Coin photo questions

jesbroken

I just tried to imitate this 1948 Roosevelt Dime's inhand look and I used 1, Incandescent only, 2 Incandescent and 2 OTT Lites, and then just 2 OTT Lites. I liked the Incan/2 Ott lites the best, but none are like the coin inhand. It is lustrous white with all the colors and toning around the peripheral rims to include a blue rim that does not show at all in any of the setups. Instead of gorgeous colors it just appears dark in the photos. Using a Canon PowerShot SX530 HS camera. I just cannot learn to use my Canon Rebel T6 at all, I'm a total dunce to it. Gave up on it and went back to the PSsx530 and at least I can take photos that are mostly acceptable.
Jim

TurtleCat

A lot of it can be angle and diffusion. If your lights are diffused enough (but not too much) and you tilt the coin just a tad (a couple of mm may be enough) it should really help.

WaterSport

Your "room" ambient light plays a factor here. Try shooting these pictures at night with no lights in the room on except the camera lights. In can change alot.

WS

yosclimber

When the colors are not correct, usually it means you need to learn how to set your White Balance.
Keep trying. I had the same problem before I also learned out to set the White Balance on my Canon.
Here is the manual for your camera - it will tell you how to do it:
https://th.canon/en/support/0302595001
What I do is use the "Custom White Balance" setting,
which is specific to the type of light you are using.
Turn that light on, and take a photo of a white piece of paper.
That's how I did it.

If you use the default "Automatic" White Balance setting,
it assumes you are shooting in sunlight.
That's fine for shooting outside, and sometimes works inside with an incandescent bulb.
But other light sources have a different color or "temperature" to them,
so you need Custom for those.

crazyhounddog

Unless you have a SLR camera box you probably can’t set your white balance. But if you can set your white balance, I highly recommend you use a grey card as that’s exactly what it’s intended for.

crazyhounddog

Have you tried (Daylight) bulbs? Those are what I use and after seeing the results, have never looked back. They are the hands down best lights I've ever used. I also use a grey card to set my balance. Here are the results. The images look just like the coin. Only now it's the size of a dinner plate.

jesbroken

What are daylight bulbs?
Jim

lilolme

I believe they are talking about the 5000K 'temperature' of a bulb. However, the first search I did mentioned 6500K. Either way the bulb is supposed to put out a light that is roughly equivalent to daylight light. As I understand it the camera likes this as it is roughly equivalent to daylight setting.
Here is one search result but should be others better. Search for something like 5000K or 6500K bulb or daylight bulb or similar.

https://www.waveformlighting.com/art-painting/difference-between-5000k-and-6500k-bulbs

LanceNewmanOCC

@jesbroken said:
I just tried to imitate this 1948 Roosevelt Dime's inhand look and I used 1, Incandescent only, 2 Incandescent and 2 OTT Lites, and then just 2 OTT Lites. I liked the Incan/2 Ott lites the best, but none are like the coin inhand. It is lustrous white with all the colors and toning around the peripheral rims to include a blue rim that does not show at all in any of the setups. Instead of gorgeous colors it just appears dark in the photos. Using a Canon PowerShot SX530 HS camera. I just cannot learn to use my Canon Rebel T6 at all, I'm a total dunce to it. Gave up on it and went back to the PSsx530 and at least I can take photos that are mostly acceptable.

.
you could try to find the "reset" option on the T6. sometimes after we tinker with complicated electronic devices without success, the best starting place is factory reset. fwiw

i recommend a manual mode as well.

there are some basic features to tweak, aperture, iso, wb +/- and a couple others that if not set properly, doesn't matter if you have those lights they use in ballparks for night games, enough light simply may not be permitted to get in. light is for sure one of the top things to focus on but not at the cost of knowing the proper settings to have a camera on and the more complicated the camera, the steeper the learning curve. learning my nikon d90 over a period of several months nearly drove me insane but once it clicked, OH MY, the camera became my play thing and resulted in taking at least level 8 pics on a scale of 1-10 by the thousands with virtually no effort. i truly thought, even with a lot of assistance, it would simply be above my pay grade. the tuition i paid was ludicrously expensive.

to be honest, even though the PNS (point n shoot, non-dslr/slr) are actually more difficult to use for numismotography. imo great for family picnics and vacations though.

Che_Grapes

Wish I could figure out how to take like this:

ChrisH821

@Che_Grapes said:
Wish I could figure out how to take like this:

Probably loads of post-processing.
Also that's what I would consider a BAD photograph. It does not convey the information needed to assess the coin in any meaningful way. Very likely this is by design.