Photographing shiny rocks.

I have recently begun the hobby of rock tumbling to end up with shiny rocks

I'm trying to figure out the best way to photograph them to accentuate the shiny nature but without blowing out from glare at the same time. Currently, I just photo them on a grey towel, but I'm looking to figure out an elegant system that I can use to capture the images. For the base, I'm thinking black velour/velvet but I'm not sure the best way to light them. Here are a couple I shot just with an iPhone, using natural sunlight from a window the right, but I do have a Canon 7D mkII and both an UW zoom and and 24-105 available.

I'm open to any suggestions. Thanks!

Hi,

I would explore exposing via flash inside a flash box, like a macro flash box for product photography. Hit it with speedlites from the sides and top. And maybe toy around with a circular polarized filter to manage reflections from the shiny polished surface. This way your reflections are pleasing diffuse white light rather than your windows and other house objects being reflected on your stones.

Very best,

The ubiqitous universal problem solver, the flash box...I disagree, as it usually too uniformly lit by beginners.

What you want is simply to put a 'large' white source at certain positions that are reflected and seen by the lens, but you do not want to lose dimensionality in the object by having light come from all angles uniformly bright, you want a 'bright side' and a 'less bright' side to convey dimensionality. One flash and small white panels positioned appropriately at different angle can accomplish that, as they can be 'seen by the lens' in some cases, but the level of illumination naturally has a single 'bright side' and other 'less bright' reflected surfaces.

You CAN accomplish that in a flash box if you put a brighter Main source on one side and the weaker Fill source surrounding the rest of the sides of the box. But fundamentally the flash box was invented for uniformly illuminating something for 'documentation' of the subject, not to present it in the most visually appealing manner.

Analyzing OP's photos, the shiny rocks get dimensionality from having bright reflections in some places, less bright surfaces, and even somewhat dark illumination on other surfaces. We want to do that, not 'uniformly illuminate'.

Wilt wrote in post #19212281
The ubiqitous universal problem solver, the flash box...I disagree, as it usually too uniformly lit by beginners.

What you want is simply to put a 'large' white source at certain positions that are reflected and seen by the lens, but you do not want to lose dimensionality in the object by having light come from all angles uniformly bright, you want a 'bright side' and a 'less bright' side to convey dimensionality. One flash and small white panels positioned appropriately at different angle can accomplish that, as they can be 'seen by the lens' in some cases, but the level of illumination naturally has a single 'bright side' and other 'less bright' reflected surfaces.

You CAN accomplish that in a flash box if you put a brighter Main source on one side and the weaker Fill source surrounding the rest of the sides of the box. But fundamentally the flash box was invented for uniformly illuminating something for 'documentation' of the subject, not to present it in the most visually appealing manner.

Analyzing OP's photos, the shiny rocks get dimensionality from having bright reflections in some places, less bright surfaces, and even somewhat dark illumination on other surfaces. We want to do that, not 'uniformly illuminate'.

So, you think if I took a few light sources from angles, with some sort of diffuser on them to soften it, that the shot would show the shine but still allow for the colour and detail to show? This is my first time venturing into "object" photography.

DragonSpeed wrote in post #19212645
So, you think if I took a few light sources from angles, with some sort of diffuser on them to soften it, that the shot would show the shine but still allow for the colour and detail to show? This is my first time venturing into "object" photography.

'The shine' is merely a reflection of the LIGHT SOURCE (an active source like a lightbox, or a passive one like a reflective panel/card) seen by the lens as a reflection off a shiny facet or ridgeline of the rock.

So if some reflections are bright such as window light, they are the highlight area seen. The dimmer reflections are the midtone. And the darker areas (which are away from the window) these are the shadow areas in your photos. The window is a relatively large source of indirect light (not sunlight) so no well defined shadows are cast by the rock.

Big and soft light sources with soft edges (soft boxes and etc), in a dark room so you can experiment and see the effects in real time. Also some form of light shaping flags can be used to adjust the reflections of the light on the surface of the rock.

What if I used many LED "mini lights", supported by a "framework" surrounding the rock? I'm imagining it giving a sparkly appearance (like jewelry store display case?) Or would that overwhelm the colour of the rocks?

I guess, in my OP, I didn't state that I'd like to also avoid investing hundreds of $$$ for the purpose... more of a DIY solution.

Thanks for the input so far, everyone!

My first thought would be to use a light table or some smooth light source on the bottom of the rock and a couple of sheets of black construction paper to let the light go through the rock. Illuminate it from the bottom and let the rock glow.

The second thought would be to use a long exposure in the dark and light the rocks with small pen flash lights. Light paint the rocks.

BigFilm wrote in post #19213050
My first thought would be to use a light table or some smooth light source on the bottom of the rock and a couple of sheets of black construction paper to let the light go through the rock. Illuminate it from the bottom and let the rock glow.

The second thought would be to use a long exposure in the dark and light the rocks with small pen flash lights. Light paint the rocks.

I WAS thinking about a way to get the translucence to show through... The idea of a underlight coming up from a hole went through my mind, too.

I just got one of these for viewing film negs, very cheap & adjustable power, not sure this would help. It came with a few sheets of tracing paper but I SAW it as diffusion material.

https://www.amazon.com …nb_sb_ss_fb_1_1​0_ts-doa-p

Keep in mind that you can employ standard reflective lighting to convey form (ridges, flat surfaces, curves) AND also use transmitted light to convey translucency/color, etc.

Too many light points around the subject would just be caught as points of light in the reflection... the sparkly effect at a jewelry store has to do with the angles that jewels are cut.

I'd personally use a modified lightbox (I know this discussion was already had up above). It's cheap and effective. If you have a diffuse light source, then go for that. The idea is merely to cast soft diffused light onto the subject. Fill light from another angle can help, depending on the look you're going for. The strength and distance of your key light can be played around with if you have something like a small soft box or umbrella.

To sum it all up, you can either approach this as you would product photography or as you would headshot portraits. Personally, the latter would be more interesting and can vary greatly artistically.

I ended up going with a "light pad" as the bottom light source for translucent rocks with an old beret on top that I cut a hole into.
Light source on the top was a fixture of 3 LED hanging lights in our kitchen.
Shot using Canon 7DmkII and 24-105 at 105mm on a tripod. Variety of settings, but aperture mostly either F11 or F16. ISO 100.

OK - so.... Here are the results

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2kPt​avn

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2kPt​EU3

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2kPt​apq