High-tech problems, low-tech solutions

ziggy29

Any of you who have tried to image NGC copper knows how much it sucks.

So today, I experimented. I took a regular piece of paper, and cut it to just less than NGC slab size. Then I took a black marker and made the paper black. Finally, where the coin is located on the slab, I cut a quarter-sized hole (crudely):



WOW! This makes a HUGE difference. Armed with this, I'll try to make a better one over the next few days.

mgoodm3

Can be overcome with center-weighted metering and/or exposure compensation also. If those aren't available you can go the high-tech black paper route.

ziggy29

One of these days I'll take a course in digital photography or something like that. For now I'm just glad I can see a little detail on the pictures I'm taking. I'm just getting my NGC Indians imaged in, and when I've tried to do that before it's been horrible.

TomB

The NGC slabs are difficult to image from because they are white and your camera takes an average light meter reading from the entire field. The average meter reading, which is brighter than the copper, tricks the camera into defaulting the setings to something less than needed for a dark image. By putting the black paper around the coin you have effectively reduced the average light meter reading and adjusted the camera's internal decisions. I use a piece of black velvet for the same purpose.