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 Replies: 11 / Views: 1,598 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
715 Posts |
And the climb up the learning curve begins anew.  I have struggled to avoid extreme highlighting. This was not terrible compared to my earlier attempts. Any suggestions on how to improve? Thanks. Edited by Oijogja
11/13/2019 08:43 am
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
94367 Posts |
What sort of feedback are you looking for here? If grading, please show both sides. If other, please be specific.  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
789 Posts |
I believe they want to know how their photography looks.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
9395 Posts |
Looks good. One thing I'd probably do is raise the coin up on a pedestal, so the background would be more out of focus. Also, is the color accurate, or is there a white balance problem (brownish)?
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
4038 Posts |
It's a good start. Focus is good. Image is sharp. Minimal blown highlights and crushed shadows. Lighting angles look good to show luster. I would bring the lights up to an even higher angle but they are not too bad as-is. I agree with pepactonius about the WB being off. Fix that and you'll have good "raw material" ready for some postprocessing.
For background I recommend black velvet. You need to find some that is not sparkly when hit with direct light.
Contact me for photographic equipment or visit my home page at: http://macrocoins.com |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4038 Posts |
To minimize the over-exposed highlights, you can set EV to -1/3 or -2/3 (you are on Av, right?). Then the overall image will be a bit dark, so adjust contrast to -2 or -4. This will compress the dynamic range a bit and give you more flexibility in postprocessing.
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
715 Posts |
Thanks for the feedback, and yes, to clarify, I was looking for feedback on improving my photographic technique. I will try to create some better separation from the background; this was actually taken with the coin sitting on the back of my day planner. It was what I could improvise at the time to create some contrast, but I will try to use a prop if I can manage it in the future. I'm not sure how to address the white balancing. I have not played with that at all yet. I have attempted to greatly diffuse the lights I'm using, but it's tough to angle them in a way that still allows me to adjust focus. I will try to work on that, though. I have played with the EV set to -1/3 or -2/3. Tonight I seemed to be preferring -1/3. Maybe I shouldn't be doing this, but I have been reducing the luminance noise reduction down to zero. It seems to default to 2. I also reduce the Raw brightness slider down to -.17 or -.33, contrast -1, highlights -5, sharpness 4. All of that is just guesswork, though.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
9792 Posts |
For raising the coin off the background try using a small cut down piece of cork, it can be difficult to get the cork flat on both ends I've found, but it really helps by getting rid of the background, depending on the height of course and your aperture setting.
Getting the cork flat keeps the coin horizontal to your image plane and in focus without tilt, if that wasn't obvious as to why a level cork is important.
"Buy the Book Before You Buy the Coin" - Aaron R. Feldman - "And read it" - Me 2013! ANA Life Member #3288 in good standing since 1981, ANS, Early American Coppers Member (EAC), Colonial Coin Collectors Club member (C4), Conder Token Collector Club member (CTCC), Civil War Token Society (CWTS) member, Liberty Seated Collectors Club (LSCC) & Numismatic Bibliomania Society member (NBS), USMex, Member in good standing, 2¢ variety collector. See my want page: http://goccf.com/t/140440 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
9395 Posts |
For raising the coin, I just use small plastic dustcaps or bottlecaps,depending on the size of the coin. These should be automatically flat.
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Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21788 Posts |
To the OP:
To improve the feedback you are seeking, it may be not too late to modify your thread title.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
715 Posts |
I do have some corks around, and some of them definitely aren't flat, so I'll see if I can adjust them. Sel, I took your advice and edited the topic name. Thank you everyone for your input.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4038 Posts |
Some folks use golf tees stuck in a piece of clay or whatever.
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Replies: 11 / Views: 1,598 |
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Posted 11/12/2019 7:35 pm
