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No worries. Opals are a tricky beast but then again so are wild creatures. I'm sure you'll work it out and good to hear he has someone to help. Many of the old opal experts are great in person but when it comes to capturing opal it can be very hit and miss with the new tech.
No worries. There is soo much info out there on other gemstones but opal is so different applying the same techniques can fail hard. Hopefully I can fix that over the next few weeks and show heaps of options to get the opals to show off properly.
No worries. Left some links in the description and pinned comment to help. At least they will give you an idea on what to look for if you are willing to hunt for a better deal somewhere.
50 years second generation mining cutting selling, must have watched 100s of online videos, Roy this is the most informative opal video I have watched. Thank you for your time and knowledge to put this all together, I just hit the subscribe button. 10/10 Roys Rocks
Haha thanks. I will have some more applied guides by actually using these tips soon which can help even further for those that learn better by seeing things done. I feel for the miners the most. Especially today where so much trade is done online rather than in person. Already helped a few out in person who just cant show off their opal well enough to post online. They will get 50% less than they should.
Very helpful. It seems so straight forward that you wouldn’t see a color in an opal if that color wasn’t present in the lighting and yet I never even thought of that. Thanks!
Haha yeah physics is good like that. If it was taught better in school most concepts would seem just as easy. Teachers should really focus on applications to teach this sort of stuff.
Dr Roy Lehman. Gotta be proud of it. I wouldn't mind some deeper scientific experimentation and theories getting tested if you ever end up mixing passions, and find the time for it of course... It's missing in the opal world 😎
No worries Nancy. Photography is a tough task. Even harder when it involves an opal so I don't give people a hard time about it. Just rather help them.
It also explains why my 12 volt led house lighting is awful. Got yellow and blue ones. They are FINALLY dying, so will be more discerning with replacements. I even had trouble with my tablets. I had no idea that was why I couldn't really see the colours on your clips and I had no idea that I could change it, or picture quality. Oh wow. What a bloody great difference. You take so much time to learn, then pass it on freely. Thank you so much. I learn from it all.
Thank you for sharing all this valuable information. This should be required watching, especially the lighting. Great tips, I'll be watching this a few times over.
Hi Roy , Great video , I was wondering ,I use polarised lenses for fishing they remove the surface shine from objects, so you can see through the surface , in my case through the surface of water to be able to see fish , the colours on fish photographed with polarised lenses really pop out bright , have you tried using one on Opal
You are looking into the future!!! That will be covered in the future video involving camera use. Spoiler: it can work really well as you would expect having used them on fish in water.
As a professional photographer who used to photograph opals for the largest opal company in Australia at one time and, hence, had to show the best and most expensive gems to their best advantage I developed a technique based on multiple fibre optic sources , each independently controllable and able to be finely shuttered so as to be able to visually separate the various layers and reveal them in sequence. This will also help to reduce the amount of scatter and diffusion. The fibre optic was approximately 10mm in diameter. Do not use large diffuse sources. There were other aspects which I’ll keep to myself ( such as hiding secular surface reflections ) but suffice to say the real trick is small, bright controllable sources. A very smooth turntable, able to be rotated very slowly is also a must. I don’t think opals are necessarily harder than some other gemstones. BTW tungsten halogen light has a very, very good CRI and contains all the wavelengths you’ll need. Despite what this guy’s saying, colour temperature of tungsten halogen is not important as the CRI is good. It’s not ‘yellow’ but yellower than daylight and with your camera set to tungsten it’s perfect. Here’s a really good trick from the old days- photograph the opals in a glass dish of glycerine. It has a similar refractive index to the clear part of the opal so that there’s no surface reflection to obscure the colour inside. BTW, the gems I used to photograph were worth tens of thousands of dollars worth so the thing I was most concentrating on was not dropping them because they can shatter. Modern digital cameras are fine at 800 ISO and noise free.
The fiber optic lights would be a very interesting way to go but much harder to acquire. They would be as direct a light source as you can get and provide very controllable lights which I am not surprised would be excellent if not the best option out there. "despite what the narrator is saying, tungsten light has a very,very good CRI and contains all the wavelengths you’ll need" Umm... I specifically say they have an excellent CRI even on the slide so not sure where you got that from.
@@RoysRocks yer man i payed just less than £10 a couple of years ago, love the macro lens, don’t use the other two al bet that’s the same as you 😂😂👍🎩🇬🇧
@@M44411 Haha spot on. The macro gets almost all the usage. There was a single macro lens option but it was larger and more expensive and the three set and I was just testing the waters.
@@RoysRocks overall you win with weather but it's fine I'm doing research into capillary action and I'm thinking I'd need to supercritically dry my Shewa in order for it not to crack in the drying process. More realistically I've had some breakthroughs with sodium hydroxide 😝
Amazon Affiliate Links relating to this video:
US
LED Light Panel: amzn.to/2P4vAAd
Mobile Phone Macro Lens: amzn.to/2QkmJer
AU
LED Light Panel: amzn.to/3engCy6
Mobile Phone Macro Lens: amzn.to/2QfxazK
UK
LED Light Panel: amzn.to/2QGbw7C
Mobile Phone Macro Lens: amzn.to/3ekM3sy
As a hobbyists who shoots wildlife and has been roped into helping my father with his opals this has been incredibly helpful, thank you
No worries. Opals are a tricky beast but then again so are wild creatures.
I'm sure you'll work it out and good to hear he has someone to help.
Many of the old opal experts are great in person but when it comes to capturing opal it can be very hit and miss with the new tech.
Every bit of info really helps after the all the work then presentation ,Great info for the variety of colors and opal ,Thanks Roy .
No worries. There is soo much info out there on other gemstones but opal is so different applying the same techniques can fail hard. Hopefully I can fix that over the next few weeks and show heaps of options to get the opals to show off properly.
This video has helped me sooo much. Thank you for the post!
Hi and no worries.
Happy to help whenever I can through my videos and I was pretty happy with this one when I put it together.
Great video Roy. Going to give that led light a go. Thanks.
No worries. Left some links in the description and pinned comment to help. At least they will give you an idea on what to look for if you are willing to hunt for a better deal somewhere.
Super informational video, Thanks!
No worries. I'm glad this series has started. Looking forward to the next videos showing people how each aspect can be applied.
50 years second generation mining cutting selling, must have watched 100s of online videos, Roy this is the most informative opal video I have watched. Thank you for your time and knowledge to put this all together, I just hit the subscribe button. 10/10 Roys Rocks
Haha thanks. I will have some more applied guides by actually using these tips soon which can help even further for those that learn better by seeing things done.
I feel for the miners the most. Especially today where so much trade is done online rather than in person. Already helped a few out in person who just cant show off their opal well enough to post online. They will get 50% less than they should.
great information , a could help, thanks have a great day
Glad to be of use. 😊
Great guide, thank you!
No worries Thomas 👍
Very helpful. It seems so straight forward that you wouldn’t see a color in an opal if that color wasn’t present in the lighting and yet I never even thought of that. Thanks!
Haha yeah physics is good like that. If it was taught better in school most concepts would seem just as easy.
Teachers should really focus on applications to teach this sort of stuff.
LOL, Dr Roy! I love it!!
Haha. PowerPoint has saved my name like that on the template. I didn't even notice!
Dr Roy Lehman. Gotta be proud of it.
I wouldn't mind some deeper scientific experimentation and theories getting tested if you ever end up mixing passions, and find the time for it of course... It's missing in the opal world 😎
Lots of good info, well done Roy.
Hopefully enough info to get people thinking about where they can upgrade.
@@RoysRocks and unstandardised the dangers of contrast 😀
Great video thankyou for this information
No worries. Its the biggest struggle with opal so gotta try to help at least.
Thanks Roy. I am hopeless with photos. The video has explained a lot. May my pictures improve.
No worries Nancy. Photography is a tough task. Even harder when it involves an opal so I don't give people a hard time about it. Just rather help them.
It also explains why my 12 volt led house lighting is awful. Got yellow and blue ones. They are FINALLY dying, so will be more discerning with replacements. I even had trouble with my tablets. I had no idea that was why I couldn't really see the colours on your clips and I had no idea that I could change it, or picture quality. Oh wow. What a bloody great difference. You take so much time to learn, then pass it on freely. Thank you so much. I learn from it all.
Really good information!
Thanks. I'll be referring back to this video a fair bit when I go through the application of these ideas in the future hands on videos.
This actually helped me alot! Pictures are tough with opal and can look completely different than it does IRL.
The daily struggle is real. All we can do is our best and hopefully some can get a good tip or two from this and level up their photography game.
You rock Roy great info 😊😊
Hope it helps. 👌
Thank you for sharing all this valuable information. This should be required watching, especially the lighting. Great tips, I'll be watching this a few times over.
No worries at all. Photography really is 90% lighting. Maybe even 99% when it comes to opal.
WWhere are the Amazon affiliates? I need better light! Thank you for the video. Very helpful.
The video description is full of them though they are getting quite old now.
great info Roy! I'll use this towards my jewelry photos
Good luck. Opal jewellery is yet another level harder. In sure you'll be fine though 👍😁
Wow! How long did you research for all the informations? I would not even know where to start 😅. Great video, thanks for that!
Haha not long. I am a researcher after all. Also a university undergraduate minor in physics helps a lot.
@@RoysRocks good to have you Roy! So people like me save a lot of time. Really appreciate your help mate!
Thank you legend great info.
No worries. More photography videos to come. I just need a bit of sunlight on the weekend instead of rain.
@@RoysRocks wishing you a bright and sunny weekend and looking forward to seeing your next video. .Cheers Greg.
@@gregbrett6076 Haha still gloomy and raining!!! Goes to show the need for an artificial light set up. 🤣
Hi Roy , Great video , I was wondering ,I use polarised lenses for fishing they remove the surface shine from objects, so you can see through the surface , in my case through the surface of water to be able to see fish , the colours on fish photographed with polarised lenses really pop out bright , have you tried using one on Opal
You are looking into the future!!! That will be covered in the future video involving camera use.
Spoiler: it can work really well as you would expect having used them on fish in water.
@@RoysRocks sorry man , jumping the gun lol
As a professional photographer who used to photograph opals for the largest opal company in Australia at one time and, hence, had to show the best and most expensive gems to their best advantage I developed a technique based on multiple fibre optic sources , each independently controllable and able to be finely shuttered so as to be able to visually separate the various layers and reveal them in sequence. This will also help to reduce the amount of scatter and diffusion. The fibre optic was approximately 10mm in diameter. Do not use large diffuse sources. There were other aspects which I’ll keep to myself ( such as hiding secular surface reflections ) but suffice to say the real trick is small, bright controllable sources. A very smooth turntable, able to be rotated very slowly is also a must. I don’t think opals are necessarily harder than some other gemstones. BTW tungsten halogen light has a very, very good CRI and contains all the wavelengths you’ll need. Despite what this guy’s saying, colour temperature of tungsten halogen is not important as the CRI is good. It’s not ‘yellow’ but yellower than daylight and with your camera set to tungsten it’s perfect. Here’s a really good trick from the old days- photograph the opals in a glass dish of glycerine. It has a similar refractive index to the clear part of the opal so that there’s no surface reflection to obscure the colour inside. BTW, the gems I used to photograph were worth tens of thousands of dollars worth so the thing I was most concentrating on was not dropping them because they can shatter. Modern digital cameras are fine at 800 ISO and noise free.
The fiber optic lights would be a very interesting way to go but much harder to acquire. They would be as direct a light source as you can get and provide very controllable lights which I am not surprised would be excellent if not the best option out there.
"despite what the narrator is saying, tungsten light has a very,very good CRI and contains all the wavelengths you’ll need"
Umm... I specifically say they have an excellent CRI even on the slide so not sure where you got that from.
yer macros are wikid to get deep into a stone 👍👍🎩🇬🇧
They are a real game changer even just a cheap $20 one popped on to a phone camera makes a huge difference.
@@RoysRocks yer man i payed just less than £10 a couple of years ago, love the macro lens, don’t use the other two al bet that’s the same as you 😂😂👍🎩🇬🇧
@@M44411 Haha spot on. The macro gets almost all the usage. There was a single macro lens option but it was larger and more expensive and the three set and I was just testing the waters.
@@RoysRocks spot on for the price m8🇬🇧🎩👍
I have years of bad opal pictures to show for it. ✌️😂
Well... lets turn that around! 😜
@@RoysRocks Australia here I come to get that sun thingny you're talking about, here in Canada it's optional 😝
@@LaurentiusTriarius Haha dont come here now if sun is what you are after. Been a pretty gloomy week.
@@RoysRocks overall you win with weather but it's fine I'm doing research into capillary action and I'm thinking I'd need to supercritically dry my Shewa in order for it not to crack in the drying process. More realistically I've had some breakthroughs with sodium hydroxide 😝
Possibly?? No! 1000000%
Now I can refer people to this video whenever they ask me for tips on the topic... everyday at least once I think. 😃