Applying to join this forum, you HAVE to activate your membership in YOUR email in the notice you recieve after completing application process. No activation on your part, no membership.

Lapidaryforum.net

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

News:

Welcome new members & old from the Lapidary/Gemstone Community Forum. Please join up. You will be approved after spam check & you must manually activate your acct with the link in your email

Congratulations to Bobby1 and his Brazilian Agate Cab!

 www.lapidaryforum.net

Another cabochon contest coming soon!

Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: Cabochon+ Photography Setup  (Read 1530 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

victor1941

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 53
  • Retired art/science teacher
Cabochon+ Photography Setup
« on: July 17, 2020, 03:54:44 PM »


This is a moveable, DIY, cell phone photography setup for taking pictures of your rocks on the cheap. To create this setup, I dismantled and modified an old tripod and added a cell phone mount to stabilize my camera while taking photos. The modified tripod is attached to a 12x24in board which acts as the platform for the rock and tripod legs.


The yellow axis can be customized to determine camera distance and angle towards the board.
The blue axis is used as a pivot point and stabilizer for the red axis.
The red axis lets me move the camera closer or further from the board.

By extending the red legs and the yellow tube, I can make room for larger subjects between the camera and the board.





These three show how the different  axes are connected to each other to allow movement of each single axis freely. The legs can be configured up and down in any pattern to create the desired camera position and angle.


To hold my cell phone (a new iPhone SE) that I use as my camera, I purchased a cheap cell phone tripod adapter. This is the model I use: https://www.amazon.com/Vastar-Universal-Smartphone-Horizontal-Adjustable/dp/B01L3B5PBI



This is how I use the setup to achieve well-lit photos with consistent framing. I manually adjust the light (OttLight brand) based on the reflections of each rock so that glare can be avoided. I choose whatever material I want as the background, which generally is a microfiber cloth, but you could use anything. In addition, I put a small spacer between the rock and the board, creating depth so that the camera can focus on the rock.




Above are some photos taken with my setup. All three are from Engle, NM from the Aleman Ranch.

This project is very easy to do and would require $20-$40 depending on your material at hand.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Logged

lithicbeads

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3214
Re: Cabochon+ Photography Setup
« Reply #1 on: July 17, 2020, 04:19:24 PM »

Looks good. You could try using a piece of whits paper to bounce some of the light back onto the stone and see how you like it.
Logged

victor1941

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 53
  • Retired art/science teacher
Re: Cabochon+ Photography Setup
« Reply #2 on: July 17, 2020, 07:13:29 PM »

Lithicbeads, you are absolutely correct that light reflection will reduce shadow and add back light and does produce a better image.
Logged
Pages: [1]   Go Up
 

Page created in 0.09 seconds with 31 queries.