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 Replies: 17 / Views: 3,885 |
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Valued Member
Norway
148 Posts |
So, basicly. This guy, JKcoinphotography or whatever he's called, shoots some amazing pics, and obviously PCGS Trueview, but there's also some others here on the forum that shoots some really excellent pics. I've managed to replicate(as far as I can tell where the light hits the coins)his lightning setup, but my pictures are not as crystal clear. Is my EOS700D and 100mm Canon Macro too crap to make crystal clear images? I'm not saying my photos are bad, but they can certainly need better resolution or something like that. As you can see below, the coin is showing good luster and good colour, BUT, it is somewhat grainy. It is quite annoying, as I am quite the perfectionist. Shot at : f/4.5 1/13shutter, 400 iso. Black backround. Using between 2 and 4 Janso's, mostly at 10 and 2. Have I diffused the lamps too much, so the coin isn't lit enough?  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3149 Posts |
ISO 400 will produce more grain than ISO 200 or ISO 100. Try capturing at either of those ISOs and you'll see less grain..
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Valued Member
 Norway
148 Posts |
If I go much below iso 400, the shutter is so slow that it'll almost be too shaky. Even with a copystand. I can ofcourse try un-diffuse the lights a bit, and see if that helps.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2376 Posts |
Not familiar with your camera.
But yes , lower iso. If you have mirror lockup use that. Use of the delayed timers could hep with slower shutter speeds too. Shoot in raw to get rid of jpeg artifacts ( grain/noise )
Edited by stoneman227
08/11/2015 09:43 am
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Valued Member
Norway
148 Posts |
I guess it's called Rebel T5i over there. Shooting in raw means loads of extra work. I can't edit one photo at a time, I don't have time for that, as I'm probably shooting 200 coins a day. So basicly, It's as good as it gets? That sucks, hehe.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2376 Posts |
See if your program has batch processing for raw.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2376 Posts |
In raw you can expose for the highlights and be able to recover your shadowes which can mean higher shutter speeds
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
2784 Posts |
I like your photo you have done well. question aleroe . do you want to go fast with very little editing. secondly do you have a bellows. I can suggest a cheap lens for a bellows. what I like about this lens is its cheap. when you image your coins they look exactly as they do in your hand. if you want. I will setup my canon camera this evening and show you what this lens can do. if you want just let me know have a nice day
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
2784 Posts |
hello aleroe did some thinking on this. I looked your photo over very closely. I can see that your photo is really very good. I find that when we reduce the images to fit here. it takes a certain amount of good out of them. I notice that in all my photos. so with that said there is some members here that can help you a lot more than I can. I think I will leave that to them have a nice day. your photos are really good
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Valued Member
260 Posts |
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Moderator
 United States
23522 Posts |
Aperture is way too wide - you are getting insufficient depth of field for full focus. Use f/8. That's the narrowest aperture (therefore greatest depth of field, DoF increases with numerical aperture increase) you can use before diffraction rears its' ugly head.
That will affect exposure, of course, but you should have enough lumens from 2 jansjos to shoot this copper at about f/8, 1/30 @ ISO400. So maybe you've diffused a bit much - that's a battle we face every day. If you like your diffusion, try all 4 Jansjos but use the second pair directly behind the first, on a line from the center of the coin. This will give nearly the same illumination pattern as 2 lamps so you don't have new highlighted areas to contend with. You can also likely use ISO800 with this camera without enough noise to be a concern. Try it.
There is no other lens on the market so good that it outclasses the Canon 100mm Macro. It'll cost you $2000 to even exceed its' sharpness by something measurable. Your challenges are all in the lighting; your equipment is as good as anyone's.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4038 Posts |
The image is not bad at all, but can definitely be improved. Which picture style setting are you using, and what sharpness setting within the picture style? Also, are you using Live View? And how are you judging the correct focus? I agree with SD on using f/8, that will also make focus a little less sensitive, but you still want to do critical focusing in the Live View zoom window for best results. Looking more critically at the image, it does not appear to have been sharpened either in-camera or in post, an has poor contrast. A small amount of sharpening (50 in DPP) plus just a little contrast enhancement makes it look a little more dynamic:  Edited by rmpsrpms
08/11/2015 9:10 pm
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Valued Member
Australia
90 Posts |
Quote:
Aperture is way too wide - you are getting insufficient depth of field for full focus. Use f/8. That's the narrowest aperture (therefore greatest depth of field, DoF increases with numerical aperture increase) you can use before diffraction rears its' ugly head.
The Canon 100mm F2.8 Macro dosn't follow this rule. At minimum focus distance of 300mm, depth of field remains constant at 1mm from F2.8 through to F8. Move aperture to F11 and you double depth of field (2mm) and you are also at this lens sharpest setting. To the OP, yes more light is needed if there is some colour there. As it is now I don't see much wrong with it. I would be looking to shoot that coin at F11 @ 1/50th. Remove diffusion from lighting to achieve optimum setting. If there are artifacts in your original image it could be you are shooting with the lens IS setting enabled, turn it off as it is no benefit whilst shooting coins and can introduce unwanted digital aberations. Review your Saturation setting in your camera,set to High, this could be affecting the Brown Spectrum at the expense of the Blue as the brown spectrum is the dominant colour of the coin. Try a lesser Saturation setting. If you are not using Canon's "Live View" software, start using it. Canon "Live View" Tethered Shooting on your PC  |
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Valued Member
Norway
148 Posts |
If I turn up the sharpness much more, the pictures is going to become more grainy. Well, seems like we're back to square one; Moving lights around. Hehe. Thanks for all your inputs, seems like I'm doing almost the best I can do.
"Which picture style setting are you using, and what sharpness setting within the picture style? Also, are you using Live View? And how are you judging the correct focus? I agree with SD on using f/8, that will also make focus a little less sensitive, but you still want to do critical focusing in the Live View zoom window for best results."
On copper and gold I tend to use +2 saturation, -2 saturation.
Using Sharpness 2, if I go much over that, the coin will look even more grainy.
Using Live View, ofc, and focus is set by zooming 200% and judging by the looks of that :)
Edited by aleroe
08/12/2015 03:54 am
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Valued Member
Norway
148 Posts |
Btw: What is the use of a bellows? I've googled what it is, but I can't seem to figure out what it does.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4038 Posts |
Quote:
The Canon 100mm F2.8 Macro dosn't follow this rule.
At minimum focus distance of 300mm, depth of field remains
constant at 1mm from F2.8 through to F8. FP, this is not correct. Why do you think this? DOF is not a property of a particular lens, but of the working aperture. You can't get around physics! aleroe...seems you're doing things fine. Are you using "standard" style? On macro lenses like the Canon 100mm, the lens includes a helicoid that moves the lenses toward or away from the sensor to set focus and magnification. A bellows does this same thing, with the camera attached on one end, and lens on the other. You generally use different lenses on bellows, ie ones that don't have focus helicoids. |
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Replies: 17 / Views: 3,885 |
Posted 08/11/2015 07:55 am
