FINALLY after almost 3 years...Did I stumble across the CORRECT lighting scenario for Lincolns???

ellewood

OK. Sort of a celebration for me so I'm venting. I've been playing around with lighting and photographing my lincolns for almost 3 years now....and last night I FINALLY stumbled upon an arrangement that finally captures the TRUE "redness" of a lincoln. Funny thing is, my set up involves a $5 mini copy stand, a 6 yr. old 2 megapixel SONY Mavica camera, 3 standard 100 watt bulbs (all in three lamps that I scrounged around the house) and two tall boxes that I put two of the lamps on (if I could take a picture of the set up on the workbench in my basement, you all would get a good laugh). The only negative is that I only shot 4 or 5 coins last night and now I've got to reshoot all of my MS lincolns now

I had to shrink this pic way down to get it within the measily 50K limit that PCGS has on the boards here...but you can get a jist of the color. As a side note, the 69-S in this photo is one of 3 coins that I just received from Mark McClenaghan's brother Rick. As most of you know, Mark recently passed away but I am honored to carry on a few of his memorials in my collection).



here's a link to the larger version:

1969-S MS66RD

Russ

Nicely done!

Russ, NCNE

RegistryNut

PM sent.

RegistryNut

rabbitracks

Ellwood, congrats on finally getting the perfect shot. I don't envy you having to reshoot all your coins for the registry sets. I recently upgraded my camera to a Nikon from a Sony Mavica and have upgraded a few of my pictures as well but I don't have the time that I'd like to get them all upgraded. Wish you much success on your new process. Mike.

LindeDad

Who cares what the set up looks like that picture is great. Now you have the formula just keep at the set.
I am still trying to find the right combo for the Kennedys.

ellewood

Thanks for the comments. It seems kind of corny to rant and rave that I finally found a lighting set up that I like...but if you all only knew how much it has bothered me over the years that I couldn't always be consistent. As I acquired coins (usually one at a time), I would take them down, get out everything, take the photo, do my thing with it...and then go to put it with the rest of my pics and it's DIFFERENT. Or the lighting is just a little off, etc. MAN CAN THAT BE FRUSTRATING. So, this time, I outlined the position of everything on my freakin' workbench AND marked the distance the coin is from the lense....so there is no mistakin' where everything goes!!! A couple people have asked me to take a photo of my set up...I will do that tonight and post it if I have the time. I'm warning you all...it's an interesting set up!

Russ

<< <i>It seems kind of corny to rant and rave that I finally found a lighting set up that I like. >>



It's not corny to those of us who've spent thousands of hours imaging coins and trying to get them right.

Russ, NCNE

dbldie55

<< <i>

<< <i>It seems kind of corny to rant and rave that I finally found a lighting set up that I like. >>



It's not corny to those of us who've spent thousands of hours imaging coins and trying to get them right.

Russ, NCNE >>



Or others who still haven't figured it out. (like me)

ellewood

Ok guys...here is the hilarious set up (an advertisement for Ziploc too )

Pic 1

Pic 2

Pic 3

Hard to believe huh? In all seriousness, Russ gave me the best piece of advice a while back...and that was to use a piece of white paper under the coin (has to do with your white balance). I can't take good photos without about 4 or 5 sheets of white paper underneath the slab!

rabbitracks

Thanks for sharing your set up. Will have to see if I can get a stand for the camera, both cameras I have, have a built in stabilizer. I'm not real happy with the pictures sometimes, they are not as clear as they should be, with the stand that should help immensely keeping it stable for steady shot. Mike.

ellewood

Rabbitracks,

The other thing that you need to be sure of is that your camera has a "macro" mode and it needs to be turned on. On my old SONY mavica, the mode is turned on and off by touching the "focus" button and when it's ON, a white flower of some sort appears on my LCD screen. This mode allows the camera to focus in on objects that are fairly close to the camera lense. In my case, the coin is no more than 1-2 inches from the lense.

My everyday digital camera is a year-old SONY powershot (5.1 Megapixel) and even THAT camera does not have a macro feature nearly as good as my old SONY Mavica. You would think that I would be able to take better pictures with a newer camera...BUT THAT IS NOT THE CASE HERE!

RegistryNut

Now that's very innovative. I like it. You think you can retake all those images by this weekend?
Good luck! I hope it goes well.

RegistryNut

ellewood

I wish I could. My wife and I are out of town this weekend for a wedding in Chicago (without our baby girl too). It's tough leaving town knowing that I need to reshoot all but about 4 of my lincolns but I guess it gives me something to look forward to (besides the arrival of my 1954-P!)

solid

Good looking photos, Toby! My old camera was a Sony Mavica maybe a year or so older than yours and it
also had a really good macro function. I have since upgraded to a new Nikon, but haven't yet hit on the
right lighting - it does take time!

Ken

rb7557

Ellewood...Those are some NICE pics. I love your setup! Thought I was the only one that used those cheapy clamp on gooseneck lamps.

It seems kind of corny to rant and rave that I finally found a lighting set up that I like. LIke Russ stated, only somebody who has never tried to take good pic would think this way.

Have you tried using those corkscrew lookin conversion bulbs that put out 100 watts of light using only 30 watts of power? I've had fairly good luck using those, but only the ones put out the "sunlight" type of light. If you ever get $20 you want to spend on 3 of these bulbs, you may want to give them a try using your setup.


Where did you get that copy stand? I've been using a tripod, and its ok until you try to take a shot of an NGC slab. Then you invariably get a shadow cast across the slab from 1 of the legs, and it shows up with a bluish tint.

Great work!

ellewood

rb7557,

Link to the "macro" copy stand is below. No problems at all with the transaction and he shipped VERY quick. I could of sworn that I only paid $9.99 for mine...maybe he raised his price a bit. Good luck with it!

Macro Copy Stand

rb7557

Ellewood thank you for the link, will have to check it out tonight after work.


rb

sonofagunk

all you rich people with your fancy RED lincolns

I found that RB and BN lincolns require totally difference setups. Granted, that the RD seems to be the hardest, have you checked your settings with BN and RB lincolns. Of course I am only asking this to picture my 1943-D RB on copper cent and not my $15 AU58BN lincoln.

Russ

<< <i>You would think that I would be able to take better pictures with a newer camera.. >>



Newer doesn't always mean better when it comes to digital cameras. I use a 7 year old Nikon Coolpix 950 that's only 2.1 Megapixel. I bought it used for $80, and another as backup for $70.



Russ, NCNE

rabbitracks

Ellwood, Thanks for the copy stand Link. Picked the medium stand for my set up. It looks like it will hold the Nikon Cool pix 950 Ok but I'm not sure if it will hold the Mavica 95 as that is a monster of a camera. It has excellent macro capabilities but is a huge camera as it has a great Telephoto lens as well. This has been a
great Thread.

Russ that Photo of your 1909 VDB is Fabulous. Thanks for posting the Picture.

I'll try to post some Pictures later of a couple of nice toners I got back from the graders today.
1916-P Lincoln Cent AU-58 BLUE BEAUTY ( Undergraded IMHO)
1935-S Lincoln Cent MS-63RB Awesome Reverse Colors End Roll Toner
1880-O Morgon Dollar MS-63 Rainbow Toned Reverse (Suprised I thought MS-62)

Have a Play my son is in tonight so will be enjoying his talent on the stage.
He's got the ability to go place someday and hopefully enjoy my hobby trying to inspire him taking him
with me to coin shows. He usually comes away with lots of foreign stuff from the dealers "giveaways".

Later! Mike.

RegistryNut

(besides the arrival of my 1954-P!) >>



You're upgrading your ms65 ?

RegistryNut

Coppernicus

Nice pics! - Both ellewood and Russ. I've yet to master the RD wheats, though I am getting better.

I'd like to get my pics to look like Iras's!! Of course, I'd need good material to begin with!

Sample of Ira

Mike

rabbitracks

Getting the right picture can be a real problem some times. I posted some on the US Forums of three coins that I got back from the graders atBraddocks Weekend Picture post. The 1916 Lincoln is a nice coin much more Blue showing
than the picture shows. The 1935-S lincoln is a Gorgeous Reverse end roll toner that is much nicer than
my picture shows as well. Just can't bring out the colors like I'd like. Have to just keep trying till I get it
right as Ellwood has done.

Mike.

rb7557

I went and purchased a copy stand yesterday, but settled for the medium sized version. Now maybe I can get pics that don't show this nasty blue tint.



I can't stand it when the slabs look half white and half blue. It doesn't show up so badly on the coin itself, but it's there if you know what your looking for. If using a stand gets rid of it, I will happy indeed. Been looking to buy 1 for about a year now. Being a novice with the camera made me hesitant to go out and spend $100-$400 for it (that's like $350 taken from my coin fund). Ellewood thank you for the link, now I will have the stand, and still be able to buy something for the collection.

Next: Learning to take more time when cropping the pics

ellewood

I was just thinking about your blue tint problem. This may sound like a be a very dumb thing...but many cameras come with hologram type stickers on the front of them. I had a hologram sticker on the front of my camera and could never figure out why I was getting a green and red tint to some of my pics. I peeled off the sticker and the problem went away. Hmmmmmm. Who would of thought that????? Check for stickers...maybe thats what's causing your blue tint to show up? Also, put a white piece of paper under your slabs...sometimes that helps out depending on how you have your "white balance" set on your cam...

T

ellewood

You're upgrading your ms65?

Yes. I have been away all weekend and a 1954 was waiting for me to get home from Chicago. Here's a quick pic...but again..I had to shrink it down for this board. I hope to have all of my wheats and memorials rephotographed in the next three weeks. After I get them completed I will repost them in my registry sets. I'm just being picky about the quality of my pics right now..that's why I took them down in the first place!

rb7557

No stickers on my camera, I did have to look to be sure. That is a nice 54! It's always nice to come home to Christmas in April

RegistryNut

That's a great 54! I don't have an ms66 yet.

RegistryNut

ellewood

RegistryNut,

Thanks. I am very happy with the coin. 54 is a very tough date to find but there was something about this coin that really drew me to it despite the small spot on the reverse. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to catch the true luster of this coin in the photograph. I took probably 30 shots of this coin and this is the best I could come up with.

Ok, got a PM from Drddm but I wanted to put a copy of my response to him here as well:

Yes, I took all of my pictures with this mini copy stand. I have an older SONY Mavica camera (yes one of the big ones ) and the camera has to be very close to the coin because I use the macro feature. By close I mean 2 inches or so. Some of the cameras that come out today can be 12-18 inches above the coin because they have much higher resolution (5-8 megapixels). If you have one of these cameras, it gives you more distance to get light between the camera lense and the coin. In my case, it gets tricky because I have to get enough light in between the camera lense and the coin. Like I said, the camera lense is not much more than 2-2.5 inches from the coin. That's why I can get away with the smaller copy stand. Others, like rb7557, have to have a copy stand that is a bit higher...because they can afford to have more distance in between the camera and the coin. My SONY Mavica is only 2.1 megapixels (old school) but the macro feature is what makes it superb for shooting coins. Russ has an old camera too..and I think he said his photos are from a Nikon Cool Pix that is only 2.1 MP. Russ's pictures blow mine out of the water! Lastly, right now I use three lights total...and I think the bulbs I'm using now are 100 watt bulbs. Nothing fancy about the bulbs either. As far as how to set things up...check the post...I posted a few picks of my "rough and ready" set up. If you were looking down over my camera, I usually have a light at 10 o'clock, 12 o'clock and 2 o'clock around the camera. I can't have a light at 6 o'clock because the camera and the copy stand are in the way. That's why sometimes the coin is somewhat darker towards bottom.

ellewood

Uh oh. I think I might have figured out the proofs as well. These photos are 100% raw and have not been altered with Photoshop one iota. Now I think I have to shoot all my proofs over again too. Tried a new format with the cert # on the picture...similar to what PCGS does with TrueView..I sort of like it. Something tells me I'm going to be very busy over the next couple of weeks. It's a shame my new proof arrived with scratches on the rev of the holder.

Coppernicus

ellewood - Have you considered cracking your '49-P and submitting it? If the pic is accurate, it looks to me that it has a good shot at 66, which is a substantial upgrade in the '49-P.

Mike

RegistryNut

<< <i>ellewood - Have you considered cracking your '49-P and submitting it? If the pic is accurate, it looks to me that it has a good shot at 66, which is a substantial upgrade in the '49-P.

Toby,
If you're gonna start crackin your coins, start with the 1965 SMS. Then you can have a cameo.

RegistryNut

ellewood

Have you considered cracking your '49-P and submitting it?

Actually, I have considered it but I have been lazy about sending it in. I'm thrilled to hear someone else say that it MIGHT have a shot at upgrading. Maybe I should give it a whirl!

If you're gonna start crackin your coins, start with the 1965 SMS. Then you can have a cameo

That one is tough RegistryNut. Many people seem to think that the rev is way too light (borderline) for them to give it the cameo designation. However, I am in the midst of reshooting my proofs...so when I reshoot the 65 SMS...maybe I'll get a couple of visual opinions from some folks around here. I believe I made a post about this coin a while back...let me go look for it....oh, here it is:

Here's the post where CameoNut gave me some great feedback

Russ

Here's a recently graded PCGS cameo for comparison:



Russ, NCNE

rb7557

Toby, just wanted to thank you again for the link. I received my copy stand yesterday and played with it for a while last night.
Below are a few of the results. No adjustments made to the first set, and slight photoshop to the second set, but auto color adjustment only.







No more blue tints from the legs of a tripod!!!!!! Need to play with this some more and get it dialed in, but I was amazed at how such a simple tool made so much of a difference. Now, I will probably have to start over on the pics I am still working on for the regestry.


This last one is for your copper fetish!!!