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The photography for the marbles on this site was done with a Nikon Coolpix 4500. It has one of the best close-up capabilities of the non-professional digital cameras. A Raynox macro lens by was used to accomplish the macro-type pictures. The lighting was done with two Bowens Tri-light compact fluorescent lights. Three 30-watt bulbs are housed in each light with a built-in diffuser, giving bright, even, light when the units are close to the subjects. They are color corrected  fluorescents and emit very little heat.

The non-macro close-up shots were done with the same equipment (minus the Raynox lens) and further diffusion was accomplished with the RedWing cocoon. The cocoon is a plastic 'tent' which houses the camera and subject. The lights are outside the tent, which diffuses light entering through the plastic, creating a very soft light.

The macro shots of marbles are difficult to accomplish. Keeping the subject in focus is challenging when the lens less than an inch from the subject,  The depth of field is less than one millimeter. (Depth of field is the total amount of the picture in focus.) This presents a particular challenge for marbles, because a marble is a curved surface. As the surface curves, it moves out of the field of focus. If a marble were flat, the 1 mm depth of field would be no problem.

To give some idea of the difficulty  notice the small silverish white spots. These are very small balls of silver used as one of the colorants in the Metal series. Some are in focus, others are not. The larger the ball, the more it becomes out of focus, because its height 'leaves' the field of focus of the 1mm depth of field. The larger of these balls is approximately .025 of an inch. Therefore the littlest silver balls within the trails just right of center are very small indeed.

Adding to the difficulty is the process of focusing itself. This is a non-professional digital camera, so you cannot focus by turning the lens as with SLR cameras, or like a pair of binoculars. You also can't focus through any camera controls. Instead , either the camera or the subject has to be moved in tiny steps until the focus is satisfactory. The color surface is the point of focus, because there is a layer of encasing glass around the whole of the marble, care must be taken that the focus remains on the color layer and not on the outer, clear glass, layer.

This would all be impossible if it were not for the aid of a good tripod, and connecting the camera to a TV to view a very large image of the subject before taking the picture.

To see more of this marble use this link. #5 marble of the Metal series

The picture below is the Redwing cacoon and Trilite system mentioned above.

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