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G$20 Coin Photo - okay give me your "brutal" opinion on the quality of the photo
Prethen
Posts: 3,466 ✭✭✭
I've enhanced my coin photography by adding a second lamp to enhance the display of luster and reduce shadows. If you were going to hire a coin photographer, and purely from the quality and detail of photos from below, why would you not hire me? And no, I'm not looking to go into it professionally, but I do want to improve my skills so I'm at least close to if not on par with the photos that people on forums like this deeply respect.
I know the some may suggest smaller pictures or to have a different background or to do that cool reflective effect...please comment on the coin photo quality itself. I truly want to tweak my skills that I've been gaining over the years.
Beat me up...I'm ready.
FYI, that's a small copper spot on her cheek.
Equipment/technique used: Canon XTi (10MP); Tokina 100mm Macro; aperature-F18; remote shutter; 2 75W lamps; copy stand; custom white balance; some leveling and unsharp masking.
I know the some may suggest smaller pictures or to have a different background or to do that cool reflective effect...please comment on the coin photo quality itself. I truly want to tweak my skills that I've been gaining over the years.
Beat me up...I'm ready.
FYI, that's a small copper spot on her cheek.
Equipment/technique used: Canon XTi (10MP); Tokina 100mm Macro; aperature-F18; remote shutter; 2 75W lamps; copy stand; custom white balance; some leveling and unsharp masking.
0
Comments
size is ok - check
you cropped the images - check
lighting is ok to see luster & surfaces, not over-exposed - check (try different angles of the lights and height)
microvibrations or non-macro mode for crispness - not check (need a copy stand, a remote so as to not touch the camera during exposure, new camera?)
overall, pretty good - at a 7 or 7.5 - try some more lighting angles/heights and get a little crisper image and you'll go to a 9)
.
Have no camera!
I'll send all mine to you tomorrow.
bob
f18 is too narrow of an aperture and can soften images. Try f8-f10.
Are you focusing remotely through a PC, or are you looking through the viewfinder?
It's interesting here (and ATS) there's mention about softness. I guess I need to be more sensitive with that as I'm not quite seeing it but I can certainly experiment. Since multiple people see that as an issue, then I will need to try something different.
Yes, maybe F18 is too narrow. I can step it down to F11 or lower. I already use a remote shutter so I shouldn't have camera shake. Perhaps I can (forgot the right term) but flip the DSLR mirror so that it's already open(?) when I take the photo and that could help.
I agree with what has been said so far. The photos are certainly better than most, but are still not close to professional standards.
To me, the lighting is almost perfect. The lights seem to be positioned well and it's easy to get a feel for the coin's luster. Contrast is sometimes tricky with gold. Some of your highlights (around the eye) seem a bit too harsh. This just takes some experimentation and trial and error to get right. Different coins will require vastly different techniques here. Just a bit of diffusion might help. I'll often use a yardstick or a few fingers between the light and the coin to knock down the harsh spots. This can be adjusted on the fly.
The biggest issue that I see is lack of definition. Edges are blury and this is where these photos really fall short. Possible causes here include camera shake, lens quality, detector quality (in the camera), lack of attention to focus, and shutter speeds that are too fast.
Would you mind sharing what you're using for a base (tripod, hand-held, copy stand), camera, lighting, and lens? Of these, the camera is by far the least important. How are you setting white balance?
To really get crisp photos, I got a quality marco lens, got a solid copy-stand, and use enough halogen light that I need to be careful not to melt the slabs at times. My usual shutter speeds are in the 1/600 to 1/2000 range. I also use a tethered connection so that I can get the focus adjusted perfectly on a small, highly-magnified part of the coin. I use a small frog-eye level to make sure the camera and the slab are perfectly parallel. Finally, after all of this, I'm using Photoshop to very slightly adjust color saturation (don't get carried away here!!!!!!!). Some cameras require this but most don't. I then use a sharpening feature to provide a small extra bit of definition to the details. Again, be very careful to not get carried away with this.
OK...... just read your setup. No problems there. Light should be adequate. Something is causing poor definition though...... not sure...... Is your copy stand SOLID???? What are your typical shutter speeds? Your aperature might be hurting you too if your're not at the mid-range of what your lens can do. I shoot most coins between f/5 and f/9.
I'm by no means a professional, but I've been working on my coin shots for the last couple of years. I haven't shot any gold recently, but these are a couple I've done in the last week or two. Just look at the fine detail like the edges of the lettering and the bands on the reverse of the wheat cent. To me, what really stands out as soft on your photos are the dentils and areas of fine detail. I suspect it's camera shake or a lens problem, but that's just a guess. Just getting perfect focus can be hard without a way to really preview what you're seeing.
And, for what it's worth, it's a better pic than what I can take!
Interests:
Pre-Jump Grade Project
Toned Commemoratives
the bottom of the obv is a little fuzzy. Can shim the coin/slab with another coin to level it. Works better if you focus on the fields instead of the relief.
rev a little fuzzy everywhere.
don't shoot at f/18, it will always be a little fizzy. Stick with something like f/8-f10 and you will get sharper results.
My copy stand is quite solid. My shots tend to be about 1/13th second or slower. I shoot at 100 ISO.
BTW, Mark Goodman (mgoodm3) is THE guru about coin photography. If you don't have his book, get it. I've read it three or four times and keep finding new ideas.