My "Not quite good enough for the Macro Contest" Photo.

Richard Steele

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Sun Feb-26-06 12:35 PM
Original message

My "Not quite good enough for the Macro Contest" Photo.

I never actually entered the Macro Contest the other month,
because my great idea for an entry was not so great on-screen.

I probably spent ten hours working on it, trying different lighting
setups & etc...
After several hundred shots, it just wasn't as great as I had hoped,
so I didn't enter.

This came CLOSE to my vision (but not close enough) :

Its a handcut Garnet with a large internal flaw,
perched atop a mini-maglight with a paper towel over the lens.
Nikon 4500, iso100, 1/4 second at f6.5

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NV Whino

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Sun Feb-26-06 02:02 PM
Response to Original message

1. I like the composition and the size comparison

Maybe a little brighter light to spark up the garnet. Everything is kind of the same tone right now. I'm thinking a small hole in the towel under the garnet because you don't want to highlight the pencil any more.

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Richard Steele

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Sun Feb-26-06 02:17 PM
Response to Reply #1

2. Great minds think alike!

Actually, the pinhole was one of my first lighting ideas,
but that stone just didn't transmit light very
well; more light internally just muddled the detail.

I suppose it would have been smart to simply use a better stone...
or maybe just toss it and photograph the pencil, lol!

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NV Whino

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Sun Feb-26-06 05:03 PM
Response to Reply #2

3. Too bad.

I like the pentagon shape of the stone, too. Oh well, it did seem like a good idea.

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Immad2

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Sun Feb-26-06 06:13 PM
Response to Original message

4. That's pretty cool. Maybe bvar22's "snowflake catcher" would have been of

some assistance. Take a look at SnowFlake Catcher.

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Richard Steele

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Thu Mar-02-06 09:20 AM
Response to Reply #4

7. Wow, thanks for that link!

I'm not sure it would have helped the problems I
was having, but it is a great DIY project.

And bvar22 did a fine job documenting the construction;
I saved the post in my 'Camera Stuff' file.

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F.Gordon

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Mon Feb-27-06 02:07 AM
Response to Original message

5. I really like that.... you should have entered it

Very creative.
:thumbsup:

I can appreciate how difficult that shot would be. I might give it a try.... but I'm not sure there are any shiny perty stones round' here.

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alkaline9

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Tue Feb-28-06 12:13 PM
Response to Original message

6. cool idea

Did you try masking more of the light from the flashlight away and only letting light through the stone... then maybe a longer exposure? I would think the gem would emit more light, but maybe the maglight was just still too much brightness in the photo to capture the true glow of the lighted stone? :shrug: I too would give this a try if it wasn't for lack of such a stone.

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Richard Steele

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Thu Mar-02-06 09:53 AM
Response to Reply #6

8. Yes, I tried that, and every other lighting option I could improvise...

Nothing really got the effect I was after.

The stone has internal problems beyond the large visible flaw;
and the surface is crudely polished, at best.
It just doesn't want to transmit light the way
a high-quality stone would.

I considered suspending the stone in liquid,
as that would have made the interior more visible.
But building a setup like that was just way more time
than I wanted to spend on a project which had run too long already.

Of course, it's not like I threw the stone away, so maybe someday....

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