I got a new copy stand for Christmas...
Meltdown
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My other one was super cheap and flimsy but I made it work for ten years. I still have not delved into getting my lighting and settings dialed in. I have a decent cannon rebel, no macro lens and pretty much use auto focus and white balance... the camera does most the work and it's good enough for my archiving. I just set it up tonight and took a few shots just for fun.
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They look great!
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
Very nice photos.
nice pics.
i cannot comment as the couple things i would mention, you already are aware of!
Haha, yep. White balance is first on my list...
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Beautiful!!
Disclaimer: I'm not a dealer, trader, grader, investor or professional numismatist. I'm just a hobbyist. (To protect me but mostly you! 🤣 )
Rats, I thought we were going to see a nice copy stand, but just some great pictures of some old coins. lol Nice photos. I have a Rebel T6 that I'm about to sell because of the macro lens I bought from Japan and it came with a switch missing. Which Rebel do you have and how do you get such large focused pics without a macro lens? Are you using extension tubes or what? I'm truly interested. I've never been able to use my Rebel and I'm sad.
Jim
When a man who is honestly mistaken hears the truth, he will either quit being mistaken or cease to be honest....Abraham Lincoln
Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.....Mark Twain
It's the pro-master copy stand off amazon. I'm using two clamp on LED lights with bend-able necks. Someone posted a link here a while back and were happy with them (they were cheap too) so I bought those last year or so...
I have the camera probably a foot or so off the coin and the two lights level with the lens.
I use the zoom to get a little closer. Other than that, auto focus and auto white balance (which isn't great you can see how blue the white paper appears under my pics.) From there, I just crop the excess off the images on my computer and that's it.
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Those are great coin pictures...... So much better than any pictures of coins I have done. I am sure the super photographers (and we have quite a few) here will make some technical commentary, however, I am not sufficiently competent in the field of photography to comment or even understand what others may contribute. I just enjoy the pictures. Cheers, RickO
Honestly the only reason I have an interest in photographing my coins at all is from years of hanging out here and seeing all the talented photographers. Like I mentioned, I don't aspire to really get good at it, the camera and basic light setup I'm using does all the work.
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There are several plans out there for BYO copystand
This one is cheap, but takes some mechanical skills and is less than ideal for adjusting it each time you need to change up the distance:
https://www.instructables.com/Copy-Stand-Cheap-and-easy-to-build/
Then there is this one:
https://petapixel.com/2022/06/11/how-to-build-a-diy-t-rex-stand-for-macro-photography/
It's not cheap, but all the fussy cutting is done for you... warning, I think you'll spend as much on mounting accessories as you will on the basic T-Stand, but that's up to you.
ANA 50 year/Life Member (now "Emeritus")
Very nice pics and congratulations on the copy stand👍
The stand and lights look like a nice set up.
Your color balance is off.
IMO, your photography skill need some work. Play around with the lights. Use Photoshop to process your images.
You can do a lot better.
i used to get a slight violet hue in my images but i think it was the GE reveal bulbs as i did do the grey card/white balance thing a few times and still ended up with it.
just in case it hasn't occurred, the closer you get to 1:1 when imaging coins, the less of a need there is to do any cropping.
i think the main reason i didn't put too much emphasis on doing it myself more often was that i ended up saving the images in either ms paint or a bulk save image size reducing program anyway because at 3-6mb per image, they are just too big for everyday sharing and using. for some reason, just dropping the images from the camera into ms paint and JUST saving, no editing, reduced the images by over half usually and with nary a noticeable drop in quality unless super zoomed in.
tbh, i think around 1200x1200 could be easily under 1mb per image with stellar results. of course keeping an original isn't a terrible idea but the space requirements and having a decent device to open the folders does start to become a necessity.
Never downsize your images that you save. Leave them full size. Make a copy and downsize that file to upload to the internet.
There is valuable information in the full-size version that can be brought out with a program like Photoshop.
Really nice pics, especially given you aren't using a macro lens. I've actually looked at that exact copy stand, but have yet to pull the trigger. Now I REALLY want one. Well done!
Dave
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" I don't aspire to really get good at it, the camera and basic light setup I'm using does all the work."
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**"I have a decent cannon rebel, no macro lens and pretty much use auto focus and white balance... the camera does most the work and it's good enough for my archiving."
Click on this link to see my ebay listings.
It was cheaper before Christmas... I think $179. It's definitely sturdy. My other one was a getting really flimsy and kept slipping the camera to weird angles.
Click on this link to see my ebay listings.
I did miss that sorry.
What not practice on getting better?
Color: Looks desaturated, but that could also be auto white balance removing the yellow "cast" from the gold. Calibrate white balance to a white balance card, gray card, or white sheet of paper.
Exposure: Circ Indians look a little dark and unevenly lit, ASE has blown out highlights and darker fields, as does the $2 1/2 Lib. Watch your histograms to make sure you're not clipping detail in the highlights or shadows. In this case, you won't be fixing it with exposure settings, rather...
Lights: Darkish fields and bright edge detail are a sure sign that your lights are at too low of an angle. The ASE shows this best. Look at the sides of Liberty's chest and hips. All detail is lost in the highlights here, yet the entire right field is dark. On the reverse, the leading edge of the eagle's beak is too bright. On the $2 1/2 Lib, most of the obverse is too dark, but the edge of Liberty's profile is bright. The need for lights to be easily movable is why I don't recommend lights mounted like yours. I prefer gooseneck lamps instead. You should be able to achieve satisfactory results with the lights you have unless the shades are too large in diameter.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution