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Post by opalpyrexia on Mar 15, 2017 19:23:39 GMT -5
This is my first post of cabochon photos. All of these were finished yesterday, and all are originally from Australian rough. Here's an 11.06 carat, 25.6 x 18.5 x 3.6 mm, Harlequin opal that I recut. I hate to recut, but this was necessary. It used to be a oddly shaped 14 carat freeform that was listed on Etsy, but I had never been satisfied with my photos. So last week I decided to re-shoot it and discovered a very slight crack on one edge. So I trimmed it into a symmetric shape. This opal has nearly perfect squares of fire across the entire face and it's very lively with movement: These two are also a recut. It was originally an odd looking orange slice shape. Why odd? Because I just hate to cut away good fire and that means that I cut quite a few freeforms. It was too odd to list and sell, so after a months I finally gave up and decided to cut it into an earring pair. They are pretty well matched, not great, but I find it tough to match both dimensions and freeform shapes (2.10 carats, 10.6 x 9.3 x 3.6 mm, and 2.37 carats, 10.9 x 9.2 x 3.8 mm): This little black opal was a pleasant surprise at 1.08 carats and 11.3 x 6.1 x 2.4 mm. It came out of my "Is this really worth cutting?" temporary discard pile. It was a lucky break and it will make a nice ring stone. The fire isn't quite as bright as the photo suggests:
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gemfeller
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Post by gemfeller on Mar 15, 2017 19:45:36 GMT -5
Nice stones! On question before I comment further. What color is the background you're using for your images? Is it the yellowish-tan I see on my monitor or is it white?
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Post by opalpyrexia on Mar 15, 2017 20:02:15 GMT -5
Thanks! It's a cream-colored or a light "yellowish-tan" mat board. I recently started using it because it's a fair match for the cloth on which I shoot my jewelry. I had been shooting on a black background. "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds..." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
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gemfeller
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Post by gemfeller on Mar 15, 2017 20:17:10 GMT -5
At first glance I thought the white balance of your camera was incorrect but apparently not. They're really nice stones and very well cut. I totally sympathize with your instinct not to waste any precious material by cutting freeforms. That's what got me into metal work because nearly every opal I cut ended up needing a custom setting. Cutting matched stones is always a challenge.
It's too bad the first stone didn't photograph better. I can see the Harlequin pattern on one side only; the other side is shadowed. Don't know what to suggest. As I mentioned in another thread I keep trying different lighting until finally something works...sometimes.
It's good to see your work. Now there's another opal-fevered person on board I may post more images of my stones. Show us more.
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Post by pghram on Mar 15, 2017 20:59:19 GMT -5
Beautiful gems, I have yet to purchase or cab opals.
Peace, Rich
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Post by opalpyrexia on Mar 15, 2017 22:11:13 GMT -5
Thanks, pghram . It's too bad the first stone didn't photograph better. I can see the Harlequin pattern on one side only; the other side is shadowed. Don't know what to suggest. As I mentioned in another thread I keep trying different lighting until finally something works...sometimes. It's good to see your work. Now there's another opal-fevered person on board I may post more images of my stones. Show us more. Yes, I would like to see more of your work. The left side of the harlequin opal is not as bright. Here's one that shows that side a bit better:
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Post by rockjunquie on Mar 19, 2017 8:57:34 GMT -5
What? No drool warning? Opals never fail to please. Keep posting - I need my opal fix.
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Post by Tony W on Mar 27, 2017 22:10:03 GMT -5
Nicely done. Some fine material. I agree as an crazed opal man too, you can't cut fire away. It just ain't right. Like fire agate, you just have to free form, lol. And that's why I learned to silver smith too. To learn to frame the crazy shapes. Opal is just too good to cut the fire away just to please a shape, lol. T
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metalsmith
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Post by metalsmith on Mar 27, 2017 23:11:20 GMT -5
I also love opals, just haven't really discovered much by way of reliably photographing them. The photos I have just look flat, compared to the depth and fire.
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Post by roy on Mar 28, 2017 10:10:50 GMT -5
awesome stuff !
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Post by opalpyrexia on Mar 28, 2017 10:36:50 GMT -5
I'm in the same boat with you. Photographing opal is always a frustrating exercise, and I find it even worse for opal jewelry. The one exception that I've found is the color blue. My camera is very sensitive to blues and sometimes the photos show blues that I can't see or make them brighter. Then I have to edit to reduce the blue or, if that doesn't work (for an online listing) I'll simply note in the description that the blues are overemphasized.
If you ever find lighting that comes close to capturing what we can see, please let me know!
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gemfeller
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Post by gemfeller on Mar 28, 2017 12:43:46 GMT -5
Maybe we should start a new thread for Opal Photography. It seems there are many different approaches and maybe such a thread would kick off some new ideas. I've been doing my best to capture accurate still opal images for quite a few years now but haven't hit on a method that works in all cases. I've succeeded with opal videos but confess I don't have the digital know-how to convert the format from my Canon Vixia to something that will upload here. Overall I think videos are the best solution for opals because they show their ever-changing color patterns, something impossible in still shots. This is a Brazilian opal I recently cut. It has a complex color bar with vivid hues encompassing the spectrum. I guess it could be called a natural doublet since the base is white opal with no play of color. These images were made with a Nikon Coolpix 4500 in natural daylight. As can be seen the focus setting limited the depth-of-field. The colors are pretty accurate. #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7
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Post by opalpyrexia on Mar 28, 2017 18:04:53 GMT -5
I can tell that that's one mighty fine looking opal. Do you call opals like that "natural doublets"? I would not given the lower value of doublets versus solid opals. I would find an Opal Photography thread useful, too. It might also serve as a de facto support group. A while back I lost a potential sale for a pricey black opal with red fire. The customer requested a video but my DSLR doesn't have video capture. So I used an old pocket digital camera but the focus and lighting were terrible. I thought of upgrading to a new camera to try to rescue the sale but it was too late. I still haven't upgraded. A good opal video taken in sunlight would be a powerful competitive advantage. We needed to create videos for something unrelated to lapidary, so we bought the AVS Video Editor for $50. That includes a suite of products, one of which is the AVS Video Converter. The converter takes just a few clicks and handles many formats. The main limitation of the AVS software is that it's licensed to your hardware. Replace your computer and you need it again. Usually I'm the PC expert for all things computer/software, but somehow my wife chose to do all the video editing - something for which I'm eternally grateful.
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gemfeller
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Post by gemfeller on Mar 28, 2017 18:44:59 GMT -5
opalpyrexia, "Natural doublet" was just my way of distinguishing between full-play of color opals and those with colorless base potch areas like the one I posted. If taken to a logical conclusion the term would include top boulder opals that compare with fine LR blacks in price. It certainly will not affect my "solid" price for this particular stone but I agree, it's not a good term. I posted the images only to show that incidental daylight can sometimes be a very good light source for opal shots, as you point out in your reference to opal videos. Thanks for the mention of AVS Video Converter. I'll look into that. I bought a video editing program but frankly just looking at the instruction manual with all its tech jargon gives me a headache. I'll have to install it and fiddle around a bit -- I just found a section that deals with outputting to various formats I hadn't previously noticed. I don't know if there are enough of us opal addicts to make a sticky thread on Opal Photography worthwhile, but I'll herewith tag our Fearless Leader Tommy for his consideration.
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