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 Replies: 24 / Views: 4,071 |
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Valued Member
United States
234 Posts |
I'm working on improving my coin photography, and could use some critique and advice. I'll post several pictures over the next few hours (as I get them done), so feel free to chime in with any advice or suggestions. Thanks!  |
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Valued Member
 United States
234 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
837 Posts |
Nice shots !  The black background is good  Based these you are doing fine, I am curious what camera and lens did you use and what were the settings (apeture,ISO etc) for the shots ? Edited by DaytR
08/17/2014 7:21 pm
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Moderator
 United States
23522 Posts |
All excellent shots, from the looks of them. I, too, would like to know your hardware and settings.
In addition, try to post images of a minimum coin diameter of 800px, which it sure looks like your equipment will handily achieve. The images here are of the minimum size appropriate for serious grading consideration, and ought to be larger. This diameter is difficult but achievable with CCF's Optimizer; another choice is to grab a free account at Photobucket or equivalent (we have a tutorial thread for Photobucket in the Support Forum). You can host images of that size there. Don't go *too* much larger, though - not over, say, 1000px in diameter - because the image size then plays havoc with lower-resolution monitors and smartphones.
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Valued Member
United States
234 Posts |
Thanks for the feedback. This is with a Canon Powershot SX50 HS. I've got it set on Aperture Priority Mode. F5.0, ISO 100. Lighting is with 2 Jansjo lights with no diffusion. The camera is mounted on a cheap copy stand. More pics soon. Stay tuned.
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Valued Member
United States
234 Posts |
I couldn't quite keep them above 800x800 while keeping the file size low enough. I would have had to reduce the quality down below 60%. Here's some more, that are close to 800x800.   |
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Valued Member
United States
234 Posts |
Last 2 for tonight. Suggestions are welcomed!   |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4037 Posts |
The shots all look really good. There are few blown-out highlights or crushed shadows, so your contrast settings and overall lighting is good. Most of the improvements from here are in optimizing focus, and levels adjustment in post-processing.
Edited by rmpsrpms
08/17/2014 11:32 pm
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Valued Member
United States
234 Posts |
Quote:
The shots all look really good. There are few blown-out highlights or crushed shadows, so your contrast settings and overall lighting is good. Most of the improvements from here are in optimizing focus, and levels adjustment in post-processing.
Thanks. I just got the Numismatic Photography book recently so have been reading that and it has helped a lot. The camera I'm using doesn't have great manual focus ability (t's not a dSLR ), so I've been setting it on macro and letting it auto-focus. Also, as far as I know there's no way to tether it to a computer, so I'm having to frame everything on the rather small camera LCD screen. Do you see specific areas for improvement in levels adjustment? |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4037 Posts |
Your shots are a bit low contrast, so that's the main thing I'd work on. The focus is a little off, so you can also add a bit of sharpening to help. Here is your shot of 1828 Half with a few minor adjustments compared with your original:   |
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Valued Member
United States
234 Posts |
Quote:
Your shots are a bit low contrast, so that's the main thing I'd work on. The focus is a little off, so you can also add a bit of sharpening to help. Here is your shot of 1828 Half with a few minor adjustments compared with your original:
Thanks, Ray. Your edited picture does look better. I'll try bumping up the contrast and adding some sharpening to my next set of pics. Also, I got your email concerning the custom camera setup. Thanks for the quick response. Based on the pictures I've posted in this thread, how much improvement do you think I'd see from upgrading to a setup like the one you listed in your email? Edited by ALP
08/18/2014 09:57 am
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Valued Member
United States
234 Posts |
Also, I forgot to mention earlier in the thread- all pictures are of slabbed coins, taken through the slab (if you couldn't already tell).
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4037 Posts |
The pics you're taking are good "raw material" and just need a bit of post processing to fine tune, so if your goal is to publish pics of this size for web, ebay, etc you may not need to upgrade. The advantages you will get with a microscope stand-based setup using a tethered DSLR are: 1) better/faster workflow due to tethering 2) better focus capability with fine focus control 3) better pixel-level sharpness for larger images or cropping of details 4) ability to add high-magnification capability Your lighting and basic photo technique plus existing equipment is already taking you to 80% of the goal, and might take you to 90% with some more work, so you need to decide if you want/need the expense to go further. Contact me for photographic equipment or visit my home page at: http://macrocoins.com |
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Valued Member
United States
234 Posts |
Ok, I'll keep that in mind. I'll probably hold off on the upgrade for a month or so and work on improving my post processing in that time, to see if it gets me to where I want to be without the added expense.
More pics soon, with better post-processing (hopefully).
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Valued Member
United States
234 Posts |
Here's the obverse of the 1837 50C from the first post, with increased contrast and sharpening.  |
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Valued Member
United States
234 Posts |
I worked on the 1828 half obverse pic a little. Bumped up the contrast and sharpened. Here's the new version:  |
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Replies: 24 / Views: 4,071 |
Posted 08/17/2014 7:18 pm
