[meteorite-list] THE ART OF PHOTOGRAPHING

[Dave Freeman mjwy]

Dear List;
For the beginners of photographing meteorites and other rocks, minerals; 
there are some handy tips to get more response to your photos/adds to sell.
1.) throw away the blurry pictures.  With digital photos so easy to 
delete and take another, why link to blurry pictures?
2.) a view of the overall size of the specimen is critical. a top or 
above angled view, with good lighting, and a scale such as a ruler, 
ones' thumb (which also helps with color scale, and trim your nails and 
wash hands before photographing), or other size defining characteristic 
is very important.  Since Ssex sells cars and everything else, I have 
thought of getting a model with nicely done nails to hold a specimen for 
the camera.  Close up of the hand only as we still want the focus to be 
on the rock specimen!
3. ) background area can help or detract from the specimen.  I prefer a 
black soft cloth as a background so the viewer focuses on the specimen, 
not what is in the back ground.
4.) Get one good clear correctly lit close up of the specimen to show 
chondrules, visible iron specks, fusion crust...what ever is the best 
trait to show off in the picture.
5.)  So, in the big picture:     one good picture of overall size and 
shape of the specimen with a color and size scale and a darker less 
interesting back ground.    A second picture of close up with good 
lighting and maybe a hand or scale/ruler to show good size and define 
colors.  
 One can have more pictures of different angles, filters, etc. and even 
just one picture can represent a specimen many times.   It is critical 
to delete the blurry pictures, to get some form of scale of the over all 
shape and size of the specimen.  
John G. has helped me to understand lighting in that many cameras do 
better with a partial cloudy day as direct sunlight gives to much light 
to the subject.  
Practice using the camera and teach it to be your friend, good pictures 
will sell items twice as fast as poor quality pictures.
Hope this helps the amateur photographer.   I am sure that many of you 
can add to this one.
Dave Freeman
eBay power seller mjwy
IMCA # 3864
Rock Springs, WY