We’ve had a lot of comments about the quality of our pictures and questions regarding how we take them....

Perhaps the most important item when viewing our images is to make sure you are utilizing the maximum color resolution of your display monitor.

• We do not retouch the colors of any specimen at any time. We may occasionally edit a photo to remove “noise” from the background (noise = dust, lint, excess lighting - etc).
• We crop all of our photos to fit a standard image size. The image quality is also reduced to allow for (relatively) quick downloads but still retain the true image of the piece.
• Lighting is supplied by flash. Camera is a 3.3 mp Kodak DC4800, computer controlled.
• Fluorescent pictures are taken under very controlled conditions:
• Black box eliminating all ambient light.
• Typically 2 to 12 second time exposure - depending on the brightness of the piece (Note: this is the area where the picture may not be the best representation of the specimen - due to the wide intensities found in FL specimens it is very difficult to capture an image which displays all the colors with equal intensities). Where we feel that the image is not an exact representation of the piece we will add a note.
• UV filter to eliminate blue haze (possibly along with a Wratten 1E filter if haze is excessive due to exposure time - and colors permit the use of a “blue-blocking” filter).
• Three different sources of high intensity UV illumination for SW, LW, and MW.
• Natural light images of FL specimens are affected by the size of the black-box and our ability to illuminate them sufficiently.
• Occasionally “bulk” photos will be taken of 12 specimens at one time.  Due to the nature of this type of photography the quality will be less than individually taken images. Additionally, only one side of a piece will be presented using this approach. If you feel an image does not “explain” a piece sufficiently ask and we can provide additional images.
• Size - one of the hardest pieces of information to present is the “size” of a specimen.  Where possible, we include a thumbnail of each specimen with a US dollar bill, a pencil (or equivalent) to provide a relative perspective of the size of that piece.
• 3X Macro lens, F5.6 or F8 depending on size

For a more in-depth discussion of what the camera sees versus your eyes, visit the “colors” page....

The animation at the left shows a group of fluorescent minerals taken with various time exposures.  Behind the minerals are two blue and one red targets.

Compare the colors of the minerals (willemite, sodalite, tugtupite, polylithionite, scheelite, and calcite/willemite) to the over/under exposure of the target.  Ths shows how various colors can appear when overexposed.