Nothing but white with my Coolpix 4500.

mdwoods · September 24, 2003 9:02AM

I'm trying to take a photo in Manual mode in macro. Everything looks good but when I snap the picture, all I am getting is white. The coin is in a PCGS slab on
a black background. Anybody know what I might be doing wrong. In auto mode it does okay but there doesn't seem to be much control over the output. Thanks.

EVillageProwler · September 24, 2003 9:04AM

Are you using the flash? Make sure that that is not the case.

EVP

shylock · September 24, 2003 9:04AM

Mark - Is it possible your exposure setting is raised way to high in manual mode?

mdwoods · September 24, 2003 9:10AM

Paul that definitely is possible since I haven't a clue on how to change it.

No flash.

shylock · September 24, 2003 9:18AM

The same menu you use to set the white balance has the exposure setting. On my 995 its on the second menu. If the exposure somehow got set super high it would let extreme amounts of light into the image. Just a guess and the 1st thing I thought of.

mdwoods · September 24, 2003 9:26AM

Paul, I had the shutter speed set for 4 seconds.

tjkillian · September 24, 2003 9:32AM

<< <i>Paul, I had the shutter speed set for 4 seconds.

>>

Make sure you are taking pictures inside a dark closet with only the light coming underneath the door then it should be alright.
Otherwise, set your shutter speed to about 1/60 to 1/250 of a second and then your pictures should be alright.

tom

shylock · September 24, 2003 9:42AM

Mark - now you know how to set the exposure, it can come in handy for dark or bright coins. In Auto the exposure is set to its default setting (0) so your pictures were coming out okay there.

mdwoods · September 24, 2003 9:45AM

First reasonable effort in Manual mode. Coin is not quite that golden looking.
Thanks Paul. Your 3 page quick start guide really helped me out.

Mark

airplanenut · September 24, 2003 9:46AM

Nice shot! Care to tell us what your lighting setup is?

shylock · September 24, 2003 9:46AM

Mark - never go back to Auto again!

Darkhorse · September 24, 2003 9:47AM

I always shine light directly onto the coin as much as I can and underexpose big time.

mdwoods · September 24, 2003 9:49AM

That was converted in Photoshop Element to a 72DPI JPEG to save loading time. I had the camera set to fine mode. The level of detail was much
better than what I had been getting.

Jeremy, I guess I OTT to tell you I use 2 lights at the present.

airplanenut · September 24, 2003 9:49AM

<< <i>I always shine light directly onto the coin as much as I can and underexpose big time. >>

What about slab glare?

mdwoods · September 24, 2003 9:55AM

Make sure you are taking pictures inside a dark closet with only the light coming underneath the door then it should be alright.

Hey that works too.

Barry · September 24, 2003 10:04AM

No need to mess with manual mode. Takes too long. Use Aperture Priority mode with an F stop of at least 6 to get good depth of field. If photographing an NGC or ANACS slab, you'll need to set EV to +0.7 or +1.0 to compensate for the white background

airplanenut · September 24, 2003 10:15AM

Nuts... maybe I really should invest in some of those lights... a shame to see my 3 desk lamps go to waste

Nothing but white with my Coolpix 4500.

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