New photo setup!

Pedzola

Hi all. I had been resisting purchasing photography gear, but recently decided to make the plunge. Received my camera this week, a Canon SL3, and ordered a "system x" copy stand from Ray at macrocoins.com. (He posts here as rmpsrpms.)

The stand with bellows and lens arrived an hour ago and I couldnt wait to try it out.

These are my very first images from the new setup of my 1911 $10 which spurred this whole photography journey. It is a highly lustrous coin and I couldn't come close with my cell phone.

First I'll share the old cell phone photos:

And the results with my new camera and macro lens/stand:

I used an axial lighting setup. I think I can still do better - the left of each photo is a little washed out. But for 15 minutes of fiddling and my very first shots I am thrilled!

Now I just need to find some easy photo editing software that can do a circular crop with.

TomB

For many types of surfaces, I don't know that axial lighting is the way to go. Regardless, if you have a Mac you should have a suite for image editing and the circle crop feature is included.

Gluggo

Great choice I went through Ray and got the system X like you. I
Now that photoScape has a circle crop even though I have only used it a few times. It’s a free download too I believe. Congrats on your new setup!

Jimnight

Really ... Very nice pics!

Outhaul

What I would like to know is how the hell did you get hold of my $10 Indian? Please send it to me...

Pedzola

I will try direct light later this evening. No mac, but found an android app that will crop circles.

Will post 2nd attempt later.

WaterSport

_Now I just need to find some easy photo editing software that can do a circular crop with.___

Nice pics , enjoy your camera. For software- If your using a MAC- -try these folks.

https://flyingmeat.com/acorn/

Pedzola

I tweaked the contrast and saturation in my image editor a bit.

I tried direct lighting and it looked bad. I couldn't get any detail - its a very reflective coin. Shiny! So the axial lighting for this one is probably best bet.

I tried a couple more coins. The barber dime and oregon trail here
I think look pretty accurate. These were with 2 big portrait studio lights in diffusion boxes above the camera.

I realized while I was editing that the dime obverse is a little out of focus. Even with my camera tethered to the laptop its hard to see exactly when it is in focus.

Obviously a lot of opportunity to improve but results so far blow away cell phone pics.

yosclimber

I realized while I was editing that the dime obverse is a little out of focus. Even with my camera tethered to the laptop its hard to see exactly when it is in focus.

Use autofocus - it works great for this.
Use the tethering to try out different lighting angles.

Pedzola

The lens is not connected directly to the camera, it has a bellows in between. I am pretty sure this is manual focus only.

I definitely have to play more with lights.

ricko

Very nice pictures... and quite the setup.... I can see why I have not plunged into coin photography....Way too much gear needed... And my other hobbies would get jealous... Not to mention the looks I would get from my wife - "Another hobby??" Cheers, RickO

Pedzola

I took another pass at editing. I may not get to play with coins again until later in the week. I thought I had the white balance correct but these look a little better to me.

Also backed off some of my editing on the $10. This only has a contrast adjustment.

Lots more experimenting to go, especially with lighting, but happy so far. I ordered a zoom lens to try out some wildlife photography next.

Wife was ok with the camera... I didn't mention coins until she saw the copy stand... lol

derryb

higher resolution and at least three lights

yosclimber

@Pedzola said:
The lens is not connected directly to the camera, it has a bellows in between. I am pretty sure this is manual focus only.

Good point - I forgot about that.
I use a Canon T2i and the regular Canon 100mm macro lens, on a regular copy stand.
In this situation, the autofocus does a much better job than I can do with LiveView.

Gluggo

So I wanted to share with you my set up. Right now your looking at two copy stands the one in use is from Ray and the other is the cheap Ebay stand I own prior to buying Ray's X set up. I use it to attach the 2 other lights so I can set up all four corners with a light source. It also has a bigger work platform so I use it for that also.
He also included the small coin stand you see just right of the camera set up. It has a fine tune micrometer dial system for when you want to get the fine tune. I have not really used it as I just use my eyes to focus when I am tethered to the camera. I just rotate the laptop to allow me the right line of sight when I am trying to focus. I also use the bellows to dial in the coin. I like to lock in the top screw then have the bottom screw ready to dial in. Then I carefully release the top screw so it can freefall of course I am holding the camera so I can use the bellow to expand and focus in. I try and have the bellows expanded at least a 1/2" so that I can use it to help focus. Then when I feel its at the right spot I lock in the bottom as the top is already locked it so I do not accidentally drop it into free fall. The more I use this the more I feel comfortagle with this set up. I think your pictures look really good but then again Ray makes it dummy proof for great repeatablilty in taking good pictures.

Pedzola

Here is an update. I was struggling with lighting. Today I continued to try an axial setup (explanation: https://www.diyphotography.net/use-mirrors-get-perfect-axial-lighting-macro-subjects/).

This time I added a second light source above the copy stand in addition to the axial light.

I think it was a huge improvement. This is totally unedited straight from the camera (except of course circular crop and cut/paste together).

I think it really captures the look of the coin. The luster comes out much better here. In the other pictures the color was really accentuated, but this image better reflects what the coin looks like in hand.

And here is another coin I was playing around with. Seems a little flat, but ok. Used the same lighting method.

Gluggo

@Pedzola said:
(explanation: https://www.diyphotography.net/use-mirrors-get-perfect-axial-lighting-macro-subjects/).

Thank you for the link to the Axiel lighting I will read up!

Pedzola

Here is an image of my setup. You can see a piece of clear acrylic held up at ~45 degrees over the coin. Big portrait box light as the 90 degree lighting source.

jafo50

@Pedzola said:
Here is an image of my setup. You can see a piece of clear acrylic held up at ~45 degrees over the coin. Big portrait box light as the 90 degree lighting source.

It almost looks like you're trying to re-create something like this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDntzJtGwgA&t=2s

I'm not sure if the acrylic has the same reflective properties as a piece of glass. Have you tried taking photos without the black box that the coin sits in?

I think your photos are getting better but there's just something about them that's hard to put my finger on. I guess I feel that they should 'pop' more if that makes any sense. Anyway keep working on it and keep posting your results.

Joe

Pedzola

That is absolutely the same concept. The box the coin sits in allows you to get only the reflected light from above and not high intensity light from the side - would cast weird shadows. In addition I cover the side of the lens which I didnt have in this photo. The lighting looks more natural this way, not sure how else to describe it. Reduces unwanted reflections i think. I have a regular floor lamp that I used for the top light which made a huge improvement. I moved it around until I found a spot that looked good and shot the picture.

I might get a chance to play around more tonight. I am pretty happy with the latest of my $10, but will try reshooting the silver coins when I get the chance. The vdb certainly didnt pop - a little editing helped. Could probably do better on this one.

Here are larger images of the $10.

jafo50

Great photo!

At the end of the day if that's how the coin looks in-hand then it's mission accomplished.

Pedzola

Looking at the coin side by side with the photos the biggest difference is that the real coin is a little more yellow than orange. Perhaps the white balance is off. Have had trouble finding a setting or mode that I like. But otherwise I think it captures the coin very well.

I have a gold $2.5 lib that looks pretty normal yellow gold in hand but in the trueview is bright pumpkin orange. So this $10 seems "within parameters" to me.

jafo50

Lighting is always my biggest problem and I've tried lot of different configurations including the single diffused source that you used. I've found that using two independent light sources gives me the flexibility to move the lights around giving me the best representation of how the coin looks in-hand. Sometimes I add a third light but it's usually farther away from the coin to just minimize a shadow. It's a real pain to even get it close but what are the choices.

ms70

Very interesting set-ups. Lots of food for thought.

BobSav

Very nice ! One thing to remember is to back up all your work including any SD cards you may use. This very important.
Dont ask me how I know
Bob

Pedzola

Well I think this axial + top light is really working for me. Here is a re-shoot of my oregon trail, I like this much better than the original.

With the axial light alone there is a washed out portion of the coin. Adding a light over the camera fixes that flat washed out look.

Maybe still room for improvement but I am liking it.

In other news, I got a zoom lens today and cant get any shot to focus. Assume I'm doing something wrong but tempted to believe the lens is defective... will try again tomorrow in bright daylight.

Pedzola

Reshoot of my barber dime: