Does anyone have any tips about how to photograph the colour play of opals (its a welo opal I’m working with) before I throw a tantrum worthy of the toddler next door?
This is what I’ve achieved so far
Thanks
Sasha
Does anyone have any tips about how to photograph the colour play of opals (its a welo opal I’m working with) before I throw a tantrum worthy of the toddler next door?
This is what I’ve achieved so far
I should think it’s the same problem that I have with some of my glass… I guess you can’t show something being more than one colour at once…? I’ve done a composite photo for one of mine
I think you’ve done well in the bottom one. I’ve had similar problems with labradorite-it may be something to do with the fact that the camera only has one lense, so it is hard to recreate what we all see in the flesh using our binocular vision. Maybe you could try positioning a small LED light at a 45 degree angle to try and bounce some light around inside the stone, which is a trick some of the professionals use to show the fire in diamonds (or so I’ve heard).
Love Sam x
I’m off to find my LED light shall report back later…
Sasha
This is with the LED light @SamanthaStanley
The colour is definitely brighter though! It looks like you are getting a little bit of the violet colour right at the bottom of the opal as well, so with a daylight balanced bulb there is a good chance you might get more colours. I had never tried this myself, I just read about it a month or so ago.
Love Sam x
The LED lamp trick works well with labradorite/ spectrolite
I had trouble with opal but labradorite in natural daylight worked well too although could be better.
Ooh now the LED lights pics look really interesting…definitely something to try.
That does work well, Sasha! The labradorite is especially good. It’s got the full range of colours just as it looks in real life. I will have to try and replicate this myself the next time I use my labradorite beads.
Love Sam x
This is the led lamp I have - I clamped it to the table and can reposition the lamp to my hearts content to get the right angle. It normally lives clamped to my work bench where the adjustability is equally useful.
http://www.johnlewis.com/john-lewis-lewis-leo-led-clip-light-black/p151536?colour=Black
It would be interesting to see what effect it has on your glass.
Sasha
Ooh thanks @SashaGarrett - I was thinking only this week that I needed more lighting on the newly made worktop at the back of my studio
I have some similarly flexible battery powered led ‘music stand lights’ which I use for extra light on my fair display - but they only have 3 leds, not 15! Still, I might have a go with them in the meantime, they probably won’t be bright enough, but worth a try. The perennial problem with glass is getting enough light on it without getting a reflection of the light source…