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 Replies: 32 / Views: 6,369 |
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Valued Member
United States
71 Posts |
This is my first post on CCF, although I have been reading the threads on this forum for the past couple of months. Needless to say, I learned a lot, to the point of being able to build my own gig of bellows+enlarger lens. (I do have a Nikon 105 micro lens, though, bought before I stumbled on this forum.) During my reading I was especially struck by the patience of SD and Ray in answering the often repetitive questions, as well as the outpouring support from the forum members. This is a great community. I am from China, and have been collecting mostly Chinese coins and medals. So you guys will see photos of some unfamiliar designs. To help with coin photography in China, where it is almost non-existent, I and a professional photographer in China started an online discussion group, which has grown to about 200 members strong. Many practices on this forum, such as the use of the Ikea LED lights and axial lighting, were introduced to the group already and have been well accepted. We realize that there is still a lot to learn from this forum (from SD and Ray in particular) and there are tons of questions to ask. I would like to act as a bridge between the two communities. Here are some photos from the discussion group members. Critique is more than welcome! 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
4037 Posts |
cpf...welcome to the forum! You'll find many folks here that are knowledgeable and helpful. Bridging between your China-centric forum and the CCF sounds like fun. I'm sure the issues are all the same, just different subject matter.
Very nice coins you're showing here! My favorite photos are the 5th down, 1991 coin, and 3rd from bottom, buddha coin. Both are very well-composed and illuminated.
Let's have some discussion about the concerns you have, and share some more photos, techniques and practices, and maybe learn from each other!
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Rest in Peace
United States
2668 Posts |
Where are you from, China or the U.S.?  |
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Valued Member
United States
424 Posts |
Coinphotofan, welcome to CCF. I like your pictures and I look forward to learning some new techniques from you. I am very much an amateur photographer, but I do want to improve my skills.
I do not know much about world coins. Can you identify the coins in your pictures? I think they have great designs. Also, I have sone old Chinese coins that I know very little about, I would like your help to identify them.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1314 Posts |
Thank you for sharing. I'm interested in everything, so it's hard for me to stay focused, but I just discovered the Chinese coins, and I really enjoy them. Especially the classic dragons.  |
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Valued Member
 United States
71 Posts |
Thanks to you all. Ray, I witnessed the knowledge and willingness to help on this forum when I went through the threads. Can you (and anyone else) pick some faults, though, with the photos I posted? It will be a learning experience. We kind of explored our own way, borrowing ideas/techniques from this forum, and added our own. For example, photos 1-4 and 9-12 all used some kind of axial lighting. 11 is purely axial. The rest had a diffused direct light in addition. We are wondering how the lighting strikes you.
Parklane64: I am based here in the US, in CA, but my buddies are all in China.
Oldephriam: There is a Chinese Coin Forum in the US: China-mint.info, where you can post question about Chinese coins. But most people there collect modern Chinese coins.
Here is a list of the coins/medals I posted:
1/2: Canadian Maple
3/4: Obverse and reverse of the Mazu silver commemorative coin, Mazu being a sacred guardian for fishermen in the folklore
5: Reverse of the Arbor Day commemorative circulating proof coin
6: Reverse of Year of Goat commemorative circulating proof coin
7. Reverse of the Xinjiang Autonomous Region circulating proof coin
8. Reverse of the 43rd World Table Tennis Championship circulating proof coin
9. Reverse of the Tibet Autonomous Region circulating specimen strike coin
10. One side from the brass medal set Shanghai Scenery
11. Reverse of the Old Summer Palace silver antique finish medal
12. Reverse of the 2 cent circulating aluminum coin, issued in 1964
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Valued Member
United States
71 Posts |
Ray, at this moment, the Chinese group is still working on the full coin images, trying to figure out the optimal lighting for various surfaces: business strikes, proof strikes, matte strikes, little or no flat field, and so on. Later on when they start to go into high mag, definitely we will seek your (and others') expertise. I have trouble with lighting using a Nikon Plan 4 objective.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4037 Posts |
My critique of the shots is as follows:
Most of the shots look nice and sharp and in good focus
1/2: A bit under-exposed; Axial component is nice but there is significant light coming in at low angle and giving highlights on edges of the devices. Maybe a reflection off something?
3/4: Also under-exposed, but this coin does not show the highlighted edges. Very nice image, just needs some post-processing to bring up the levels and possibly increase contrast a bit. #3 is slightly rotated.
5: Very nice image. Slightly rotated, and may benefit from some contrast adjustment
6: Nice proof image, would benefit from contrast increase and a bit of sharpening
7. Excellent image, nicely lit. Some contrast increase may improve it.
8. Slightly over-exposed, slightly rotated, may benefit from increase in sharpness and contrast
9. Slightly rotated; good levels but maybe needs more contrast
10. A nearly perfect coin photo
11. Excellent, but a bit too dark
12. Very nice but would benefit from a second light to make more even light and further emphasize luster
I'm only talking about small changes above, as the images are generally very good already.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4037 Posts |
Quote:
Ray, at this moment, the Chinese group is still working on the full coin images, trying to figure out the optimal lighting for various surfaces: business strikes, proof strikes, matte strikes, little or no flat field, and so on. Later on when they start to go into high mag, definitely we will seek your (and others') expertise. I have trouble with lighting using a Nikon Plan 4 objective. For the Plan 4, have you tried diffusion at the lens, either with Opalux (or similar) or a ping pong diffuser? Contact me for photographic equipment or visit my home page at: http://macrocoins.com |
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Valued Member
United States
71 Posts |
Thanks for your comments, Ray. I passed them to the Chinese group.
I did use a ping pong diffuser. I will try again this weekend and show you the pics.
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New Member
China
32 Posts |
Comparing to others, most Chinese friends prefers uncirculated coins.
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Valued Member
United States
71 Posts |
One more picture from the Chinese coin photo group. Please comment. This is the reverse of the Great Wall circulating coin series, which lasted only a few years, fro, 1980 to 1986.  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4037 Posts |
Well, my first comment is that I wish US coins had such beautiful quality and subject matter. Just beautiful. Given the subject matter, the lighting is extremely important to get a "natural" feel in the image, and I believe the photographer did this well. It looks like a single light, at around 2:00, was used and this has highlighted the sky and the surfaces as if it were the sun shining down at 2:00 in the afternoon. The luster it picks up in the sky and in the lower right of the coin, and on the surface of the walkway upper right, is very aesthetically pleasing. My critique has 4 areas: 1) It looks like the contrast is a bit low 2) As with many of the other images presented, the photographers are being very conservative with sharpening. In most cases (including this one) I'd prefer to see just a little more sharpening applied 3) I don't have the coin in-hand, but it appears the coin may be more colorful than is being depicted here. 4) I'm not fond of the slight reflection that is hitting the coin from 8:00. It is apparent in some highlighting of the raised edge of the field at lower left, and elsewhere on the coin as well. I don't know if this was intentional but I feel it distracts from the overall contrast. I've taken the liberty to make some minor changes to address items 1,2,3 above, see the image below. I can't address item 4, it must be addressed with lighting modifications.  Contact me for photographic equipment or visit my home page at: http://macrocoins.com |
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Valued Member
United States
71 Posts |
Thanks for your critique, Ray. It is much appreciated. I have a question, though. How do you remove the reflection mentioned in 4? It seems that the light on the rim is part of the lighting. I often determine the source of the light by looking at the light on the rim. Is it possible to remove it by adjusting the height of the light?
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Valued Member
United States
71 Posts |
I promised to upload some photos taken with Nikon objectives. My problem with the photos is that they are not sharp enough. Here are a couple of photos of flowlines without post-processing:   This is the full image of the coin:  An unusual case where so many flowlines appear on a proof coin. My question is: can Plan 4 do better in sharpness than this? If so, I will search on my end to see what went wrong. Lighting, steadiness of the copy stand, or the vibration of the camera. I am using a Nikon 5200 with remote control. |
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Valued Member
United States
71 Posts |
I have recently bought a z-axis platform. These pics were taken with the platform, with a Nikon 10x objective.   |
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Replies: 32 / Views: 6,369 |
Posted 01/06/2016 02:03 am
