Heree is one more example, an image shot a couple of years ago to show the difference in lighting in showing the stone properly. This is an opal and single source incandescent lighting works best. Diffused mutes the colors and makes some color show while others disappear.

With opal, the stone has a sort of in-built diffraction grid made of tiny balls of silica. The arrangement, size and compactness of the beads determines the color shown.

Some of the best color in these gemstones is done with a flatbed scanner. Then again, that is digital production and not photography.

Lighting made the difference in these two shots of the same stone on the same background. White balance was apparently not changed for the lighting, seeing the difference in the bg color.
Metal reflection is not acceptable in either shot.

Message edited on: 12/29/2005 19:38

Message edited on: 12/29/2005 19:40