Photographing Colored Stones

For the past two years, I have tried every resource, every
suggestion , asked the editors of Colored Stone, used every
imaginable type of Front Light , Back Light, Cloud Dome, Tent,
Umbrella, Clear Plastic, Milky Plastic, HighLights from Under and
above, and still cannot get the “Perfect” shot of a colored gem
stone.

I have seen in the past, a shot of a colored stone, in which the
stone looks to be floating over a white background, the light is
reflecting off all the facets, you can see deep into the stone, and
there are no ‘dark spots’ on any of the facets, caused by something
touching the facet.

I have had several suggestions to shoot the stones on a Black
Background, but this hides some of the facets, changes the stones
color, and hides the side of the stone that is sitting on the
background.

I get chances in my travels to see stones that never make it into
the Public Eye, and I would love to photograph them and put them on
my web page for all to see. These are the stones that are so
outstanding, so expensive, that they go into a ring for a Rich Fat
Lady, she wears it to 2 dinner parties, dies, wills it to the
Smithsonian, an it is never seen again……

Last year, I saw some beautiful Aquamarine stones , the size of
Walnuts,

A Deep Purple Kunzite the size of an Egg, a Tourmaline the size of a
Domino, and some fire engine red Imperial Topaz, that comes around
only once or twice a year.

All this is leading up to a plea for help. Anyone that has a super
way to photograph a stone, please send it, I will test it and get
back to you . I will publish the results with pictures on my Web
site when we get through. Thanks for your time.

Love and God Bless
-randy
http://www.rocksmyth.com

Hi Randy,

I’ve never tried this as I shoot mostly opaque stones against grey
but… since you’ve tried everything else. What about using a light
table beneath the stone in addition to your overhead lights? Anyone
tried this?

Good luck, Mark.
mvkdesign

Dear Randy, still out there and still filming still would love to see
the class pics any chance altho it sounds like you are so busy
traveling hmmmmmm neat life style… haveyou seen Jean at all //
email her on occasion busy as usual just in from Arizona love those
mts the colors change constantly so beautiful. and the nights when
you look up and all you see are stars and more stars and more stars
so fantastic one can hardly breath take care calgang