New pictures … and a story of an epiphany

pursuitofliberty

I was sitting with someone who I consider a friend. I have been in that chair before, but for whatever reason, I looked at the setup he was using differently. And in that moment, I saw part of what was wrong with mine.

Let me back up a little ...

Like many of us, I struggle with good pictures. Sometimes I get so frustrated I want to scream. I experiment here and there, knowing full well it’s a combination of many things to get superior pictures. Two steps forward and one step back sometimes. One step forward and three steps back others. Drives me crazy.

I have Mark Goodman’s book, a signed copy in fact that I bought from him years ago. It’s used and worn now, from all the times I went back and forth trying to unlock a secret.

My camera is not entirely fancy, but is a quality setup by many standards. I bought it a couple years ago. A basic DSLR (Nikon D3500), and up until today, my primary lens for coins was their 40mm/f2.8 Macro. It’s a really good lens, for what it is, at least from what I have been able to get out of it.

However, because of it’s very short focal length and amazingly close range focus, my camera body has to be close to the subject. Too close in fact. I kind of figured this out six few months ago, but I had to play with some things and consider some ideas … and do a lot of frustrating experiments before I realized that the lens, was in fact, so much a part of the problem that I had to eventually correct that, or just accept I couldn’t fix that part of the issue.

Back to my friend’s office …

We sat and talked and sipped beer. It was a bit of a show and tell, and we passed coins back and forth. Somewhere in there he asked to take a picture of one of the coins I had with me ... and as he fiddled and focused, and I sat back in the chair ... I saw the angles differently than I ever had before. My camera body wasn’t too close. It was WAY TOO CLOSE!

Back home that weekend, I raised the camera on the copy stand a good 4 inches. But as I did so, that little lens became harder to use as a quality macro, as it really was designed for close in work. I read a dozen articles and reviews and it became clearer still.
And so, after another week of further experimentation, I convinced myself to upgrade to a better lens.

I still have plenty to experiment with. And I have some other things I have consider to add to the setup that will happen soon. My focus is not great yet.

And, I’m sure, I will have days of two steps forward and one step back again. But today, with a new lens on the body, with hardly any setup and experimentation at all ... I took a couple pictures of the 1831 O-106 that arrived last week.

What a difference, at least to my eye!

Here she is again, and if you want to compare, here’s the link where I shared pictures from last week.
CBH with some Color

New pictures are with the SIGMA 105mm/f2.8 Macro. My camera and lights are noticeably further from the coin, and I used a neutral background.

Mr_Spud

I see a noticeable improvement in being able to see the surface of the coin better. You can actually see some luster coming through the darker areas that weren’t visible with your other lens.

PipestonePete

Very nice shots!

Flatwoods

You have made a big step forward.
The lens is a huge part of good pics.

savitale

Nice photos! I use the same lens. The higher the lens the closer to vertical you can get the illumination. That really helps bring out color as you observed. Some people even use a 150mm macro to get even more.

leothelyon

Here, I fiddled with your pics in my PE, do they look better or worse?

leothelyon

I recently discovered, by accident, a mistake I've been making for years with the following coin. It really took me by surprise. This pic while a bit out of focus shows very closely what the coin looks like in hand.

Leo

joeykoins

@pursuitofliberty said:

Now, I'm not anywhere near you guys in photo taking. Dang, I only use a phone and a cheap scope. You guys are way out of my league! Lol.
Anyway, to me your photos look great! Nice coin, too. But if I can comment? To me, all your pic is lacking is more light.

Leothelyon showed somewhat of a difference with that splash of light. Nice pictures guys,as well as , nice coins.

nwcoast

Excellent!
Always good to be learning and moving forward.

Super important to sometimes get those lights in there where your lens was previously.
Near axial is nearly impossible without some working distance- unless you’re working with tiny fiber optics ;-)

Coin photography is surprisingly challenging!
And I made my living as a photographer for much of my working life.

lkeigwin

Excellent, Todd. I like the improvement!

The distance-and-vertical-thing is really key. I have several macro lenses from 50mm to 200mm. When I want a photo that shows color and luster I'll choose one extreme or the other, depending on how much close-up detail I want. There is no reason you can't get great color rendition with a short macro as long as you're willing to keep the distance but give up some detail.

Here's an example. Each of these was shot from roughly 20-24", end-of-lens to coin with lighting as close to lens as possible.

The first images are of a slab using a 50mm lens. I have to reduce the size to fit here. Originally they are 1300x1700 pixels. Below they are 800 pixels wide.

The second set of images are from the 200mm macro. These are enormous...3800x3800. Greatly reduced to 800 pixels wide to fit here.

The last two images are close-ups, each reduced in size by 1/3rd to fit here, to illustrate the detail difference.

The coin's appearance does not change radically just because a much better, longer lens was used. Shooting distance is the same. Only detail is lost.

If the coin's appearance is much different between the two (as is common with auction houses) it is because the set up is different...distance, lighting angle, etc.
Lance.

ricko

The coin photography here on the forum is absolutely amazing. I remember back in the early days when pictures were first posted. Everyone was impressed...Now, pictures are several orders of magnitude better than those pictures. Cheers, RickO

WAYNEAS

@lkeigwin said:

Very impressive pictures.
Thanks for the info on how they were produced.
Wayne