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 Replies: 10 / Views: 2,012 |
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
548 Posts |
I have here an 1880 Half-Penny. You can tell from the pictures that the coin is very tarnished, it's a burnt brown colour. However, a lot of the fine detail on the coin is intact which is pretty good for a coin of this age that was designed for ordinary circulation.  All I want to know is how to best photograph this coin to help the detail show up more. The picture above was taken with the coin by a window because daylight works well with my other coins. Any ideas of stuff the house I could use to better light the coin? |
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Valued Member
Canada
478 Posts |
I think you would have better luck with a light source pointing straight down onto the coin.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7840 Posts |
I used MS Picture Manager and did an "auto-adjust" to lightened it up and it made the rim dings jump out at me.
Lighing needs to be your focus in shedding light on the subject.
Edited by oih82w8
11/21/2013 11:50 am
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Valued Member
Canada
478 Posts |
Than if you need, do some editing. I did 20 seconds of editing on you photo and it does brighten it up a little  |
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Pillar of the Community
872 Posts |
I'd take it outside on a nice sunny day and try taking pics at different angles.
It also depends on whether the coin is removable or slabbed. Through plastic it may be a real pain.
Worse case you can get some really high intensity lights.
Create a photography tent (you can use a white sheet) with the opening at the top. Build the tent at whatever height you need to draw in the most light.
Place the coin in the tent and adjust the lights on the outside of the tent. That might brighten up the coin itself and allow you to take some decent pictures.
The tent will more than likely allow the intesity of light to penetrate but remove all traces of glare if it is slabbed.
Edited by Collector-Corner
11/21/2013 12:06 pm
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Moderator
 United States
23522 Posts |
One word: light. Lots of light. All the light. Turn that thing into the fiery surface of the sun with light. Shoot it in your brightest-lit bathroom with every in-room light on and everything you can move into the room with it. You'll find it far easier to darken the coin in postprocessing into something more closely approximating the real color than you'll be able to lighten an underexposed image into something readable. Further, in this case a posted caveat that you had to flood the thing with light to achieve detail is appropriate and acceptable; commenters will factor this into their opinions. Sometimes you just have to describe things rather than trying to depict them. Pro tip: If the resulting image looks like Snow White in a blizzard, you probably used a little *too* much light.  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4038 Posts |
With the coin coming out that dark, your auto exposure / metering settings were not set well for coins. Try spot metering or center-weighted or whatever your camera offers to adjust the exposure based on the center part of the image. Alternatively, you could use manual exposure and make the shutter speed very slow. Either way, the areas outside the coin will be over-exposed, but oh well, you'll probably crop them away anyway.
Contact me for photographic equipment or visit my home page at: http://macrocoins.com |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2669 Posts |
I had a heck of a time with a couple of similar ones. They are just so *dark*, and being so porous also didn't help matters. I ended up keeping the overhead floodlights on and having 2 direct lights shining right down (and usually that's a no-no because they are different color temperatures, but with these I figured: light is light) Before, they were indistinguishable brown blobs, but now you can at least see the designs and legends. What Dave said: " All the light." would be your best bet. Also make sure to take the pictures with the coin out of the 2x2.     |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5825 Posts |
Put it on a non-reflective black or dark gray background.
The white background you're using causes overexposure.
You want as much light as possible coming from the coin only.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
9792 Posts |
What camera are you using? Shoot in a RAW mode if possible there is a lot of detail you can pull out - way more than shooting in jpg here is a little quick edit I tried just to show you what is possible from your jpg file. If I had the original file I might be able to pull a lot more detail out with what you have already, unfortunately the jpg compression really does a number on the fine detail in your shot.  "Buy the Book Before You Buy the Coin" - Aaron R. Feldman - "And read it" - Me 2013! ANA Life Member #3288 in good standing since 1981, ANS, Early American Coppers Member (EAC), Colonial Coin Collectors Club member (C4), Conder Token Collector Club member (CTCC), Civil War Token Society (CWTS) member, Liberty Seated Collectors Club (LSCC) & Numismatic Bibliomania Society member (NBS), USMex, Member in good standing, 2¢ variety collector. See my want page: http://goccf.com/t/140440 |
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Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21788 Posts |
With very dark coins, shoot in strong light and try to throw as much of it as you can, back into the camera lens. Dark background can help reduce contrast and fool the camera.
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Replies: 10 / Views: 2,012 |
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Posted 11/21/2013 11:44 am
