Photo critique if you please, 82S Morgan

1977topps

I am trying to improve my photo skills, all constructive criticism is appreciated.
Equipment:
Sony DSC-V1 camera, 2 desk lamps (will be trying Reveals soon), milk jug diffuser (will be buying copy stand soon).

mgoodm3

Needs a little white balance tweaking- kinda pushed toward red. Lighting is a bit diffuse for me - i would ditch the jug - will get better luster.

IrishMike

For less than half the price of copystand you can pick up an adjustable tripod and they are a lot easier to lug around and just as good. I don't think the jug is helping either. Work on your lighting balance instead.

paigowjohnny

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RSundermier

Enter me too !!



You should adjust the balance - you're leanng toward yellow.

I've found that the brighter the light shining directly into the fields, the more the luster shows ...

look ...



Not the nicest coin out there, but a pretty nice shot of it.

Good luck to you.

messydesk

A few things can be improved in your picture, so I'll take them one at a time.

Contrast: If you look at a histogram of this picture, you'll see it all bunched together in the middle. There is nothing really dark and nothing really light. The milk jug may be causing some of this, but the camera might be as well. Get rid of the milk jug for now, and see if the camera has a "vivid" or high contrast setting you can use.

White balance: Make friends with your white balance override in your camera and it pretty much won't matter what lights you use. Use a white piece of paper or better yet a grey card (available at a decent photography store).

Sharpness: The picture looks somewhat blurry, so make sure the macro setting of the camera is turned on. Also, change the auto-exposure to aperture preferred, which should be marked with an A or Av on your camera's settings somewhere. Then set the aperture at f8.0, which will increase your depth of field.

Exposure: The exposure meters of cameras like to make the subject average out to neutral gray. Shiny objects can screw up the exposure, so you may have to bracket the exposure over or under what the camera wants (+/- setting).

Composition: Play with moving the lights higher and lower and see the differernce in the appearance of the luster.

Good luck!

1977topps

Thanks for the input.

1- Would this be a decent tripod to get (I take photos on my desk, and this looks small enough to fit.) I am absolutely open to recommendations.

2- Messydesk: I have been playing with the white balance, I use a piece of white paper and let the camera adjust or whatever it does. I have macro on. As far as exposure and aperture, I have not changed them yet, but I will RTFM. I know they're important, but somewhat intimidating.

3- I mainly use the jug to hold the camera. So replacing that with the tripod or copy stand would be a step in the right direction, correct?

Once again, thanks for the info. I never realized how hard it is to take an accurate picture of a coin.

BTW, here is a review of my camera: Dpreview.com

MikeInFL

That tripod would work well...Mike