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 Replies: 9 / Views: 1,970 |
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Valued Member
United States
125 Posts |
I've been relying on the flash on my camera to get the detail of most of the coins I photograph. But the other day I was shown that it's not always necessary. Here is a picture of the coin (lying flat on velvet, camera above, macro lens) http://coinwholesales.blogspot.com/...-silver.html  I almost never ever try working out of program mode. But these were taken in Manual mode with a high F-stop and long exposure. Also 2 L-shaped foam board pieces were placed around the coin. Kind of a makeshift light-box if you will. The coin has some blue from on the edge it's because I was lazy and didn't fully close the shade by the window. F-Stops and depth of field are still pretty foreign to me. So it's always refreshing to get help from a more experienced photographer, and then take that advice and see the difference in my own photographs. It worked really well for any silver proof, or clad proof. That same set-up didn't really work to bring out the details in Morgan / Peace and copper coins. So I may unfortunately use the flash for those ones until I can figure out the lighting problems. http://coinwholesales.blogspot.com/...head_10.html Taken with Flash...   Just wanted to poke in and say this little bit. I am still very much in awe of some of the pictures people post here. I still can't photograph copper cents in that definition yet. But please let me know what you think. Oh yes and Happy New Year! ~ CWS Edited by CWS
12/31/2013 3:12 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1234 Posts |
I took a bunch of pics with a digital camera through a magnifying lamp here are some snaps of my setup https://goccf.com/t/166164works great but the flash was making the focus hit the lens so bright light and lots of it for me. Nice post thanks! |
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Valued Member
 United States
125 Posts |
If I can help it, I want to take photos without a flash and not be holding the coin. Controlling for movement and hot spots is really difficult so I'm all for removing them both from the equation completely.
~ CWS
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Moderator
 United States
23522 Posts |
Quote:
Controlling for movement and hot spots is really difficult so I'm all for removing them both from the equation completely. A solid, unmoving camera/coin relationship is Job One for coin photography. This is most easily achieved by mounting the camera on a stand pointing straight down at the coin, and using a remote shutter or shutter delay so you're not contacting the camera when the shutter snaps. All you need to know about aperture/depth of field is the widest aperture (numerically lowest number) which provides you enough depth of field to catch the whole surface of the coin. Wider apertures catch more light, which cascades into easier lighting arrangements and faster exposures, but at the cost of depth of field. Once you've found that appropriate F-stop number, you leave it there and don't change it again. So what are you shooting with? We'll be happy to help you maximize what you're getting from your setup. |
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Valued Member
United States
125 Posts |
I am using a Canon G1X. With a canon 250d 58mm Macro Lens.
By the way I just received suggestions to try and make sure to show the coin's "mint luster". Is that showing the Cartwheeling effect?
Thanks again for checking it out and commenting everyone!
~ CWS
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Moderator
United States
23522 Posts |
With a G1X and 250d, you should be getting images of monstrous size. Job One, therefore, needs to be about postprocessing the images you're getting; you should be able to nearly triple the size of what you're displaying here. My own rule of thumb - if I'm getting large-enough images - is 800 pixels in actual coin diameter. You' of course, would add a bit so you can include your watermark. Judging from the Indian Head, we're going to need them that large just to effectively critique your work. Your setup is returning nice results.  |
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Valued Member
United States
125 Posts |
To clarify.
1. Only the eagles were taken in the light box.
2. Indians had a flash, Eagles did not.
3. All photos are taken in CR2 format (Canon Raw files ~ 25-40 mb per photo). Then processed in Lightroom 4.
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Moderator
United States
23522 Posts |
Working in RAW is fun, but I've found Canon's JPG engine to be more than sufficient for all but the most exacting requirements; you could save yourself a lot of work in post by just shooting .jpg's. The IHC reacted really well to the flash; that's generally a lighting technique we don't recommend. Results are all it's about, though. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
9792 Posts |
You might try raising the coin up off the surface, this will blur out the background somewhat, and focus the viewers attention on the coin itself. I do this with various sized corks, works really well, just make sure they are level on both sides so the coin sits parallel and flat the the image sensor. If you don't have any corks around some foam would also work well, just nothing that would show or scratch the coin, the trick is to get the coin to be around 1" above your background.
"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/140440Edited by westcoin
01/08/2014 4:29 pm
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Valued Member
United States
125 Posts |
West,
Going forward I probably won't be using the starry background. Traded it out for felt. So nothing will be present at all in the background. That would be fun however, if I had say an american flag or some other interested backdrop.
SSSdave,
I probably could just go with jpeg's haven't tried it yet. Also since I'm still going to have to crop the image, it doesn't save me a lot of time, just disk space on the camera.
The next step would be to make the process more efficient, with coin placement being identical between coins, and then come up with some kind of script to automate the processing some.
~CWS
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Replies: 9 / Views: 1,970 |
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Posted 12/31/2013 2:47 pm
