Picking A Background Color For Coin Pics - Page 2

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Author	Replies: 24 / Views: 7,252	Page: of 2

BadDog Pillar of the Community United States 1375 Posts	Posted 07/20/2019 4:48 pm Using the two different light sources will cause problems. The sensor in the digital microscope won't be able to adequately compensate. I would try turning off the LEDs on the microscope and just use an external light source. You can try the flashlight and if you want to diffuse that light you can just rubber band a piece of tissue paper over it. You want to try to remove all other light sources, so taking the photos in a darkened room might work best. Edited by BadDog 07/20/2019 4:54 pm Report this Post to the Staff
Spence Moderator United States 34416 Posts	Posted 07/20/2019 4:54 pm I've been playing around with this some today and think that I have a solution, at least for my setup. For whatever reason, the color of the coin is truer with the white background, but the black background is overall more pleasing. What I have discovered is that if I include a slip of white paper in the pic, the color remains pretty true and then I can crop out this portion. I'm sure that this effort is necessary due to the cheapness (and potentially age) of my Celestron camera. What do all y'all think of these? added: Quote: Not sure where you pulled that quote from, it isn't in this thread Check the bottom of my first post in this thread. "If you climb a good tree, you get a push." -----Ghanaian proverb "The danger we all now face is distinguishing between what is authentic and what is performed." -----King Adz Edited by Spence 07/20/2019 4:56 pm Report this Post to the Staff
Spence Moderator United States 34416 Posts	Posted 07/20/2019 5:00 pm As recommended @BD, here is a pic with the room pretty much dark and a tissue over the flashlight. I agree that having the two types of light must be an issue for this camera. Maybe this latest one is even better? "If you climb a good tree, you get a push." -----Ghanaian proverb "The danger we all now face is distinguishing between what is authentic and what is performed." -----King Adz Report this Post to the Staff
GrapeCollects Pillar of the Community United States 8938 Posts	Posted 07/20/2019 5:20 pm Much better, but maybe slightly brighter? Report this Post to the Staff
Spence Moderator United States 34416 Posts	Posted 07/20/2019 5:45 pm @GC, ok thanks. As bright as the one above it, or somewhere in the middle? "If you climb a good tree, you get a push." -----Ghanaian proverb "The danger we all now face is distinguishing between what is authentic and what is performed." -----King Adz Report this Post to the Staff
BadDog Pillar of the Community United States 1375 Posts	Posted 07/20/2019 7:37 pm Are you sure that the coin and the microscope camera are parallel to each other? It looks like the top of the coin is more in focus than the bottom. This usually means the two aren't parallel. Report this Post to the Staff
Spence Moderator United States 34416 Posts	Posted 07/20/2019 7:51 pm Yes good point @BD. I definitely need to improve the parallelism between the camera lens and the coin. What are your thoughts on the color? "If you climb a good tree, you get a push." -----Ghanaian proverb "The danger we all now face is distinguishing between what is authentic and what is performed." -----King Adz Report this Post to the Staff
BadDog Pillar of the Community United States 1375 Posts	Posted 07/20/2019 8:43 pm You're really the only one who can comment on color as you're the only one who's seeing the coin in hand. We can give comments that can help you achieve accurate color, but that's about it What you really need is to be able to white balance your images. You can do this, but not with the software you're currently using. If you want to explore white balancing, then there is a free program, GIMP, that can help you do that. It's the program I use, but it does have a fairly steep learning curve. Without doing image post processing, the best you can really do is to achieve good focus, reduce stray light, reduce reflections and use a single source of light, or multiple sources that are exactly the same. Report this Post to the Staff
pepactonius Pillar of the Community United States 9395 Posts	Posted 07/20/2019 9:33 pm Quote: What you really need is to be able to white balance your images. You can do this, but not with the software you're currently using. If you want to explore white balancing, then there is a free program, GIMP, that can help you do that. It's the program I use, but it does have a fairly steep learning curve. It looks like your only method of controlling white balance and brightness is by varying the background color. This means the best background may be different for each coin, unless a lot of post-processing is done. One answer to this problem is the "$400 setup" described in a long thread on this subforum. With that setup, you can: - adjust white balance to match the lighting - get best focus via magnified live view on the PC screen - choose the best aperture to balance DOF and diffraction blur - control the coin exposure regardless of the background - get parallelism using mirrors and live view - have great lighting flexibility using a lens-attached diffuser and Jansjo lights - use microscope objectives, if needed - use focus stacking, when needed - use axial or pseudoaxial lighting when needed Report this Post to the Staff
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