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 Replies: 6 / Views: 1,428 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
655 Posts |
Am I being an alarmist or what? The surface of this half looks pretty smooth and natural, both w/o magnification and also under a 10x loupe. The first pic (not mine) is about right. But, yeow, as soon as my digital camera and high intensity light takes a shot, the surface looks terrible! The 3rd pic is a blow up of the 2nd. It looks like a porous mess- but is it true? I'm not sure what the cutoff is for magnification times and professional grading and I'm also not sure what the digital effect is exactly but I do know that just about every high res pic I've done like this is not flattering. Any opinions? (I always thought more would be better but now I don't know.) Ron    |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2661 Posts |
I feel that it is best to represent a coin as it really is. If you are taking pics just for show and you don't want the minor defects to stand out, then just clean it up with a photo editing program. If they are to be sold using only the pic then the honorable thing to do is use the one that shows all the character of the coin. A 196 year old coin of any type will probably have some small dings and other markings. I would be proud to own and show that coin just as it is. She is still a real beauty.
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Moderator
 United States
23522 Posts |
Digital cameras are harsh, aren't they?  Lighting is the key. Endeavor to get your light as close to vertical over the coin as you can - that's why I use MR16 bulbs in goosenecks, because I can maneuver them to literally touch the barrel of the lens. As the side angle of the light increases, it accentuates any hairlines on the coin to a greater degree. The first pic shows an utterly gorgeous coin. That's because it *is* an utterly gorgeous coin, and it would still be one under the (no more than) 5x magnification the TPG's use. Imagine my mortification when the beautiful 1839 Half I bought looked like this under the camera:  The hairlines didn't show under 5x magnification, outdoors in daylight, but they sure did under the unyielding lens of my camera. |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
655 Posts |
Thanks for the advice. That certainly seems like the case that the side lighting is catching and accentuating every hairline and ding. I have an adjustable lamp. When I tried vertical lighting in the past it left a lot of shadows on the botom of the coin. But I'll keep trying.
I'm not trying to make the coin better or worse just as it is to the eye. That is no easy job, either. I find that almost never is the toning correct in a pic. In the ones I've shown here that's also true. The coin is not golden or brown, it's a dark silver, light brown.
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Moderator
United States
16679 Posts |
Lighting is very important. Angle of subject too. Here is a Lincoln that is much darker in hand than the first and second picture. https://goccf.com/t/43999 The third and fourth pic are a better representative. I use my dining room table, various colors of felt, and the chandelier light over my head. I'm sure I can get better pics if I worked at it. Grey is a neutral color and seems to work well with all my coins. I like the darker grey felt. swcoin.ecrater.com
Edited by vermontensium
03/07/2009 8:08 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
655 Posts |
vermontensium, the lincoln cents pics are all good. Without the lighter pics you wouldn't be able to show those whitish streaks. I assume you took the pics with camera in hand, no flash, manual settings on the camera. Do you have a favorite setting to use for f/s and iso?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
655 Posts |
My pics are getting better. I went back to school with my camera and starting rereading the 90 page manual. I used the "spot metering," and custom wb (set to a white sheet), and then adjusted the wb +.5 to be brighter. I also let my camera pick the f/s settings automatically (except for the wb). These settings made a big difference in getting the toning pretty close. I got a lot better light source by using two lamps, one on each side. I also experimented with the "raw" file setting, the sharpness, contrast, and saturation but they didn't help. Now I'm looking for a way to hold a coin up vertically so I can put the camera on its tripod and shoot. Any ideas?   |
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Replies: 6 / Views: 1,428 |
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Posted 03/07/2009 7:17 pm
