Plain old straight up Photography 93 Silver Proof Set

JapanJohn

Nothing special here except the camera and this shows what playing around with aperture, exposure and flash compensation will do.

Nikon D300 w/ 60mm macro.

John

DieClash

John, I've been following your posts here from novice coin photographer to date and I think you have "arrived"! Congrats.

JapanJohn

Zero idea if this will help anyone but here's the EXIF. I enjoy the depth I get from holding a piece of regular old printer paper over the flash.

Equipment Make: NIKON CORPORATION
Camera Model: NIKON D300
Camera Software: Adobe Photoshop CS3 Macintosh
Maximum Lens Aperture: f/3.2
Sensing Method: One-Chip Color Area
Color Filter Array Pattern: 754
Focal Length (35mm Equiv): 90 mm

Image-Specific Properties:

Image Orientation: Top, Left-Hand
Horizontal Resolution: 240 dpi
Vertical Resolution: 240 dpi
Image Created: 2007:12:14 20:05:16
Exposure Time: 1/250 sec
F-Number: f/11.0
Exposure Program: Manual
ISO Speed Rating: 200
Lens Aperture: f/11.0
Exposure Bias: -1/3 EV
Metering Mode: Pattern
Light Source: Unknown
Flash: Flash, Compulsory, Return Detected
Focal Length: 60.00 mm
Color Space Information: sRGB
Image Width: 800
Image Height: 460
Rendering: Normal
Exposure Mode: Manual
White Balance: Auto
Scene Capture Type: Standard
Gain Control: None
Contrast: Normal
Saturation: Normal
Sharpness: Normal
Subject Distance Range: Unknown

Other Properties:

Resolution Unit: i
Exif IFD Pointer: 220
Compression Scheme: JPEG Compression (Thumbnail)
Horizontal Resolution: 72 dpi
Vertical Resolution: 72 dpi
Resolution Unit: i
Offset to JPEG SOI: 866
Bytes of JPEG Data: 4048
Exif Version: 2.21
Image Generated: 2007:12:14 22:01:43
Image Digitized: 2007:12:14 22:01:43
Shutter Speed: 1/250 sec
DateTime Second Fraction: 26
DateTimeOriginal Second Fraction: 26
DateTimeDigitized Second Fraction: 26
File Source: Digital Still Camera
Scene Type: Directly Photographed
Digital Zoom Ratio: 1

drwstr123

JJ- Beautiful pic. Mike

ellewood

I can certainly appreciate how difficult it is to photograph a whole proof set. That is without a doubt the best photograph of a proof set that I have ever seen.

Did you remove the plastic to shoot that? Cause it sure looks like you did...

Nice work!

JapanJohn

Nope the plastic is intact. You can see a streak in the lower right corner. I was gonna photoshop it out but it's not that distracting.

John

NeoStar

JJ you have some amazing skills!

JapanJohn

Thanks, but I have to say this one was just about all camera. This D300 is amazing. Especially the white balance. It's pretty new but I haven't had to use anything but auto white balance yet. Nobody else has this white balance thing down like Nikon does.

John

Mesquite

It is true for me, and I see it is true for you as well, that photography adds a real enjoyable dimension to coin collecting. I have found that there are times that I miss seeing things on coins through a visual inspection that show up clear as day on a photograph of that coin. There's been one occasion where I bought an $8 Columbus Commem. off a local bid board, got the coin home, shot it and said ... what? ... Someone had scratched a rather prominent X into Columbus' face on an otherwise not bad looking coin with some color to it. I just flat out missed it because I was focused in on the color and how it would photograph. Taught me that I have to do a better job of really seeing a coin before I make a purchase. As I recall, that was an $8 lesson.

NeoStar

JJ,

Didn't you start with a D70 or D80? I like to buy a camera to shoot my coins but I am not sure I want to spend D300 money (or maybe I do)! What say you?

JapanJohn

I did start in the DSLR world with a D70. Sold it a while back and bought a Canon EOS 20D which I also sold. Then got a Nikon 200D which I need to sell.

I've been doing the pocket cam thing for many years. I had digital cameras before they were cool or good.

John

mgoodm3

Nice pic.

Broadstruck

Very Nice JapanJohn, meet a new hurdle when trying to photograph a proof coin last week for the first time... whole new ball game.

JapanJohn

It was tougher than I thought to get them all halfway decent looking. Had to move it all over the place until I got the lights right.

John