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 Replies: 20 / Views: 3,739 |
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Valued Member
United States
215 Posts |
I finally got all of the pieces for pictures.
I have a T3i, pentax auto-bellows, el-nikor 75mm, copy stand with the neutral grey surface.
Camera is 13.5 inches from the surface
Set to AV mode
Lens is f8
2 lights at 10 and 2 (CFL bulbs though)
using live view
custom white (square on the grey surface, eye dropper clicked)
iso 1600
These are the best pictures I can get, they don't seem to compare with what I have seen here.
What should I try next?
and Thanks for the help!
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Valued Member
 United States
215 Posts |
Ok, had to resize under 200k   |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
717 Posts |
The one big red flag I see is the ISO at 1600. Set it to 100, and try again. 1600 is the highest speed setting, meaning you are probably overexposing the pictures. The shutter speed probably won't be fast enough to properly expose.
And there are no pictures to look at...
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Pillar of the Community
United States
717 Posts |
Ok, pics are up. They don't look bad, my suggestion would be to play with the lights, try different angles.
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Valued Member
United States
215 Posts |
everything the same, except ISO 100   |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
717 Posts |
I have been playing around with shooting a new penny for a couple days, and this is the best shot I have so far. I forced -.5 exposure, and moved the lights away from the lens a bit, one more than the other, so they weren't shooting straight down. I also held a tissue about 2-3 inches under one of the lights to add diffusion.  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
717 Posts |
I think the Kennedy looks much better, hopefully someone with more experience will chime in. I'm guessing the CFL bulbs are giving you a pretty diffused light source, which can be good, but the pictures look a little flat.
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Valued Member
United States
215 Posts |
Interesting that both of our Lincoln pics seem to have a copper reflection onto the background at the top (where the lights are). That might be telling us something.
Also I see that my backgrounds look to be a different color between the Kennedy and the Lincoln even though the only thing changed is the ISO, must be the Auto AV.
Edited by Buymyemu
05/27/2015 11:54 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1304 Posts |
In my short experience, copper is much more difficult to photograph than silver.
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
4038 Posts |
Yeah, BU copper is tough, especially toned. Here's an example from my last roll search. This is optimized to show color.  This shot was taken with two diffused Janjos, approx 100mm from the coin, near the lens (approx 70-deg from horizontal). ISO100, f/5.6. AV mode, -0.5EV. Neutral Style, -4 contrast, 0 sharpening. Edited by rmpsrpms
05/28/2015 11:18 am
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1476 Posts |
Quote:
This shot was taken with two diffused Janjos, approx 100mm from the coin, near the lens (approx 70-deg from horizontal). ISO100, f/5.6. AV mode, -0.5EV. Neutral Style, -4 contrast, 0 sharpening. This is Great! THIS is more of the kind of information I need.   Why f/5.6? I thought that f/8 was the best setting?  Was it to help bring out the color? Edited by Dar
05/28/2015 5:14 pm
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Valued Member
United States
215 Posts |
What kind of bulb are you guys using, mine is an elcheapo (to keep with the theme) Menards CFL 60 watt equiv
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Valued Member
United States
215 Posts |
I will try diffusion later, after FTC robotics...
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Moderator
United States
23522 Posts |
Dar, I imagine he was able to get sufficient depth of field to use f/5.6 instead of f/8. Always better to use the widest aperture possible to allow the camera more flexibility with the other settings.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4038 Posts |
My contention is that the best shooting aperture is the DLA of the sensor or a bit larger. So at M=0.7 for Cents, f5.6 translates to f9.5 effective. My T2i has a DLA of f6.8, so I'm well beyond the DLA but not deep into diffraction at f9.5. If I shoot at f8, I am at f13.6 effective. This is still not too bad, has better DOF, and furthermore the diffraction is eliminated when downsizing 2x, so f8 is really still OK for web publishing. But I'm picky about my Cent shots, and want to have something I can view or crop at 100% with good sharpness.
Contact me for photographic equipment or visit my home page at: http://macrocoins.com |
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Valued Member
United States
215 Posts |
I have worked for a couple hours trying to knock down the reflections on a new penny. Added 3 layers of diffusion, pointing lights away, increasing distance, adding a 4th layer of diffusion around the coin, but not having much luck. I threw a second dark Lincoln in to compare, now I am starting to think these look grainy.  Edited by Buymyemu
05/30/2015 11:41 pm
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Replies: 20 / Views: 3,739 |
Posted 05/27/2015 10:57 pm
