Advise Needed On Pics Please

There's a lot to work with here, and I think we can come up with something you'll like. However, today you're sharing me with bowl games, and the TV and PC are on different floors.

So some comments wait to see your images on a screen larger than my phone.

You're already discovering that you're getting better details with diffused lighting and better luster depiction with direct lighting. One proposal I'll offer to help make up the difference from "expensive" imaging rigs is to offer both types of lighting in your postings. One set for luster, a second for details. That saves you a lot of work trying to get lighting just right, which is the biggest disadvantage of your equipment.

On the subject of lighting - methinks you need more of it. More wattage, more lumens. Both your cameras are far happier trying to manage too much light than too little, so one specific goal is to help you bring more light to bear without washing everything out. A second lamp is called for, spaced roughly 10:00 and 2:00 to the coin.

I generally don't recommend natural light for coins but you might benefit from it. I like the detail on the HTC natural images.

Those are just first thoughts. More to come.

Well, TCU has taken it upon themselves to make it a boring game, so I have time to get upstairs.


White Balance - the in-camera (usually) adjustment you make to get the coin's color right - is one of the relative difficulties you'll have to contend with. Your equipment doesn't do "custom" White Balance settings so you have to work with the presets which come programmed into the cameras. This is usually not a problem, chances are the Auto setting will work fine, but the possibility exists that you'll see color weirdness with one bulb that another type won't show.

This is illustrated in your first two images, which I'm guessing are on the same background. The top one is bluish but the bottom seems closer to the actual background color. Shoot against a white background for the moment, and use that to evaluate your camera's color correction. When the background is right, the coin is right.

Your cameras correct well for incandescent, which is typical of most. If you're going to switch from that type, go to Compact Fluorescents in the Bright White or Daylight color range - it's been my experience that CFL's in the "incandescent" range (Warm White) are a little bit off the correct color and can freak cameras out on Auto White Balance. Your camera should correct for a Daylight CFL on the "Sunlight" or maybe the "Cloudy" setting (or equivalent) pretty nicely.

40w of light is challenging for bespoke rigs. You should at least double that; I'd be leaning towards two 60w equivalent CFL's. Other possibilities - considering for vertical lighting you want to get the lights as close to vertical as you can - might be R20 spots (incandescent design) or candelabra designs. You're going to like the lesser heat of non-incandescent designs a lot, though, because you're going to be hanging out around them to shoot.

So let's throw a bunch more light at things, and call that the start. Suggestions I might offer for these images might not be necessary with more light and I think you'll find the HTC will improve greatly. These are promising results even on my larger monitor, though, and I remain confident we can make something of this.

Let's stick with the Kodak for the moment. It has better possibilities, I think.

The new images from it make me think the White Balance setting is wrong for Tungsten (incandescent), like it's set to "Daylight." Photoscape won't let you make adjustments to hue & saturation but the Gimp will and it's free; might want to think about learning Gimp in the future for that but it's a rather dense learning curve.

None of these images show the "X" effect I'd expect from 2 lights at 10 and 2; it looks like a single bulb was used.

Big improvement but we've lost sharpness. Does your procedure include great care to avoid moving the camera during the shot? If the new 1888 pic had the sharpness of the last one, I'd happily grade from it.

Now we're getting into situations where differing faces require differing lighting, a known problem with Morgans. You may have to play with Exposure Compensation - probably the easiest way with your equipment - to brighten some of them.

Go +1 to start on the darker stuff.

It still looks like all the light is coming from the right side, and I don't get that if you're using two bulbs. Otherwise you're steadily improving things, and there are no more big swings to take at problems, only little ones.

Here is the other coin with the same setup.

I was finally able to get Gimp downloaded this morning. Definitely a lot more to Gimp than there is in Photoscape.