I do jewelry photos at work, a spin-off of my work as a jeweler.  With no time to do differently lit photos and layered images to get the flash of gemstones and keep metal reflections to a minumum,  I think fiber optics might help do the job.

I need to have pinpoint white light, to direct "out of view" to light a stone within a metal jewelry item.

Any suggestions where to go looking for this?  Thanks.         TomDart.

No ideas, sorry. I assume you have 'Googled' it with no luck? Have you considered bright LEDs for this application as well?

Attached Link: http://www.globalspec.com/

hello !

you can find fiber optic in all good IT shop, or IT online shop, by meter.

Maybe you could use some strands from a fiber optic lamp and adapt them to work? I have heard of using heat shrink to couple a few strands of fiber optics to an LED.

Matt

Have you tried those self lighting glow sticks i know they are not optic fibre but they might work

I have used a light tent. There is then the problem of losing the scintillation of light from a gemstone. A nice light source is needed to shine into the gem to reflect back and make the stone come "alive".  Light tents work fine for reducing metal glare but unfortuntely reduce the lively aspects of a transparent gemstone, too.

The fibers from the fiber optic lamp will work..now just to get a source of white light to feed the fibers!

The IT shop might be good bet..but to get a light and fibers together would be easier..albiet likely much more costly.   

Good ideas...I will check these out.   Tom.

Attached Link: Taking photo's of gems

This shot is of a piece in progress. The photo shows problems with lighting, in this case,the gemstones are blown out from too much direct light. The metal is not very reflective at this stage of the work.

The second shot is more decent, still, we rejected this one since the center stone was a bit too lively and focus was not dead on.   Both pics are rejects but kept as reference to the job done.
I wanted to post one where the metal was great and the stone looked dead...alas, not on this pc!

Light tents, etc. do work fine especially with paper things moved around to control reflections..on metal, that is.  Still, the stones will come out dead and not sparkle.   The led and fiber seems a good bet.

This shot was taken with a flourescent lamp with tissue as diffuser(down and dirty work!).  Ambient room light lit the stones and fortunately did not reflect too much on the metal.

Please disregard the dof problems in this particular shot and note the lack of light on the bottom stones, lack of sparkle from the center stone and the still present problems with reflections(black looking areas) of the metal.(Reflections are pretty much under control now, not as in this old shot.)   This was also shot with the down and dirty flourescent with tissure diffuser.  We do not have a photo set-up. It is make do as you can.

Thanks for bearing with me on this thread!         Tom.

Fiber optic cable is fairly cheap...it's the light emitter that's expensive..

pushinfaders, that is exactly what I have discovered...light sources are costly.  Most ready made ones are more science directed than I need.  I don't need really bright light but without experiment don't know what to expect.  I might try some white leds or go to a zenon lamp and some homemade rig to see what happens.  The main point is "point source" and small at that.   We will see.....

The one at work is for a spectroscope..but the beam is much too wide for photography, even with all the fine controls provided for color, intensity, etc.  That one won't cut it.

I might be on the wrong path altogether but fiber seems the way to get a fine point source of light, easily positioned and tiny as needed.          Thanks.       Tom.

Here's a few links ...

http://store.tabletopstudio-store.com/index.html

The LED light they show is an idea..one could probably make something like that..

http://store.tabletopstudio-store.com/dida50ledbu.html

Some interesting tips here..does talk about fiber optic lights..I like the three light idea
http://www.ganoksin.com/borisat/nenam/light.htm

OK. try to Ignore the annoying blinking text..

http://www.jewelryphotography.com/index.htm#Photography

If you are going to try this or inshaala's suggestion, you must put a resistor inline with the power source (battery, power supply, etc) and the LED so the LED doesn't burn out. The value of the resistor will be determined by the voltage of your power source and the current rating of the LED that you have chosen.

Matt

Attached Link: Fib-Opt

Wow. I do appreciate the links and how-to illustration for led/fiber optic strands.   On the way to work now and will search this stuff out this evening.  The ganoksin article is not a bad one..I am a member of that site but didn't see this page.  The "drop shadow" box the man uses is not a bad idea at all...that is certainly worth trying.        Tom.

Hi, 
The fibre optics on xmas trees and fibre optic display balls work great.  I just cut them off with scissors and shine a realy bright (but small lens) LED torch though the back.  It shines real well as a pin pont. I know you can buy bundled cable fibre optics from some big computer stores too!!  Godd Luck, Louise

I forgot about the fiber optic cables used in audio systems (for "optical" digital outputs). I have bought a couple of these cables for a few dollars whenever I find them on clearance.

Matt

Thanks for the last two posts...I found Radio Shack has an audio 6ft. for $14US.  Haven't checked the tree ornament/display items yet.   Looking good!    Thanks!

When the setup is done and I get some photos, I will post to show how it works(or doesn't). 

Tom.

didnt read much of the past few posts coz it is late - but a thought just struck me: black shiny vinyl.  You get an amazing reflection and it looks so classy if you use it as the surface you take shots of rings or any jewelry on.  I didnt manage to get some for my shots but saw some examples using it and it makes the thing look great... might want to give it a try - but if the doorknob "rustic" backdrop look is what you are going for then i suppose it isnt really useful :)

I have used slightly reflective surfaces before and the effect is nice. As for the highly reflective vinyl, I can see lighting control being especially important but the look, I imagine, would be very upscale.  Not a bad idea at all.