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Mineral Photographysetup // photo shoot minerals //

29th Oct 2017 06:00 UTCEmmanuel Fradin

Hi, i'm interested to create a setup for shoot minerals, i read a lot of exchange on your website. It's possible to have a list of lights, and accessories for create this setup?

Thanks for your help

29th Oct 2017 17:38 UTCKevin Hean

Hi Emmanuel

I would not rush out and buy a whole lot of photographic equipment with a shopping list made up by some body else.

Each Photographer has his own preferences when it comes to his equipment,

I know a few Mineral Photographers that that use completely different lighting setups,

one swears by Fibre Optic, the other uses Flash and another only uses Daylight Equivalent Lamps.

Go onto the Web and do a search for "Mineral photography Setup", "Table Top Photography Setup"

have a look and see what others are using for Lighting, Backdrops, Mounting of Specimens

and all sorts of other little tricks,

It seems as though you are just starting with Close-up photography, you can get some amazing

results using a pair of table lamps and some paper as a difuser, do a lot of experimenting to find out what

style and type of mineral photography you like and then slowly buy the equipment that suits you.

Good Luck

Kevin

29th Oct 2017 18:06 UTCBecky Coulson 🌟 Expert

Hi Emmanuel,

You can go to the homepage of Volker Betz, and he has written several articles about photography. This message board category (Mineral Photography) is also a good source of discussions and suggestions. Welcome to Mindat, and good luck!

4th Nov 2017 15:11 UTCEmmanuel Fradin

Hi Kevin, thanks for your time and your reply! Have a nice day.

4th Nov 2017 15:12 UTCEmmanuel Fradin

Hi Becky Thanks you too :-)

6th Jun 2018 17:18 UTCHarald K Andersen

Hi there,

No matter what you chose as light source, the main issue is softing.

There are many ways to do this, but soft light is key to good mineral images.

With fiberoptic I use ping pong balls for softing. I sometimes use a photographic tent when I use fixed light or flash. Allways soft the light source and there is softing in the tent as well.

Softing is impotant because of hot spots and shadows....

6th Jun 2018 20:11 UTCMatt Courville

Hi Emmanuel,

I asked some of these questions when I started photographing not long ago. I didn't get too complex on the set-up as I was tackling a number of hobbies; minerals being one.

Basics in my opinion is:

1) tripod (used with a timer setting in the camera - I use the 10 second delay)

2) two sources of light (remove as much shadow as you can)

3) soften/dampen the light (I've tried white paper, stretched muscle shirts over the light with elastics, etc.)

4) macro setting with knowledge of setting-up: ISO, aperature, and shutter speeds (I experimented a bit)

5) something to mount your mineral (I use a black box, others glass, etc.)

Extra: photo stacking software (there is some basic photograph software that comes with most computers that makes this a few clicks if you don't want to learn this step)

Perhaps others will post some photos of theirs if you want an advanced set-up - I've seen some nice ones;)

7th Jun 2018 01:51 UTCKeith Compton 🌟 Manager

I suggest you purchase Jeff Scovill's mineral photography book and go from there

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