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 Post subject: First attempt at photomicrography
PostPosted: Thu Apr 07, 2011 2:51 pm 
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I've been waiting for a long time to take some photos with the Wild M420 Apozoom that I bought last summer, and finally received the Diagnostic Instruments camera coupler that I had ordered to couple with my Olympus E-510 DSLR. The couplers had undergone a complete redesign, so it took a while for them in process the order. It's well made and worth the wait. In the meantime, Gene (G4Lab) set me up with a fiber darkfield unit and provided answers to a lot of my newbie questions.

Here’s the first attempt – a Taita-Taveta color-change garnet from Kenya, which I saved to photograph because I liked the rutile. It's is really not that visible in normal lighting but really pops under the darkfield. I also used the free trial version of the Zerene Stacker software for the first time, and found it extremely easy to use. 104 individual photos were used for this photo stack. Now I need to rummage through all my other stones looking for more cool stuff!

Gary

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Last edited by Finewater Gems on Thu Apr 07, 2011 5:29 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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 Post subject: Re: First attempt at photomicrography
PostPosted: Thu Apr 07, 2011 3:04 pm 
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FANTASTIC PIC!


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 Post subject: Re: First attempt at photomicrography
PostPosted: Thu Apr 07, 2011 3:21 pm 
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A beauty! Looking forward to the next ones!!!


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 Post subject: Re: First attempt at photomicrography
PostPosted: Thu Apr 07, 2011 5:44 pm 
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mmm darkfield... great shot!

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 Post subject: Re: First attempt at photomicrography
PostPosted: Fri Apr 08, 2011 4:13 am 
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excellent sample and nice shot Gary, congrats!!

Finewater Gems wrote:
104 individual photos were used for this photo stack


:shock:

ciao
alberto

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 Post subject: Re: First attempt at photomicrography
PostPosted: Fri Apr 08, 2011 11:27 am 
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=D> Awesome! =D>
We want more!!!


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 Post subject: Re: First attempt at photomicrography
PostPosted: Fri Apr 08, 2011 11:51 am 
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Finewater Gems wrote:
104 individual photos were used for this photo stack


That's a really neat shot, but I don't understand this comment. I'm assuming that a "photo stack" is a combination of 104 independent exposures? What is the benefit of using so many? I've never looked at this process and am just wondering why so many. Thanks for an explanation!

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 Post subject: Re: First attempt at photomicrography
PostPosted: Fri Apr 08, 2011 12:13 pm 
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Hi Michael. The depth of field at these magnifications is very small. A single photograph would have only a single "slice" of the gemstone in focus, and everything else would remain out of focus. In this case I started near the top of the stone, took a photo, moved the focus slightly a little more "into" the stone, then another photo, and stepped all the way through until the last area of interest was in focus. All the photos are then imported in the stacking software, where it aligns the photos and selects the in-focus bits from each shot, then assembles them into a single photo. 104 photos was probably overkill so I'll have to experiment with varying step sizes.

Gary

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 Post subject: Re: First attempt at photomicrography
PostPosted: Fri Apr 08, 2011 12:39 pm 
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Thanks Gary! That sounds like a very time consuming process. I'm glad that someone has the patience for it since the shot is beautiful.

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 Post subject: Re: First attempt at photomicrography
PostPosted: Fri Apr 08, 2011 2:24 pm 
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Thanks Michael, but it’s actually not that bad – about 20 seconds per shot. Enough time to re-focus, wait a few seconds for any vibrations to die down, press the remote shutter release, wait for the camera to raise and lock the mirror for a few seconds, take the shot, and then it’s time to start again and refocus. Some of the guys over on the photomacrography.net forum have really elaborate setups with automatic stepper motors and shutter releases, but it’s not really that difficult to do it manually. Here’s one that I just finished in about 30 minutes elapsed time – a different color-change garnet that had a cool veil of small inclusions along with some rutile.

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 Post subject: Re: First attempt at photomicrography
PostPosted: Sat Apr 09, 2011 4:49 pm 
Wow! :shock:

Lovely :D


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 Post subject: Re: First attempt at photomicrography
PostPosted: Sat Apr 09, 2011 7:30 pm 
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Yeah! Carry on! The shots are great!

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 Post subject: Re: First attempt at photomicrography
PostPosted: Sat Apr 09, 2011 8:10 pm 
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Finewater Gems wrote:
... that had a cool veil...

a VERY cool veil.

Nice pic. I stacked 5 photos and thought I was going overboard. Maybe I need to be more patient! :-)

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 Post subject: Re: First attempt at photomicrography
PostPosted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 6:16 am 
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Superb pics...If this is your begginers attempts then I guess your gonna turn into a maestro at this


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 Post subject: Re: First attempt at photomicrography
PostPosted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 1:38 pm 
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Fist attempt... I can't wait for the second. And the third, fourth, ... :wink:

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