This page defines the characteristics and properties of the most popular beads, and then determine how those properties may effect photographing these small poetic subjects. We will discuss material, color, shape or cut, coating and polish and explain some of the more technical aspects of bead manufacturing.

Material - A bead can be made from any number of materials but these are among the most common. The material properties that effect photography most would be the materials opaqueness, transparency, translucency or reflectiveness.

• Metal - Silver, gold, copper , precious metal art clay

• Wood -  Artwood, olive wood, redwood …

• Crystal - Swarovski crystal, Czech crystal, Austrian crystal

• Glass - Lamp work glass, seed glass, dichroic glass

• Cubic Zirconia -

• Gemstone - Hematite, quartz, Lapis, Onyx, Jade…

• Pearl -  Tahitian, fresh water …

• Shell - Paua, mother-of-pearl, abalone, cocnut

• Clay -

Color - Beads come in an endless variety of colors such as Clear, blue, green, purple, white, black. Some  of manufacturers have even created their own color names such as Swarovski's Siam, Blue Zircon, Jet, Aurore Boreale etc. The colors that impact photography the most would be white, black and clear. Most colors in their own right do not present a challenge to photography. The few exceptions would be clear, white and black.
 

Clear - The clear color disappears against the background, and the shape is poorly defined. You can use black or colored paper to reflect in the bead to help define the edges or you can take the easy way out and purchase a nice graduated background, produced to simulate the appearance of light naturally falling off in the distance.

Black - Loss of overall definition. Definition can be enhanced by the careful placement of highlights.

White - The pure white color can be a challenge at first due to a cameras misinterpretation of the white color. The camera interprets the white as lots of light and will in many cases underexpose automatically. For tips on avoiding this please see this page on exposure.

Shape and cut - Swarovski's first & origional precision engineered cutting machines invented over 100 years ago have been continually upgraded throughout the years as new technology has become available. Many manufacturers today, farm this job out, however the precision & quality of a beads cut helps to determine it's value. All of these shapes can be found in faceted or unfaceted versions. The shape and cut determine how light is reflected and at what angles, which then in turn effect photography. The angle of reflected light concludes where the lighting needs to be placed for proper illumination.

• Rhinestone flat back

• Bicone

• Round

• Cube

• Marquee

• Teardrop

• Moon

• Snowflake

• Leaf

• Star

Dichroic Glass - Dichroic is a high-tech optical coating that selectively reflects certain wavelengths (colors) of light and allows the remaining wavelengths to transmit through. No light is absorbed. We can find a similar effect in nature when viewing peacock feathers and opals. The word "dichroic" means two colors, which refers to transmitted color and reflected color. This beautiful, expensive, iridescent finish has a reflected color and a completely different transmitted color. These colors shift presenting a variety of colors, depending on the angle of viewing. Originally developed by the aerospace industry as interference filters, this "high tech" glass is now available to all. Dichroic is thin layers of vaporized metal oxides or quartz crystals that are deposited on the surface of the glass in a high temperature vacuum chamber bombarded by an intense electron beam. The process may be repeated up to 30 times to achieve the desired effect. The electron beam vaporizes some of the material which then coats the sheet of glass. The range of colors depends on the oxide composition.

Some of the more popular manufacturers of dichroic glass:

• Coatings by Sandberg ... CBS has a growing customer base of glass blowers and lamp workers. CBS Dichroic is only the Coating, and the Glass is just a vehicle to place the CBS coating onto. Thus, they can coat any type of glass. For your convenience, CBS carries a large variety of glass on hand ready to coat to your specifications: 90 & 96 Co-efficient, Bullseye, Uroboros, Spectrum, Pyrex, Moretti, Rods, Float and more. They will even coat your own glass.

• Savoy Dichroic ... manufactures dichroic glass specifically for the art glass industry. Every day it is tested in their own fusing and blown glass departments. This constant testing allows them to manufacture dichroic glass of superb quality that will perform excellent for the glass artist.
   
• {Navitar Coating Labs Inc.} ... Navitar Coating Labs develops and manufactures a wide range of optical thin film coatings, including anti-reflection coatings, uv filters, hot and cold mirrors, and dichroic art glass.

Aurora Borealis {Aurore Boreale} - A couture coating technique created in the 1950's by Manfred Swarovski {Daniel Swarovski I's grandson} especially for Christian Dior. The coating is applied to half or more of the bead, to give it a prism or iridescent appearance with fiery rainbow glints. This coating is applied over clear & colored beads resulting in a huge amount of variety.

Satin –

Matte – a frosty, non-reflective appearance

Luster – a transparent glaze that adds extra sparkle.

Vitrial - a hard to describe color change finish that appears as different colors in different lighting conditions.

Polish -  This is the very last step in the bead manufacturing process. Different types of polishing include fire, machine or hand polishing. Swarovski for example is known for their high quality polish. Swarovski even polishes the inside of each bead hole, which is evident when you look at a clear Swarovski crystal bead.

Lampwork

Couture

Boro