Thanks! When I made the recommendation for the <$400 setup, folks started building them, and many quickly realized the tripod was the weak link in the system. I received many requests for a copy stand to complement the setup, and this is what I came up with. It uses all the components listed in the original setup, but just has a copy stand instead of the tripod.
Your solution of raising and lowering the coin is a clever one. For my own photography, I started out in doing focus stacking with a system that moved the coin, then migrated to systems that moved the camera as I upgraded components. Now with my current system I've moved back to keeping the camera fixed and moving the coin! So there is no perfect answer, just do what you can do to make it work!
Contact me for photographic equipment or visit my home page at: http://macrocoins.com
Your setup journey sounds interesting. I see you had a few ups and downs along the way. (okay...silly pun! Lol).
I'm pleased the platform/lift wasn't a cooky idea. Lol we'll see how it goes with the lift. If it doesn't work out, maybe Santa will bring me a copy stand. Lol
Everything I need is ordered and on the way. Hopefully I'll be able to get set up next week sometime as long as I get two of the ebay orders early. (hurry up ebay!! Haha).
Once set up, I'll check back in here with an update (and probably a million questions.
Thanks again for your help. It is greatly appreciated!
Sharon PS: I thought I posted this earlier today but never hit send! Oopsie.
I was brainstorming the easiest way to measure the distance from the camera lens to the platform by mounting a ruler to the platform but can't think of a good way to do it. But then I thought (ding-ding-ding ) about a Laser Level!!!
I'm thinking it might work if I can attach it to the camera lens somehow. the smaller one might work better than the pen style one. Either way, to me it looks easier than trying to attach a ruler.
And the best thing is, they aren't expensive! Yay!
The only issue I can think of is, if someone uses a type of pillar to raise the coin up from the platform. In that case the laser measuring tool would have to point towards the coin and not the platform. Even if the laser is mounted against the lens, it wouldn't work. Unless they account for the height of the pillar while measuring.
I bought a small 4x4 platform. It was 9.99 for two so I thought I would try it out. I won't know if it cranks up high enough until I receive the rest of my lenses/adapters.
It cranks up very easily! I am pleasantly surprised! Here is a video. TURN THE SOUND DOWN! Or, you'll hear me crazily breathing! LOL. I didn't realize it until I uploaded the video to YouTube. Sorry about that.
If the copy stand is anything like the video Ray posted, I'm extremely jealous.
For now, and since I've already ordered what I think I need, hopefully my (Frankenstein) set-up will work out. We'll find out soon enough because today I received the last of the parts I was waiting for. Tomorrow I hope to find the time to get everything set up and start shooting some coin photo's. No promises. It may be next week.
Although I have to confess, once I had all the camera lens parts, for a moment I freaked. I thought, "How the heck does all this fit together!". Lol. My 1st thought was to post here and ask Ray. I resisted that urge. He has been such a great help and I don't want to bug him for every little move I make.
I like challenges so I began to look at what was sitting in front of me and realized the descriptions told me the answer. First this, then that, etc., etc. And it worked! I didn't have the tripod set up yet but, I was actually focusing on a coin! Even though they were blurry as alk get out it was encouraging. I gave myself a pat on the back and set it aside to revel in the moment. (Just kidding!!)
Other than stroking my ego, I got kinda excited. I thought, "Maybe... just maybe... I really can shoot some decent coin photos!"
It is a very decent picture, better than 90% of what you see on the internet. Do you want to do better than that? I am not sure what it will take, but here are the things that would be important to improve:
- Rotate the coin so the IGWT is horizontal. Anything else is just a practice shot. - It appears you may have two different light types at play. What are you using for lighting? - You have quite a few "blown highlights". You can fix this using exposure compensation if A mode, or just reducing exposure if you're shooting in M mode. - The lights are at too low an angle vs the coin. Bring them up to a higher angle. Right now the field and top surfaces of the devices are dark, while edges of devices are bright. - Sharpness could be improved. What aperture are you using? How are you doing shutter release?
Ray
Contact me for photographic equipment or visit my home page at: http://macrocoins.com
Sorry for the delayed reply. Although I'm semi retired, I have been helping at work due to an employee that unexpectedly left. I like the extra money but not the time it's taken away from my hobbies. Lol
I have two led lights that have three temperatures and are dimmable. They look like the ones you have in the video you shared. They are mostly at 10 and 2 o'clock but I've been playing around with the angles and how close they are to the coin. I also tried putting kleenex over them to diffuse the light. That seemed to help some.
I haven't tried positioning them closer to (and even with?) the lens so I'll try that.
I'll have to get back with you on the camera settings. I've played around with different combinations but haven't settled on a particular one yet. So many options! Lol. I need to spend some time with the camera manual to see if I have the camera settings correct in conjunction with on screen usage. I may have something wrong, which isn't helping.
Downloading to software for my camera was an adventure. Canon discontinued my camera model software so I couldn't download from their website. Luckily I saved the original bix and found the disc. But, my laptop doesn't take cd's. I have a hard drive my work gave me when they changed computers (Windows 10) but it wasn't set up. I plugged it in, then the password didn't work so I had to reset the computer. FINALLY got that up and running. Downloaded the software, copied to a jump stick, and loaded onto my laptap. 2 hours later I finally could use the computer to take pictures. What a pain in the behind. Haha
Anyway... I haven't had much time to play around with it. I also need to move my set up into a different room due to some repairs I'm having done at home.
Good grief. When it rains it pours around here lately. Lol
Can I ask you, what camera settings work for you? That will help me with a better starting point than the haphazard way I'm doing it now.
Thanks so much for your help! I really appreciate it.
I missed the question about settings. Here's what I do...
I always shoot in jpg, never raw. Never found much advantage to raw, and it's a lot more work that I don't need.
But, you need good camera settings to get the most from the camera's jpg engine.
FIrst, you need to ensure you don't over-expose. I shoot in Aperture Priority Mode, and then set exposure compensation typically -2/3EV to make sure the camera minimizes over-exposure.
Second, to minimize lost shadows, you need to make sure the shadows map into the jpg by making contrast as low as possible, and take advantage of your camera's dynamic range optimizer if it has one.
Third, shoot at reduced saturation. This improves dynamic range, especially for coins with lots of color. It's easy to increase the saturation in post processing if needed to match the color of the coin.
Always use manual focus, and ensure you're critically-focusing on a middle-height feature.
Those are the most valuable tricks, though of course the most important is getting the lighting right.
Contact me for photographic equipment or visit my home page at: http://macrocoins.com
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Posted 01/24/2024 7:51 pm
) about a Laser Level!!!
