Lakesamm photo lab, thanks to Russ and Shylock

Lakesammman · February 5, 2003 7:34AM

Nothing better to do this afternoon....so, thought I would share my photolab with you. Russ gave me the idea of getting lamps with reveal bulbs. These have turned out great for shots of Br and RB coins. Shylock turned me on to the Ott lights, ideal for red coins. The combination is ideal. For standard shots, the camera is aimed right at the coin. For proofs, better results are obtained by angling 10-20 degress. That seems to catch the mirrors to better advantage. Russ has shown several examples and I can't show it any better!

Since we have a mother-in-law kitchen in the basement, I made it a easily broken down affair, the 2x4 clamped to the counter, 3 holes drilled into it accomodating the 3 lamps. The lamps can be used in any combo since they extend and swivel. The only thing missing is the Russ style copy stand, a tripod doing the same thing for me.

Coin photography has been a great addition to the hobby for me - makes it possible to enjoy the coins, even when they are locked up safely at the bank. (typo edit)

LanLord · February 5, 2003 7:35AM

What's an ott light?

paigowjohnny · February 5, 2003 7:40AM

Is the stove there to cook the coins to a healthy tone...

Lakesammman · February 5, 2003 7:40AM

It's a flourescent light with a "full spectrum" of wavelength, making objects look like they should w/o a yellowish cast. The reveal lights are similar yet they don't result in very good pictures of red IHC's and the Ott lights do a poor job on Br/RB coins. It's been explained on earlier threads but I'm still at a loss re: the actual spectrum difference. Not sure why - are there any physicists on the board that could explain the difference better??

IrishMike · February 5, 2003 7:41AM

Tim did your wife look at this set up and remark as mine did: Honey you HAVE lost your mind!

coppercoins · February 5, 2003 7:46AM

I guess I'm gonna need to show mine now that everyone else is or has shown theirs. Thread for tomorrow...

Pushkin · February 5, 2003 7:50AM

Russ · February 5, 2003 7:53AM

Man, that's pretty fancy.

Makes my setup look awfully low rent.

Russ, NCNE

Pushkin · February 5, 2003 7:55AM

Russ · February 5, 2003 7:59AM

Pushkin,

Is "esoteric" another word for "cheap Office Depot stuff"?

Russ, NCNE

Lakesammman · February 5, 2003 8:02AM

Pushkin:

I got my 3 lights for $20 TOTAL at the local Goodwill - the Ott lights were more, of course. Now the slab granite countertop, that was another matter, but not necessary for photography.

Cooking the coins in a oven is a half-baked idea.......I would never do such a thing, unless I need the dough.

coppercoins · February 5, 2003 8:02AM

I only use two lamps...I guess I'm not qualified, eh? Photos of my stuff will have to wait until tomorrow - I'm at work now and will be most of the night.

Lakesammman · February 5, 2003 8:05AM

Coppercoins:

Sorry to hear about your day. I'm having a coin dealer kind of day....did a little work this AM, went golfing, now I'm enjoying the coins with a couple beers....it's a good life.

Pushkin · February 5, 2003 8:10AM

greghansen · February 5, 2003 8:12AM

You guys have saved me a TON of money. I was all prepped to go out and buy a whole-lotta-goodies that I considered must have for taking quality photos. WRONG! Thanks for the freebie education. I'll be copying that set up in a heartbeat.

Lakesammman · February 5, 2003 8:14AM

Pushkin:

Your point being.....???

I prefer my Great Grandfathers tomb stone..." For me to live is Christ, to die is gain". It's a cool burial plot in Duluth, Minn., where my Great GF, GF and parents are. Only wish it were closer.....

Clankeye · February 5, 2003 8:23AM

Lakesammman--

What a great little set up! I was stunned and amazed the one opportunity I actually had to see Russ' "studio" up close and in person. It's a marvel of function and utility over the "bells and whistles" approach. Simple. Simple is good.

I do eventually want to follow both of your leads and have an area set up for photography. Because I agree with you, it has added a whole new dimension to the hobby.

Clankeye

cosmicdebris · February 5, 2003 10:06AM

Here's one more with 2 reveal bulbs. The OTT Lite in missing from the picture.

supercoin · February 5, 2003 12:23PM

Ok, I'll show-n-tell too...

Apparently we are all too cheap to buy a "real" setup.

DanC · February 5, 2003 12:27PM

If there's anyone who can squeeze a penny hard enough to make Abraham Lincoln "wince" it's Russ.

My setup is even CHEAPER.

I got the clip-on light fixtures from MacLendon's Hardware @ $6.99 each.
Sure... it's harder to move the lights around - but I'm even cheaper than Russ is.

Some of these setups are pretty cool.
Just proves you don't need a million-dollar Nikon to take decent pictures.

Lakesammman · February 5, 2003 1:25PM

Supercoin:

What kind of light bulb is that??

What's the foil do for you??

What kind of resolution do you get off a video camera??

Looks like a shelf board stand - hope you didn't spend more than $20 total??

supercoin · February 5, 2003 1:57PM

That's top-shelf shelf board, I'll have you know.

The foil is to back and fill the light source. The secret is to use the dull side.

The light bulb is just a standard spot. I've never tried the Reveal bulbs. My camera has a manual white balance which works well -- I calibrate it with the pure white background and then shoot the coins.

The thing on the bottom is used to align the slab in the field of view, so I don't have to mess with rotating the coin around.

The camera is a Hi8 camcorder with a close-up lens, connected to a digitizing board in a Macintosh via an S-Video connection. Resolution is only 640x480, but I use the close-up lens and zoom on the camera to make full use of that for each side of the coin.

The principal advantage of using video is that I get a live onscreen image so I have instant feedback as to how well the image is representing the coin.

I also have custom software that I wrote to capture the images. It's controlled by a handheld barcode reader so I don't have to touch the computer in the first pass -- I snap both sides of the coin then hit the barcode on the back of the slab to name and save the file.

After all the coins are photographed, a second pass through with the software at the computer is used to quickly crop, resize, collate, and save off a compressed JPEG image and thumbnail.

Here's an example (my icon) of the resulting images:

Degradation in quality that you can see in this photo in spots is mostly due to artificacts from relatively high JPEG compression. I could create larger/less-compressed images.

Monstavet · February 5, 2003 2:14PM

Whose mother-in-law deserves granite countertops? Only for folks in Issaquah (aka "We look down on Seattle from our piles of money!), I reckon!

Lakesammman · February 5, 2003 2:14PM

Great info - thanks for the response....more than one way to skin the cat, I guess.

relayer · February 5, 2003 2:16PM

Supercoin did some serious construction

Lakesammman · February 5, 2003 10:57PM

Monstavet:

When we built the house, there was a big overstock of that particular material and it turns out the slabs were the cheapest alternative. They nearly gave it to us for the cost of cutting and installing. About the only thing that went right during the construction.....

Pushkin · February 5, 2003 11:25PM

dorkkarl · February 5, 2003 11:29PM

man, you bums are making me insanely jealous. there should be a green emoticon!!!

sooner or later, i have GOT to jump in the fray, & learn how to take digi-pics

envy envy envy ...

K S

RKKay · February 6, 2003 4:05PM

Went out and bought an Ott light today. So, so, so expensive, but it really helped with a toned pattern I have. It looks awesome. Thanks.

Lakesammman · February 6, 2003 10:05PM

Well, lets see it.....

coinguy1 · February 6, 2003 10:13PM

I posted this on the Set Registry Forum, yesterday, in answer to a question about how we image toned proof Indian cents :

I contacted the person who does most of our imaging, Scott Schechter, and his reply follows below. Please do not ask me questions about this - I don't know about it or understand it - really.

From Scott at Pinnacle:

Imaging toned proof Indian Cents is very tricky, and accurately capturing the color and mirrors of a coin is quite a challenge.

To capture the color on toned Indians, we use a diffusion screen, that puts an even, flat light across the coin. While we use a small white nylon screen manufactured for this purpose, a piece of white paper should be similarly effective.

We place the screen between our light source and the camera's field of view, where a piece of white paper has been placed. We then reset the "white balance preset" on the camera, which adjusts the camera to see the paper in front of it, as white. Our diffusion screen has a faint yellow caste, which is removed from the image by this step.

We then place the coin under the camera, such that the even white light is projected across the surface of the coin. The coin may be at a slight angle. The image is taken. This technique reduces the image contrast, so in a photo editing program, (we use PhotoShop) you will need to boost the image contrast to accurately show the colors. Very little additional adjustment is necessary, although we crop and resize our website images to conform to standard dimensions on our website.

Barry · February 6, 2003 10:24PM

A few comments...

First, special bulbs (Ott, Reveal, etc.) should NOT be necessary, if your camera let's you custom-set your white balance.
Second, if you do use a homemade diffusion screen, such as a piece of paper, be very careful that you don't overheat the lamp and cause a fire. Incandescent bulbs create a lot of heat!

Lakesammman · February 6, 2003 11:46PM

Barry:

I have a custom white balance feature like you suggested and can tell you that there is a big difference (with copper) between how the coin looks with daylight vs light bulb vs halogen vs reveal vs flourescent vs Ott "full spectrum" vs through the microscope vs all the above with domes or diffusion devices, etc. It may not matter with silver/white coins but it sure does with copper.

dorkkarl · February 7, 2003 12:28AM

so, for a fairly simple digi-cam + setup, what kind of cost are we talking here?

K S

Russ · February 7, 2003 1:46AM

Karl,

In my case, about $200 including the camera with all the accessories, the copy stand, the desk lamps, light bulbs, different colored cloth.

Russ, NCNE

dorkkarl · February 7, 2003 2:26AM

wow, that's a lot less than what i thought you'd say! heck, i ought to be able to spring for something like that.

hmmm.....

K S

MrKelso · February 7, 2003 8:17AM

<< <i>Man, that's pretty fancy.

Makes my setup look awfully low rent.

Russ, NCNE >>

What kind of bulbs Russ?

Russ · February 7, 2003 8:20AM

GE Reveal.

Russ, NCNE

Lakesamm photo lab, thanks to Russ and Shylock

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