate/fluteach.pdf
http://simplethinking.com/franklinmi...rescence.shtml
http://simplethinking.com/franklinmi...t%20list.shtml
http://mineral.galleries.com/minerals/fluoresc.htm
http://mineral.galleries.com/mineral...otabl.htm#long
http://fluomineral.free.fr/mineraux_favoris.html

[Old Timer]

Very nice effort. With examples like this you should be able to WOW the members of your club and give them some excellent advice for doing their own pictures. One of the things I love so much about photography is the fact that regardless of your other interest you can find a way to involve photography in a very positive way. Nice job.

[Chunk]

Thanks Paul for such interesting links and for the advice. I know that people seem to want to eliminate shadows around objects in product photography but I don't find softened shadows around the base of the that offensive or detracting from the mineral speciman. Should I? I'm not familiar with the term "stringer light". Is that a special lamp or does it describe how a lamp is used?

Penny and Larry, thanks for your compliments and your encouragement. I figure I'll take a few pictures of peoples rocks and show them how to put the photos together in a slideshow and pdf presentation of their rocks using the freeware "Irfanview" and then put them on CD or a dvd that can be shown on their TV.

[SmartWombat]

Doh !! Stringer? OOPS - that was a typer for a stronger light (towards the front).

I don't mind shadow around the base, but in front of the base it makes it look back-lit which is not people's usual view of the world.

Because of that, it can make it a stronger image, which makes people stop and look just becuase it's out of the ordinary.

If it's for a record shot, just keeping an inventory of rocks, then I'd prefer strongest light over the right shoulder (I'm right handed!) unless the requirements is for shadowless. Like some scientific shots I did on glasswork many years ago, or the ceramics shots I hope to be doing soon.

I have two opinions. Perhaps three.
My best computer consultant answer "it depends"

[Chunk]

Doh !! Stringer? OOPS - that was a typer for a stronger light (towards the front).

I don't mind shadow around the base, but in front of the base it makes it look back-lit which is not people's usual view of the world.

Because of that, it can make it a stronger image, which makes people stop and look just becuase it's out of the ordinary.

If it's for a record shot, just keeping an inventory of rocks, then I'd prefer strongest light over the right shoulder (I'm right handed!) unless the requirements is for shadowless. Like some scientific shots I did on glasswork many years ago, or the ceramics shots I hope to be doing soon.

I have two opinions. Perhaps three.
My best computer consultant answer "it depends"

I understand now. I think I turned off the front light so that I would get more light coming through the amethyst on that shot. I think it would have looked almost black with front lighting being the strongest.
Glad you got back to me before I started shopping for that stringer light. Thanks again.