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rmpsrpms's Last 20 Posts
| Help How Can I Display Coin Luster On Wheat Cents?
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rmpsrpms
Pillar of the Community
United States
3480 Posts |
 Posted 03/01/2023 8:43 pm
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| It's only deceptive if the photo doesn't look like the coin. In that sense, it seems like what you're doing now is deceptive, and if you edit the coins to look more like the coin, you will be more honest. This is one of the biggest mistakes coin photographers make. They believe that any adjustments are akin to "photoshopping" the image, but this is absolutely incorrect. Don't be afraid to adjust the photo to match the coin. |
| | Forum: Coin Photography, Image Editing, and Related Software |
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| Help How Can I Display Coin Luster On Wheat Cents?
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rmpsrpms
Pillar of the Community
United States
3480 Posts |
Posted 02/28/2023 4:41 pm
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| Hmm, I would not recommend axial lighting to show luster. Luster shows up because of very directional light, and it presents in lines perpendicular to the light direction. So for luster you should try using a single light, fairly far from the coin, at around 45-degrees from horizontal. Move it around the coin to find the direction you want the luster to appear. You can use two lights that are orthogonal to each other to show two "luster bars". The classic positions are at 10 and 2, but the best for luster are 3 hours apart, ie 10 and 1, 11 and 2, etc. This brings out an "X" shaped pair of luster bars with best contrast since the lights don't interfere with each other. |
| | Forum: Coin Photography, Image Editing, and Related Software |
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| How To Take Good Pictures Without A Scope Or Fancy Camera
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rmpsrpms
Pillar of the Community
United States
3480 Posts |
Posted 02/14/2023 10:49 pm
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Quote:
rmpsrpms, you are correct that even an old DSLR w/ macro lens takes pictures that are far superior to a smartphone. I have a Nikon D90 with multiple macro lenses, as I used to do insect photography. But it is a hassle to set it up on a tripod, adjust lighting, etc. Sometimes I just need a quick-n-easy pic, and with my phone it's all said and done in 5 mins without leaving my desk chair.
Agreed! Recent cellphones are good enough to take pretty decent whole-coin or whole-slab shots. Of course they aren't inexpensive, but if you already shelled-out the $ then why not use them? |
| | Forum: Coin Photography, Image Editing, and Related Software |
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| How To Take Good Pictures Without A Scope Or Fancy Camera
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rmpsrpms
Pillar of the Community
United States
3480 Posts |
Posted 02/14/2023 1:20 pm
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Quote:
Most modern phones made within the last couple of years take pictures as well as older DSLR's.
I have a Samsung S22+ and it gives my Nikon 3200 a run for its money for coin photography.
I have not found a phone camera yet that can come anywhere near the quality of even a 10+ year old DSLR. I still recommend folks get the venerable Canon Rebel XS. It can take world-quality photos and has wide enough dynamic range to cover most lighting situations. You can get them for <$100 these days, and with an El-Cheapo enlarging lens you can handily beat any cellphone out there for <$150. |
| | Forum: Coin Photography, Image Editing, and Related Software |
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| Converting The Diameter Of A Coin Into Pixels
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rmpsrpms
Pillar of the Community
United States
3480 Posts |
Posted 02/09/2023 7:55 pm
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| You should be able to use an editing program to crop the coin to a square image. Do that for both. Let's say that the result is one of the images is 1040 pixels square, and the other is 826 pixels square. This will give you a ratio of 826/1040=0.79423. Use this number to reduce the original (larger) image so the coin will be the same size as the smaller one. If the original image is 1800x1200, reduce it to approximately 1800*0.79423 x 1200*0.79423 or 1430x953. Then you can use that image with the original (smaller) image for overlays. |
| | Forum: Coin Photography, Image Editing, and Related Software |
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| Converting The Diameter Of A Coin Into Pixels
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rmpsrpms
Pillar of the Community
United States
3480 Posts |
Posted 02/08/2023 11:27 pm
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Most image editing programs, including Paint.net or PhotoShop or others, have the ability to resize images to whatever pixel dimensions you choose. Simply resize the image such that the coins are the same size in the frame, and then follow coop's instructions above to do the actual overlay. It may take some trial and error before you get the size right since they would not have been taken at the same magnification.
Edited to add: forgot to say...welcome to the forum! |
| | Forum: Coin Photography, Image Editing, and Related Software |
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| Would Appreciate Some Feedback On Photos
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rmpsrpms
Pillar of the Community
United States
3480 Posts |
Posted 01/28/2023 11:39 pm
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Those look pretty good. A bit over-sharpened, but not too bad. Not quite level. Good focus. I'd personally leave a bit more space around the coin.
For the hotspots, I'd recommend adding a bit more diffusion to spread the light more. Also you could reduce the exposure a bit (go to more negative EV setting if on A mode, or shorter exposure if on M) and decrease the in-camera contrast setting. The combo of those 3 should help the hotspots a lot.
All that said, the images really do look pretty good. |
| | Forum: Coin Photography, Image Editing, and Related Software |
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| El-Cheapo Lenses
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rmpsrpms
Pillar of the Community
United States
3480 Posts |
Posted 01/23/2023 1:45 pm
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| Looks good but a bit fuzzy. What is your aperture setting on the lens? I also prefer black or grey backgrounds rather than white, but some folks like white. I'm surprised at the way the ringlight illuminated the dime, very nice shadow detail, which is not common for ringlights. Must be that it is small in diameter. |
| | Forum: Coin Photography, Image Editing, and Related Software |
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| 3d Printed Co-Axial Lighting Setup For Coin Photography
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rmpsrpms
Pillar of the Community
United States
3480 Posts |
Posted 11/29/2022 7:10 pm
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| If you mount the axial light to the lens as you have shown in last post, then you don't need the mirror to be so large. In fact you can get by with a much smaller mirror, such as the more common 30x30mm mirrors, and the case can be much smaller, so would print much faster. However, the light will be more "axial" and give a higher contrast than what you are doing now. That can be good for some coins, bad for others. It's an interesting tradeoff. |
| | Forum: Coin Photography, Image Editing, and Related Software |
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