Rough Diamonds
Moderators: rjlittlefield, ChrisR, Chris S., Pau
Rough Diamonds
I was inspired by Linden's colourful diamond photos so I found some 1mm rough diamond on eBay and tried some different lighting combinations, mostly reflected lighting.
Surface detail from the previous photo.
Stereo pair
Surface detail from the previous photo.
Stereo pair
Last edited by micro_pix on Wed May 20, 2020 12:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
- rjlittlefield
- Site Admin
- Posts: 23608
- Joined: Tue Aug 01, 2006 8:34 am
- Location: Richland, Washington State, USA
- Contact:
Lovely images! The lighting is exquisite for showing surface texture without blowing the highlights.
The stereo works OK for me, but it seems notably less sharp than any of your others.
The stereo is also smaller, both in pixel count and file length, only 694 pixels wide and 76 KB.
I am curious, what prompted these choices?
--Rik
The stereo works OK for me, but it seems notably less sharp than any of your others.
The stereo is also smaller, both in pixel count and file length, only 694 pixels wide and 76 KB.
I am curious, what prompted these choices?
--Rik
- rjlittlefield
- Site Admin
- Posts: 23608
- Joined: Tue Aug 01, 2006 8:34 am
- Location: Richland, Washington State, USA
- Contact:
I've re-done the stereo (it was my first go). I normally stack in full size tiff but I exported to Zerene in down sized .jpg for the stereo and put 1024 for the long edge (forgetting that the single image was portrait) so ended up with a 600 wide stereo image - after cropping to landscape. All fixed now and sharpened.
David
David
Those are lovely David. I really like the detail showing the "trigons" and surface growth plates.
Linden Gledhill http://www.flickr.com/photos/13084997@N03/
- rjlittlefield
- Site Admin
- Posts: 23608
- Joined: Tue Aug 01, 2006 8:34 am
- Location: Richland, Washington State, USA
- Contact:
Thanks for the comments. These tiny rough diamonds are fascinating subjects!
Here's another one lit to show the surface texture. I know very little about minerals but I suspect this has an accretion of something on the surface; while the shape and structure is diamond like, the surface "lava-like" texture (and what looks like thin film interference patterns) is possibly a different compound/mineral. This is probably why the diamond testers don't really work on rough diamonds.
Dave
-and another go at stereo
Here's another one lit to show the surface texture. I know very little about minerals but I suspect this has an accretion of something on the surface; while the shape and structure is diamond like, the surface "lava-like" texture (and what looks like thin film interference patterns) is possibly a different compound/mineral. This is probably why the diamond testers don't really work on rough diamonds.
Dave
-and another go at stereo
- Charles Krebs
- Posts: 5865
- Joined: Tue Aug 01, 2006 8:02 pm
- Location: Issaquah, WA USA
- Contact:
Welcome to the world of mineral photography! Almost all natural diamonds, and natural crystals in general, show growth features on what may nominally appear to be smooth surfaces - it is up to us macrophotographers to show the wonder of these types of crystal imperfections. Diamond testers only work on smooth surfaces such as found on cut gemstones. Also, I am guessing the "violet" fluorescent response may just be a reflection from the visible violet emissions typical of UV lamps, as most diamonds are either non-fluorescent or fluorescent in the yellow-tan-white range. I stand corrected, diamonds are likely to fluoresce in many colors, including blue.
Regardless, an excellent set of images of a fascinating subject. (I can't see stereo images due to having only 1.2 eyes)
Regardless, an excellent set of images of a fascinating subject. (I can't see stereo images due to having only 1.2 eyes)
It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see - Henry David Thoreau
.
Thanks for the comments.
This was on a fluorescence microscope set-up using a mecury lamp with an UV exciter filter that cuts off at just under 400 nanometers and I had a barrier filter of 460 nanometers so it's definitely true fluorescence. There are probably about a thousand 1mm diamonds in the pack I bought and something like 15-20% fluoresced when I shone a UV torch on them. I selected a handful of the brighter fluorescing ones and put them under the scope.
I did read that the range of colours is quite wide but I also read that it's related to the elements/impurities in the diamond and so related to their origin to some extent, I don't know that that the tiny diamonds in this pack came from the same place but I only found ones that were fluorescing blue or green.
There's a nice picture that someone has put on Flikr which shows some of the range of colours https://flic.kr/p/2hgPnWb
Dave
Thanks for the comments.
Thanks JW.JW wrote: I am guessing the "violet" fluorescent response may just be a reflection from the visible violet emissions typical of UV lamps, as most diamonds are either non-fluorescent or fluorescent in the yellow-tan-white range.[/size] I stand corrected, diamonds are likely to fluoresce in many colors, including blue.
This was on a fluorescence microscope set-up using a mecury lamp with an UV exciter filter that cuts off at just under 400 nanometers and I had a barrier filter of 460 nanometers so it's definitely true fluorescence. There are probably about a thousand 1mm diamonds in the pack I bought and something like 15-20% fluoresced when I shone a UV torch on them. I selected a handful of the brighter fluorescing ones and put them under the scope.
I did read that the range of colours is quite wide but I also read that it's related to the elements/impurities in the diamond and so related to their origin to some extent, I don't know that that the tiny diamonds in this pack came from the same place but I only found ones that were fluorescing blue or green.
There's a nice picture that someone has put on Flikr which shows some of the range of colours https://flic.kr/p/2hgPnWb
Dave