First Pictures With The New Jansjo Lamps (Allot Of Pictures)

It seems there is a difference of opinion on what should be run in manual mode. In my setup, I set aperture, ISO, and focus manually, and then let the camera set the exposure automatically. It seems you and SuperDave are setting aperture, ISO and exposure manually, and letting the camera set focus automatically. This is all fine and good as long as you have an AF lens, but of course I'm using enlarging/duplicating lenses so don't have that option. I'm also very interested in focus stacking, and making sure the system is focused on the middle of the DOF rather than on any high or low points. If you set aperture fairly stopped-down, then it makes little difference. But in my critical focusing I open the aperture as much as I can until I am right on the edge of the DOF for the topography of the coin I'm shooting, and then carefully focus on a feature that is midway between the highest points on the devices and lowest points of the field, then snap the shot. There is no way an AF lens can do that, so images taken with AF will always be just a bit off in focus either high or low unless the aperture is closed down so much that the highs and lows don't matter.

Now, for exposure, what advantage is there in setting manual shutter speed except wasting time and shutter actuations? The camera is far faster and more accurate than I am at setting the exposure. If you want to skew +/- you can always select higher or lower EV levels manually, but this is still faster than setting things manually, and usually results in better dynamic range.

But no worries, I'm not opinionated on this!

By the way, much better contrast and levels on the coin this time. Not a lot to improve on...Ray

Looks good to me. I would still suggest adding a bit of diffusion to the 12:00 light. Just try putting one or two layers of white kleenex or tissue over the light and see if you like the effect. I've also never been a fan of white backgrounds for coins. I think black backgrounds show coins off better, especially silver coins. But now we're talking aesthetics, so you know you're on the right path...Ray

these were taken with a piece of tissue over the 12:00 light. Again no post processing has been done

SD, any recommendations from you on what I can try to improve the shots or do you think this is as good as its going to get?

lol woohoo! got to try and learn something new now

Sorry it took so long but here are some pictures with the contrast set like you mentioned. This is a different coin because I was taking these because I am getting ready to liquidate some of my extras




If anyone sees something that I can do to improve further please let me know but I am finally pretty happy with the pictures I am getting right now. I have noticed in RAW format the pictures have a light magenta color to them (I have my camera set up to take raw and jpg files) and the .jpg files do not have this color difference and was wondering why

Edit: I know what it was, I guess I had messed with the settings in Photoshop and those settings were still set when I opened any other RAW picture and that was what was throwing the color off, I reset the settings to the default settings and now the magenta color is gone

Those are nicer than any proof photo I've been able to take. Good job...Ray

I use 3 Jansjo led lights from IKEA, I have one at around 3:00 one around 6:00 and one at 12:00 with a tissue over the light at 12:00