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Rookie Needing Advice

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Pillar of the Community
Canada
623 Posts
 Posted 05/08/2015  5:55 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add T1Steel to your friends list
Thanks to you all ! I been out since my last post and appreciate your help . I am going to change a few things and take some more practice photos and fool with my settings . I will post some photos later for some more critique.
Hope to not pester you all to much . If I am please let me know.
Also fooling around with this stand I built to see if I can make it useful and workable.
Any and all help is appreciated.
Thanks again.
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United States
23522 Posts
 Posted 05/08/2015  5:56 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add SsuperDdave to your friends list
Let's wait for the "book" until we get an idea of how you're rigging things, and what you used for lighting on each of those shots.
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 Posted 05/08/2015  5:56 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add SsuperDdave to your friends list
OK, that's pretty good timing.

Pester us. That's the only way we'll know what to teach you.
Pillar of the Community
Canada
623 Posts
 Posted 05/08/2015  10:05 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add T1Steel to your friends list
I have a couple of photos of the stand I have built.It can be clamped just about anywhere or be free standing and it has a few different adjustments.
As for lighting I have been using an adjustable lamp(light) clamped off to the side. What is the proper kind of bulb and wattage to use here?
Also trying to figure out all the settings and such that are on the camera and the uses for each.
Will post more questions and hopefully better photos later.
Any and all opinions and suggestions are welcome. Thank you.
Rookie-Needing-Advice

Rookie-Needing-Advice

Rookie-Needing-Advice
Edited by T1Steel
05/08/2015 10:06 pm
Pillar of the Community
Canada
623 Posts
 Posted 05/09/2015  08:33 am  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add T1Steel to your friends list
@SD, I read up on the EXIF data , and checked if my camera has GPS on it . I understand about you knowing what settings I used on the pictures by the metadata I am guessing. Fooling around with the camera and playing back the pictures I did have it set where I could see those settings as well but then I lost that info again when I reset the camera.
I did not grow up using computers or electronics so getting used to them will take some time for me. Knowing all the terms and how everything works is a challenge I will work at .
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 Posted 05/09/2015  3:14 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add BStrauss3 to your friends list
Nice stand - clean, simple, easy to adjust and the 2 axis feature is cool. Maybe you should sell them [to pay for your coin addiction, naturally]
-----Burton
50+ year / Life / Emeritus ANA member (joined 12/1/1973)
Life member: Numismatics International, CONECA
Member: TNA, FtWCC, NETCC, EveryCountry (online) coin club
Owned by three cats and a wife of 40+ years (joined 1983)

Author: 3rd Edition of the Sample Slabs book, https://www.sampleslabs.info/
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4038 Posts
 Posted 05/09/2015  4:04 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add rmpsrpms to your friends list
I agree, nice simple stand!

We generally recommend Jansjo gooseneck LEDs for lighting. Put one a 1:30 and one at 10:30. The highlights and shadows in the shots above show that your light is at too low an angle relative to the coin surface. Bring the light closer to the camera lens and things will improve. The advantages Jansjos have is they are small and flexible and run fairly cool so are easy to move around close to the lens, or even between the lens and coin of there is room, to get the higher lighting angles.
Contact me for photographic equipment or visit my home page at:
http://macrocoins.com
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 Posted 05/09/2015  4:32 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add BStrauss3 to your friends list
Dave's right - awesome for a $130 P&S!

Re the Jansjo's you can diffuse them with a tissue (shows how cool they run) or a piece of white muslin type fabric (or even a piece of old white pillow case. The neck detail makes a great 'mount' for the rubber band.


Mail order from Ikea: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/c..._room/20516/, per specs it's 70 lumen, warm white (2700K), both the clamp on and the stand version have the same head...

Always remember to set the white balance to avoid the blue color shift.
-----Burton
50+ year / Life / Emeritus ANA member (joined 12/1/1973)
Life member: Numismatics International, CONECA
Member: TNA, FtWCC, NETCC, EveryCountry (online) coin club
Owned by three cats and a wife of 40+ years (joined 1983)

Author: 3rd Edition of the Sample Slabs book, https://www.sampleslabs.info/
Pillar of the Community
Canada
623 Posts
 Posted 05/11/2015  7:06 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add T1Steel to your friends list

Hi I am back to ask more questions if you have the time. Busy weekend.
I have picked up 2 of the jansjo lights and again this is all new to me.
How close to the coin or camera lens should these lights be?
Can you recommend any basic reading materials I can read that might help understand the proper terms so that I can learn what you are trying to explain.
Also thanks for the comments on the stand, if I had to I could make longer if I needed to but I think with what I am using for a camera it will do for now. I am a welder by trade so it would be easy to customize the stand or make to specifications.
Appreciate any comments and help.
Thank you.


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 Posted 05/11/2015  7:35 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add BStrauss3 to your friends list
I think this place IS "the reading materials". Just keep asking...

Well, for GENERAL usage (i.e. not DCAM)

* Positioning the lights at 10:30 and 1:30 relative to the coin is generally found to work best
* I find that positioning them up at the level of the lens works best.

But you'll have to play - looking at the live view and the photos to minimize reflection. And it's often dependent on what you are shooting. (Remember inconveniencing electrons [to make throw-away photos] is basically free)

For example - I was shooting a photocert earlier today. SO now you have something where there is a lot of distance between the lens and subject, I had to position the camera about 80cm above the surface for a full frame shot, so I just positioned them at 9 and 3 with the heads just out of the shot aiming down. For that shot, there was no luster to worry about, just glare. Result: http://i1289.photobucket.com/albums...nfpvsos8.jpg
-----Burton
50+ year / Life / Emeritus ANA member (joined 12/1/1973)
Life member: Numismatics International, CONECA
Member: TNA, FtWCC, NETCC, EveryCountry (online) coin club
Owned by three cats and a wife of 40+ years (joined 1983)

Author: 3rd Edition of the Sample Slabs book, https://www.sampleslabs.info/
Pillar of the Community
Canada
623 Posts
 Posted 05/11/2015  10:07 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add T1Steel to your friends list
I have a couple shots with the lights and different white balance settings.Also all the same coin .
Are the lights helping? How can I use the histogram(?) to help in shooting the cons?

Rookie-Needing-Advice

Rookie-Needing-Advice

Rookie-Needing-Advice

Rookie-Needing-Advice

Rookie-Needing-Advice

Rookie-Needing-Advice
Pillar of the Community
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4593 Posts
 Posted 05/11/2015  10:36 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add BStrauss3 to your friends list
The histogram (or histograms) shows you the amount of light in each of the 256 possible values from 0 - nothing to 255 - all. If your camera reports separate RGB you have three, otherwise just one (for coin photos I don't think there's that much use in the individual colors - you aren't going to adjust it so the grass looks greener, you're going to adjust so the coin looks like it looks).

Anyway, if you don't have the highs full white and the lows full black, you simply aren't using all of the capabilities of the sensor. It doesn't make for a BAD photo, just it could be better.

See the red arrow below - it just means your blacks could benefit (slightly) from a small adjustment...

Rookie-Needing-Advice

to this

Rookie-Needing-Advice

(see how there is more detail now in the blacks) (of course that's really just your background, so the whole exercise is sort of silly...) (anyway...

Gives this:

Rookie-Needing-Advice

Of course, go too far and you've 'juiced' the photo. It's a narrow way down the slippery slope.

Only YOUR eyes can tell which of the two better matches YOUR coin.
-----Burton
50+ year / Life / Emeritus ANA member (joined 12/1/1973)
Life member: Numismatics International, CONECA
Member: TNA, FtWCC, NETCC, EveryCountry (online) coin club
Owned by three cats and a wife of 40+ years (joined 1983)

Author: 3rd Edition of the Sample Slabs book, https://www.sampleslabs.info/
Pillar of the Community
Canada
623 Posts
 Posted 05/11/2015  11:09 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add T1Steel to your friends list
The photos do not show the true silver colour of the coin. I was pushing some buttons and histogram came up in the viewing screen so I thought I would ask.
New Member
United States
23 Posts
 Posted 06/10/2015  6:33 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add Gilron to your friends list
Word on the street you got these results with an Olympus SZ-17. I just Amazon ordered one yesterday. More tips would be great.

Gilron
New Member
United States
5 Posts
 Posted 06/13/2015  9:47 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add silverhunter to your friends list
For me, the BEST light is the daylight. Well when it's very sunny it's also bad to take pictures but it's perfect when the sun isn't to bright. I live in Orlando since 3 years and always do my photography work on my balcony. I sell on ebay what I don't want to keep and I guess my pictures are pretty good. Pictures like this: http://www.redollar.com/wp-content/...welry_02.jpg.

How agrees to daylight-photography?
Edited by silverhunter
06/14/2015 7:48 pm
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