I’ve been lurking for a while, but since I have a question, I
suppose an intro. is in order.
I’m working on my GG through the GIA’s correspondence program
and hoping to find a position with a gem lab or appraisal
business when I complete the course and when my wife is done with
school. This list has been a real education in and of itself –
My thanks to everyone for the informative, friendly discussions!
Now the question: I’d very much like to create a photo-archive
of inclusions and other characteristics of gemstones for my
personal reference (and maybe someday for insurance/appraisal
purposes), but I’m having a really hard time finding how-to books
and on photomicroscopy. Can anyone help me out? Any
help at all will be appreciated.
A good place to start would be an old copy of Gems & Gemology. I
will get back to you about the exact one in question tomorrow,
but it gave a good introduction on how to take photomicrographs.
Of course as in all walks of life, money is of importance, as
although you can take good pictures with a simple and fairly low
priced set-up, you can take even better ones with a $10,000 or
more set-up and with less trouble !!! Therefore equipment and
knowing how to use it are all important. I use a simple minolta
camera with an attachment that replaces one eye-piece of a
Gemolite microscope and sometimes am happy with the results. I
wish I was always happy, but such is life !!! To give you an
idea about the sort of pictures that can be obtained from a
basic set-up trying finding a copy of the Journal of Gemmology
and look for articles entitled ‘Notes from the Gem and Pearl
Testing Laboratory, Bahrain’. I took these in a hurry in most
cases (customers wanting their items back as quickly as
possible) and to be honest with no photographic training of any
type. One of these days I am determined to go on a course to
learn technique and lighting so that I can improve the results.
Look at Edmonds Scientific supply. They had a very nice
microscore from Russia that had a camera mount. The price with
everything was around $500. The camera was included. That may
seem like alot till you start looking around. It had the all
important low power magnifications. Steve Ramsdell
