How to photograph opal stones and opal jewelry
1. Belysning
Hvis du fotograferer udenfor, either wait for a cloudy day or set up under a tree or a veranda or
if inside, nær et vindue med masser af lys, der kommer ind. Don’t use direct sunlight as it will put too
much orange into the picture.
Hvis du er inde, og du ikke har meget vindueslys, use a fluorescent globe or one of the
modern white light globes.
Igen, hvis du bruger glødelamper, vil der være for meget orange på billedet. Check her til
identify the different globes available. This information is helpful later for adjusting your White
Balance if you are using an SLR (Enkelt linse refleks) kamera
2. Baggrund af billede
Lay out a sheet of black paper as a background. Actually black velvet is best particularly if it is real
velvet but if not, synthetic will work ok.
Place the subject on the dark background but put some strips of white paper around it so that the
camera lens is not confused by having too much contrast between black and white.
If you are photographing a ring or an item which does not sit flat on the ground you could have what
is called a ‘depth of field’ problem. (Take note of the details above showing how to make a ring
stand up on its end)
Det betyder, at hvis du fokuserer på toppen af ringen, it could have good detail but the base of the ring
will probably be out of focus.
Måske betyder det ikke noget, hvis hovedpointen i billedet er at få et godt billede af opalen. In this
case your phone camera should be fine.
However if you do need the whole item to be in focus it will mean that you will probably need to
use an SLR camera with manual features such as macro lens, f-stop, lysstyring, ISO and light
balance. Det vil vi diskutere længere nede på siden.
4. Using a smart phone camera
Læg en bunke bøger (eller andre flade ting) on either side of the subject so that you can balance the flat
smart phone between the two piles.
Du kan eksperimentere med forskellige højder, så din telefon får et godt klart fokus. Try to get as
close to the subject as possible so that you don’t get too much background into the shot.
Of course if you have a graphics program you can always crop out the background. Beskæring just
means to remove the outer parts of an image to clear away unnecessary information and focus on the main
reason for the picture. This will reduce the amount of kb’s used in sending emails.
5. Brug af et spejlreflekskamera (Enkelt linse refleks) kamera med makro (tæt på) linse.
Most of the popular brands of SLR cameras should be ok. På nuværende tidspunkt bruger vi en Canon 700D
krop, som på ingen måde er et top professionelt kamera, men er en god enhed i mellemklassen. More
important is the macro lens and we have opted for a Canon EFS 60mm 1:2.8 USM
Før du forsøger at ændre indstillingerne, first of all make sure your camera lens is turned to MF‘
(manuel fokus) på selve objektivet og derefter 'M' i selve kameraindstillingen.
Vend derefter din opmærksomhed mod WB (hvidbalance) and for this you will need to lay a piece of white
paper in front of the lens or if you want to get really professional, buy a special ‘grey card’ from
camera supplies and use this instead.
Åbn din hvidbalance. In the canon camera you have two selections. You can select a number
of white balance settings depending on white light source you are using. You have to experiment
with this.
Fra vores erfaring med fotografering af opal og tilhørende sølv- eller guldmetaller, its best not to use
these standard white balance settings but rather go to the alternate feature called ‘bracketing’
If you bring up this gauge you will see that you can give the picture slightly more of the four major
farver. Rød, blå, green and we have opted to give the white balance a little more blue which takes
the yellow out of the silver and makes it more natural.
Når du har valgt den hvidbalance, du ønsker, take a picture of the white or grey card and the
camera will record this information and apply it to all your pictures. If you find there is too much
blue or other colors in your pictures, det er nemt at prøve forskellige indstillinger og eksperimentere.
Nu hvor du har sorteret baggrunden, er det tid til at komme til fokus. You will need to use the
cameras pre focus facility which brings the work up very close on the monitor so that you can adjust
the lens to get the very best clarity. Denne knap er identificeret med et lille forstørrelsesglasikon med et
(+) skilt i midten
Indstil derefter ISO ( ) If you like just leave this on auto but you can experiment with 100, 200, 400,
800 ISO hvis du vil, bearing in mind that the ISO setting has an influence over the light and shutter
speed (f-stop) indstillinger (go here for a discussion of what ISO is all about)
If you click the ‘AV’ button on your camera it will bring up a gauge on your screen showing two small
boxes. The one on the left is the light and by turning a small wheel next to the picture button you
can increase or decrease the light.
Til højre, the other box is for shutter speed which can be selected by holding down the AV button
and turning the same wheel.
Når du har disse detaljer i tankerne, det er bare et spørgsmål om at eksperimentere for at få det bedste billede. Of
course to process the shots properly you will need to load them into a computer and crop them. jeg
hope these suggestions will help you get better macro pictures, whether it’s for opal or something else.
Bedste ønsker
Peter
