Coin pictures with new digital camera, opinions please.

andy007

I'm still very much in the newbie phase with the new digital camera, but I took the Morgan pictures outside today and they look exactly like the coin, and the Mercury dime(took with reveal bulbs, not good positioning of light on my part) is solid purple, outside the beige streak that can be seen. The Washington quarter(also with the reveal bulbs) is a little more green in person, but the red also is dominant, which is fairly represented. I finally based my decision on the camera to buy after reading lots of reviews, going through history threads here, and the overall consensus in my mind settled on a Nikon Coolpix 4500, and it has been nothing short of awesome so far and I still have tons of features to learn while I get the lighting setup and tripod. Any comments are appreciated on the pics.



1941 Purple Mercury Dime

1944 Washington quarter

1880-S Morgan dollar Obverse

1880-S Morgan dollar Reverse #1

1880-S Morgan dollar Reverse #2

airplanenut

That color is showing up excellently! Bravo and I see a Russ rivalry coming up if you are producing these images right from the start

Jeremy

Russ

Andy,

Very nicely done!

Russ, NCNE

ursabear

andy007,

Great job! Super nice definition, and the colors seem to be very close to spot-on.

Two things would make the pictures really stand out.

You could use a piece of fine paper just over the slab/coin, but not between the coin and camera. Move the paper around directly over the coin (where the camera is at an angle). As you move the paper, you can see the lighting soften or brighten, but more importantly, it removes the lamp glare.

Also, if the slab is worried or scratched, move the coin or camera by a degree or two in either direction until the slab scratches are less evident.

Super job and keep at it! (Now if I can just get my MS coins as nice as yours.... )

Clankeye

A very good start, Andy! And I know how hard those colors can be to capture.

Really like the Washington.

Getting my camera has opened up a whole new fun side of the hobby for me. I wish you the same joy in your experiences ahead.

Clankeye

sinin1

Andy awesome photos - especially the color

Ursabear, for me to see the color the best, I usually need direct reflection form light source - alas my reflection of light is even worse - can't even see coin - does the paper difuse source enough and yet leave enough to get good color?

Any other board members with tricks getting color but not light reflection?

TomB

Nice color on the dime and quarter, Andy! I also love that catseye on the Morgan reverse. WOW!

cosmicdebris

Excellant images Andy. great color on the Morgans.

K6AZ

Andy, that is quiet a coincidence. I finally got tired of my old Toshiba camera, and on Monday bought a Nikon 4300. Don't know what the difference is between the 4300 and the 4500, but it appears yours is doing a good job. One thing I would recommend if you are serious about doing lots of coin photos, is to buy a sturdy copystand with a light kit. I see some of your images would have looked even better if you had the proper lighting at the right angle. Here is one of the first pictures I took yesterday after I bought my camera, and this is using a Testrite CS-3 copystand, with 300w of incandescent lights, of course with the white balance set on the camera to incandescent.

http://www.k6az.com/1884_toned_obv.jpg

Barry

Andy,
Very nice pics. As I use a 4500 myself, I will be a little over critical, to try to help you improve the pictures even more - no other reason!

1. Try to adjust the angle of the light and/or camera so there is no reflection of your lighting source off the slab, as is the case of the first two pics.
2. The 1944 quarter is slightly out of focus by the date, most likely due to the large aperture (f3.0). You can increase the depth of field by using a smaller aperture. I find taking pics in aperture priority mode, and setting it at least F6 makes a difference. This will cause a slow shutter speed, and you will need to use a tripod or copy stand. If you are holding the camera in your hand, you will get motion blur.
3. Look at the 1880-S Morgan. The background is gray, but should be white. When taking a pic with a white background, the camera underexposes. One solution is using spot metering instead of matirx metering. Another solution (which I use) is just set the EV to +0.7 or +1.0.

ksteelheader

Your pictures, so far, seem to be pretty darn good. Just keep experimenting, and you will find that some things will work better than others. I use a Sony DSC-S85 with very good results!..........Ken