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Finally finished my coin pictures....
jom
Posts: 3,389 ✭✭✭✭✭
Last month I started this thread about my frustrations with taking some pics of my coins.
Earlier Thread
Well, thanks to Shylock's (and others) help I've finally finished. It's been a big pain in the asp but I finally got some shots I'm happy with. For the vast majority of the pictures I did NOT have to play with them in Photoshop to get them to match up with the real thing. A few of the pics I had to adjust the "brightness" and some I had to tweek the "color temperature" (really just moving the yellow tint to a blueish cast). Problems:
1) Getting the stupid glare from the slab out of the picture. I spent a lot of time fooling around with the stupid lights and probably creating permenant damage to my eyes from the bulb glare.
2) Had a difficult time with the NGC slabs because the white background made the apertaure (which was set to auto) close a bit so the area of the coin in the pic came out too dark. Contrary to Shylock's suggestions I was better off NOT using the White Balance for color in these cases. I did notice that the pics would end up with a higher color temp even after I went on to shoot more PCGS slabbed coins. Never quite figured out why.
3) Highly lusterous coins were difficult because of the "black and white" effect of the luster. It made the "dark" areas hard to see in the photo. It was particularly difficult when the nicely toned areas were in the dark areas.
4) I originally thought it would be easier without slabs but shooting my raw Kennedy's were hard since there wasn't anything to help tilt the coin slightly when I had lighting problems. Eventually ended up using a half of the snap-shut coin holder.
Photo set-up:
Nikon 950 set to Fine Resolution, Auto focus and aperature, No Flash, Macro mode.
Anywhere from one to three OTT lamps. Two of the type Shylock uses and one "swirl" type OTT.
If I think of anything else I'll edit this. See below for pointer to my website.
jom
Earlier Thread
Well, thanks to Shylock's (and others) help I've finally finished. It's been a big pain in the asp but I finally got some shots I'm happy with. For the vast majority of the pictures I did NOT have to play with them in Photoshop to get them to match up with the real thing. A few of the pics I had to adjust the "brightness" and some I had to tweek the "color temperature" (really just moving the yellow tint to a blueish cast). Problems:
1) Getting the stupid glare from the slab out of the picture. I spent a lot of time fooling around with the stupid lights and probably creating permenant damage to my eyes from the bulb glare.
2) Had a difficult time with the NGC slabs because the white background made the apertaure (which was set to auto) close a bit so the area of the coin in the pic came out too dark. Contrary to Shylock's suggestions I was better off NOT using the White Balance for color in these cases. I did notice that the pics would end up with a higher color temp even after I went on to shoot more PCGS slabbed coins. Never quite figured out why.
3) Highly lusterous coins were difficult because of the "black and white" effect of the luster. It made the "dark" areas hard to see in the photo. It was particularly difficult when the nicely toned areas were in the dark areas.
4) I originally thought it would be easier without slabs but shooting my raw Kennedy's were hard since there wasn't anything to help tilt the coin slightly when I had lighting problems. Eventually ended up using a half of the snap-shut coin holder.
Photo set-up:
Nikon 950 set to Fine Resolution, Auto focus and aperature, No Flash, Macro mode.
Anywhere from one to three OTT lamps. Two of the type Shylock uses and one "swirl" type OTT.
If I think of anything else I'll edit this. See below for pointer to my website.
jom
0
Comments
You have some killer coins there. Nice job with the pictures of the Mercs and bringing out the color on them. Quick question. Is the 27S Merc the one that came from the B&M sale a year or so ago ?
Ken
09/07/2006
The simplist way to deal with NGC (and ANACS) slab photos is set your EV to +0.7 or 1.0. This will compensate for the camera's underexposure caused by all the white in the field. Of course, you can change your metering to spot, instead of matrix, instead, but EV is the easieist way to compensate. I'm assuming the 950 has that setting, as it is a predecessor of my 4500.
Oh, yeah.....Marianne is lovely too!
and it sets us apart from practitioners and consultants. Gregor
1. I know what you mean about working around the glare zone!
2. Are you setting the manual white balance against a white background before doing NGC slabs? Also, on your camera you can probably manually raise the exposure a notch or two if the coin is still too dark.
3. When nicely toned areas are in a dark portion of your image rotate the slab around until its in the most flattering position. You can correct the rotation with your imaging software afterward, which is a lot easier than constantly moving the lights around. It's amazing how different the same coin can look under different lighting angles.
Fairlaneman: 27-S Merc? Yep
stman: Go ahead. I stole that gif myself so no big deal. Fairly appropriate considering all the trouble I went through taking these pictures. Thank God for Digital Cameras. I'd be in bankruptcy by now if I had to use film. lol
Barry: Don't know about that setting. It might be in the 950 but since there have been two later models of the camera (995 and 4500) since I got mine they may have added that later. I'll check.
DHeath: Marieanne? I suspect you mean the "Dark Side" coin. "You don't know the POWER of the Dark Side...."
About the Kennedy's, believe it or not they have been toning in a Dansco album since early 1993. Only the Copper nickel ones are toning not the silver or 40% silver ones. And only about 20% of the CN's have toned. The other are doing nothing. My Ikes have been in the same environment and they haven't done a damn thing either in the same time frame. I can say my raw state quarter set is starting to "brown", at least the 1999 ones are. You never know with albums....
Shylock:
1) Not only the glare but notice the 31-S Buff and the scratches I had to deal with. Oddly, it is an NGC coin who's slabs do NOT scratch as easy as PCGS.
2) Yes, I did that but it seemed I got better pictures without it. Also, when I'd go back to auto-mode after using WB the pics didn't come out as well. I had to unplug the camera from the AC to clear it before taking PCGS coins. Weird....
3) Haven't tried to rotate to odd angles yet with Photoshop. Only 90/180.
IrishMike: Thought of that too but I'm also too lazy. I can't imagine trying to cut different size circles for each type of coin. Argh! Exacto, here I come!
jom
EDIT: If anyone cares the 13-D (1) nickel, 16-D nickel, 16-P dime and the 08-P NM Eagle are all scans. The latter three I sold and the 13-D (1) was stole from me some time ago.
<< <i>BTW, I think you accidently added an I in ST. Gaudens. >>
I wasn't by accident. I can't spel.... lol
jom
<< <i>p.s. I still want those album toned Kennedy's >>
And you still aren't gonna get 'em.
My suggestion is to crack out your slabbed Unc Kennedy's and go for the "Dansco effect"! OK, OK maybe not your slabbed coins (I'd do it!) but go and cherry pick some nice ones raw and give it a try. It might work!
jom