Here's how bad a photographer I am.

jesbroken

Trying to get the pinkish rim tone on this gorgeous buff and cannot. Can't even get the booming luster. The top 3 pics were taken with my Canon Rebel T6 on Auto with the lighting listed, color not correct on any of the top 3, while the fluorescent was the closest. The 4th image was perfect likeness of the buff's color but still no pinkish color on obverse or reverse. The light used was a flashlight. Whaaaaat! I tried using incandescent, fluorescent, ott lite and finally a flashlight and got the color of the coin, but no pinkish rim tone. Also the cell phone doesn't allow much enlargement as you can see without blurring considerably. I'm no where near being able to use Fstop and such as I don't understand it. So back to Mark's book and hopefully this old brain will pick it up.
Jim

yosclimber

If you want to have the color correct for each type of light,
you will need to learn how to use the White Balance setting on your Canon Rebel T6.
You can't just use Auto.
Auto assumes you are in sunlight / incandescent.

Also, the top photo looks a bit blurry.
Are you holding your camera by hand, or do you have a tripod or copy stand?

airplanenut

Two quick thoughts right off the bat:

1- How powerful are the lights you're using? They look like they may be on the weaker and softer side, and probably not at an ideal angle, so they aren't lighting the coin well, color aside. You need to get the lustre in the fields to light up at least a bit to get the color to show. You can see in the cell phone picture that the fields are better illuminated and the toning is showing better as a result.

2- The color of coins combined with the importance of the color of the light makes auto white balance useless. You'll want to make a custom white balance for any kind of light you use, which should fix the strong color casts you're seeing.

thebeav

The f-stop is the 'aperature'. It's the little hole that lets the light in. The lower the number, the bigger the hole.
I don't know how it would relate to your coin photography though. Are the flourescent bulbs your using actual 'tubes' ? Not those fake curly-Q bulbs.....I have pretty good luck with flourescent.....

jesbroken

Wow, thanks to both of you. I thought the Auto white balance was correct. I've got a long way to go before I can use the attributes of this camera. Again, I truly appreciate your help.
Jim

jesbroken

@thebeav said:
The f-stop is the 'aperature'. It's the little hole that lets the light in. The lower the number, the bigger the hole.
I don't know how it would relate to your coin photography though. Are the flourescent bulbs your using actual 'tubes' ? Not those fake curly-Q bulbs.....I have pretty good luck with flourescent.....

They are the small tubes, but don't appear too strong as are the 60 watt incandescent bulbs I was using too weak.
Jim

Swampboy

I wish I could shoot buffs.
Maybe send it to @crazyhounddog?
lol

AlanSki

I did this using a cheap macro on auto settings with one walmart LED lamp.

Just play around.

WaterSport

Ya know - if your wanting to do this a lot (take pics of buffs) Ray Pankhurst can make you a set up for doing that - and only that. I know nothing about photography, but his set up takes all the guess work away. One additional comment about trying to get some color - I have better luck at night with out all the other light. You just need to experiment with the light.

WS

airplanenut

@WaterSport said:

One additional comment about trying to get some color - I have better luck at night with out all the other light. You just need to experiment with the light.

This is a valuable point, and part of the reason custom white balance helps... if there is other light in the background, it can be accounted for. That said, the room where I shoot has its windows blocked and I shut off all other lights when I'm shooting. The only light available comes from the two identical bulbs in my setup.

jesbroken

@Swampboy said:
I wish I could shoot buffs.
Maybe send it to @crazyhounddog?
lol

Joe has photographed about 50 or more of my coins over the years and truly that has been a thought of mine. May yet ask him again for his true talent.
Jim

crazyhounddog

Better light coverage is your friend.
Still I’ve seen much worse.

3stars

So of the pictures which one looks closest to the coin in hand?

jesbroken

@3stars said:
So of the pictures which one looks closest to the coin in hand?

The cell phone pic is the correct color of the coin without any pink around the rims.
Jim

morgansforever

Great thing about digital photography, delete and shoot again. Maybe try something larger like a ASE or a 90% dollar and work your way down to smaller coinage, jmo.

Cajunpoorguy

I would try a crisp white light source color so that your camera won't over adjust. Get a medium grey paint sample card from a hardware store and use that to set a custom white balance. Also, use more than 2 light sources. I have 3 right now and about to add a 4th to cover even balance with luster and reduce hotspots.

BryceM

Steady platform, careful focus, white balance (absolutely crucial), lots of light with good light distribution (halogens bring out reds... maybe even a little too easily), quick shutter speeds, remote shutter release, high-angle lighting (study this concept in Mark’s book) and you’ll get there. Once you learn how to white balance most colors will be pretty close with most types of lighting. After that, color-wise, it’s just fine tuning.

You'll get it.

jesbroken

@Cajunpoorguy said:
I would try a crisp white light source color so that your camera won't over adjust. Get a medium grey paint sample card from a hardware store and use that to set a custom white balance. Also, use more than 2 light sources. I have 3 right now and about to add a 4th to cover even balance with luster and reduce hotspots.

Here is my current setup. I have 7 or 8 different light sources, 3 OTT lites, 3 incandescent, 2 fluorescent snakes, and 2 led snakes. I utilize a remote trigger and will soon set up my laptop to view the photos as I prepare to take the picture to save having to remove the SD card to view.
Jim

Dave99B

Professional photographers tell me lighting is pretty much everything. I think they’re right. Keep experimenting!

Dave

Mr_Spud

I’m determined to figure out how to take decent coin pictures just with my iPhone. I’m not anywhere near there yet though. Here’s the best I did so far trying to capture the colors thru a slab. I’m just too lazy to recreate a fancy camera setup and then having to putz around with everything every time I want to take a picture. Being able to instantly take a phone picture that I can instantly upload has a stronger motivational appeal to me than setting up a camera does. The most important thing I figured out so far is to sit the phone on top of a jar so it acts like a level tripod and then use the 3 second selfie timer thingy so you don’t shake the phone when you push the button to take the picture. It doesn’t get blurry if you use that timer thing. These are taken using an old reveal lightbulb that is from my old camera setup from 15 years ago.

This one is actually getting closer. It pretty much looks dead on in terms of the dark purple toning, but it’s still not quite there

yosclimber

@jesbroken said:

Your setup looks great.

Here is the Canon EOS Rebel T6 manual as a PDF - download it.
Just follow the instructions on pages 131-136 to learn how to set the White Balance!
http://gdlp01.c-wss.com/gds/8/0300022698/01/eos-rebelt6-1300d-im-en.pdf
I learned how, and so can you.

I use LiveView on my Canon T2i - it's great for adjusting lighting - you can see the results instantly
on your computer monitor instead of a big delay of moving the SD card.
It will also save the photos directly to your PC's hard drive.

I also recommend the Canon 100mm macro lens.
You can get the earliest model for about $120 shipped from camera stores in Japan via ebay.

jesbroken

@yosclimber Here is the Canon EOS Rebel T6 manual as a PDF - download it.

Thanks yosclimber, but I did that yesterday and read about setting the white balance last evening and did so. I'll try it out today. All of you have been very helpful and I truly appreciate it.
Jim

ChrisH821

@jesbroken said:

Here is my current setup. I have 7 or 8 different light sources, 3 OTT lites, 3 incandescent, 2 fluorescent snakes, and 2 led snakes. I utilize a remote trigger and will soon set up my laptop to view the photos as I prepare to take the picture to save having to remove the SD card to view.
Jim

It looks like your camera isn't level with the shooting surface. That will have to be fixed or you will never get proper focus.
Definitely get the remote shooting software from canon and use it. Doing remote shooting allows you to change all the settings from your laptop without having to touch the camera. You can then take a picture and instantly open it on your computer since it will save it there instead of the SD card. I would also suggest a plug in power source for the camera so you aren't limited by the battery life, which will be reduced using remote viewing.
Bottom line, everything is easier once you hook up to a computer to do the shooting.

Here's the download link for the EOS utility 3.13.10
https://pdisp01.c-wss.com/gdl/WWUFORedirectTarget.do?id=MDIwMDAwNjI3MzAx&cmp=ABR&lang=EN
From their website
https://www.usa.canon.com/internet/portal/us/home/support/details/cameras/eos-dslr-and-mirrorless-cameras/dslr/eos-rebel-t6-body?subtab=downloads-software

YQQ

You need to learn how to use your camera.
and, as said already, use a TRUE macro lens 90 mmm, 100 mmm maybe even higher.
stick with one light source, max 2, and set your WB properly. many times auto setting works.
BUT the Canon SW to Connect to your PC is a must. do everything by mouse. The SW is free at the Canon web site.
and like all of us.. you will take hundreds of test images before you get it close... not always right.
what I notice missing on your setup is a black and a white wall shield so you can shield the lens from outside light influx... unless you take pix in the dark. also white, black and neutral background sheets for coin backgrounds.
Re: Camera power source: order, I hate to say, from PRoC for less than $10... shipped and is the same without the famous name on it.

jesbroken

@ChrisH821
I just stuck the camera on the stand for the photo, was not using it at an angle. I have the EOS Utility and have used it when I had the camera set up at my PC. It was not user friendly to me, but I'm sure I will learn to use it. Also I have the remote trigger lying beside the stand in the photo which prevents finger movement on the camera trigger.

and @YQQ
I will purchase a TRUE 100mm as soon as I sell my new/unused Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 iii lens that I do not need. I'll log in to the Canon forum and see how best to sell it.
As I said above, I have the EOS Utility. I cannot find anything about the Canon SW you mention on Canon's website or just on Google. Would that be software akin to the EOS Utility?
I also have camera color cards and the Black and White and Grey shields, just not showing in the photo. I haven't learned exactly their use just yet but have a youtube video explaining this that I will watch. For what it's worth I have 10 youtube videos in regards to macro lens useage. I will be studying these also as time allows and I complete the photo setup with my laptop so that I can utilize EOS Utility as this will save me so much time.
I truly thank you all for your help. This is what makes the forum so valuable and comfortable to be a member of.
Jim

airplanenut

Keep in mind that if you're mixing lighting types, then as your light angles change and individual lights become more or less powerful in the picture, your custom balance will be off. The two lights I use are identical so the light color is always consistent.

YQQ

when you use the canon SW you will not need the trigger to take an image.
you use a mouse for pretty well everything except focus... I have not found a way to use auto focus.
I also suggest you get yourself some decent Image SW. I use ACDsee and I like it. it is reasonably priced.
But, Jeremy can tell you a tone more... he is an expert.(previous post)

jesbroken

I own the Adobe CS5 master collection. I know that ACDsee Photo Editor 11 is quite inexpensive, but would only buy it if I truly needed it. Yes, I know Jeremy and have corresponded with him for years on both sides of the street. I am well aware of his photography skills and have used him in the past on some Morgan PL's and DMPL's.
Jim