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Roger Weller, geology instructor                             

wellerr@cochise.edu

Fluorescent Minerals
Steve Tyminski
Physical Geology
Fall 2007
                                 Fluorescent Mineral Photography
 

          The typical when creating digital photographs of specimens of several fluorescing minerals is an overexposed for one mineral and underexposed for another. Another major concern is extreme color distortion, digital photography responds non-linearly to color by intensity—as intensity increases violet may shift to blue, red to yellow, green to white, and so on.

          The photographs in this presentation are intended to show the variation between minerals of Cochise County when viewed under normal lighting conditions, compared to the same minerals when viewed under a short-wave ultraviolet light. Many of the photographs may appear blurred or out of focus, but the comparison to the same mineral viewed under short-wave ultraviolet light sends the message home, that being the beauty of fluorescent minerals of Cochise County.  The camera used for the photographs in this presentation is a family photography style Fuji A-360 with 4.1 mega-pixel resolution. Much more professional results would be realized with professional photography equipment.

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