This was a challenge to photograph and get right....not saying I got it right but I think I came close. Never photographed a proof coin with deep mirror fields....wow, what a pain. Those darn mirror fields reflect EVERYTHING!!! I only went through the pain because it is a cool coin. There were only 375 produced and I have two of them....a family member went there in 2005 and brought them back for me. Funny thing about supply & demand. In the United States, a coin with only 375 minted would have a price through the freakin' roof.....I understand these have a full retail value of about $125.....but good luck finding someone willing to pay $60 each for them.
Greg
"If it's not fun, it's not worth it." - KeyMan64 Looking for Top Pop Mercury Dime Varieties & High Grade Mercury Dime Toners.
Hey Keyman I can come pretty close on all fronts there...1875 gold dollar, 400 minted...and yes the price was through the roof! And, it is is a challenge to photograph also. Seems just when I get the colors/reflections where I want them *ugh* slab glare! What whas your trick for doing the deep pool black fields? The image looks great BTW
As for the photography..... Nikon D300, Nikon 105mm f/2.8 Macro Lens stacked with 2x Teleconverter & a 1.4x Teleconverter. Images were recorded with a custom White Balance for the color of modeling lights on my Alien Bees 320ws strobe that I used as constant light...never used the strobe, just used the modeling lamps. I had the strobe mounted a little higher than the camera and slightly off to the right on a light stand. I had the camera mounted on another tripod and I used a remote trigger for the camera so I would not have to deal with camera shake when pressing the button. Everything was done near my eye level. I stood the coins up against some books on a book shelf....no reason to kill myself and break my back like some people think they have to do. I also draped a black fabric over everything to prevent the distracting reflections of.....EVERYTHING!....if you want the mirror to reflect black....make it do just that.
Captured at ISO 200 (not sure why I didn't use ISO 100...just not paying attention I guess...same settings from a previous day) f/22 Exposure was in the neighborhood of 10 seconds depending upon the shot.
I then used Adobe Photoshop CS4 to put the final images together....and do my best at editing.
Probably way more info than you wanted...sorry. I know some people get good results with a bit of planning and a macro mode on their point and shoot cameras but I am not familiar with that. What I did was probably overkill....but I'm happy with it....although there is still a good bit of room for improvement here. The circle field just around the ship is supposed to be gold in color like Elizabeth II's Head but....I kinda screwed it up a little.
"If it's not fun, it's not worth it." - KeyMan64 Looking for Top Pop Mercury Dime Varieties & High Grade Mercury Dime Toners.
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<< <i> Image courtesy of our own Shylock.... Love this one!
>>
That's way cool. I will try to post something here in the next 12 hours or so...
Looking for Top Pop Mercury Dime Varieties & High Grade Mercury Dime Toners.
God Bless the Men & Women who stand up for our freedom so we can drop to our knees and pray for them!
Tears and sorrow for the ones they left behind.
Happy Memorial Day.
unable to identify this, it seems appropriate for this thread today.
Greg
Looking for Top Pop Mercury Dime Varieties & High Grade Mercury Dime Toners.
As for the photography.....
Nikon D300, Nikon 105mm f/2.8 Macro Lens stacked with 2x Teleconverter & a 1.4x Teleconverter. Images were recorded with a custom White Balance for the color of modeling lights on my Alien Bees 320ws strobe that I used as constant light...never used the strobe, just used the modeling lamps. I had the strobe mounted a little higher than the camera and slightly off to the right on a light stand. I had the camera mounted on another tripod and I used a remote trigger for the camera so I would not have to deal with camera shake when pressing the button. Everything was done near my eye level. I stood the coins up against some books on a book shelf....no reason to kill myself and break my back like some people think they have to do. I also draped a black fabric over everything to prevent the distracting reflections of.....EVERYTHING!....if you want the mirror to reflect black....make it do just that.
Captured at ISO 200 (not sure why I didn't use ISO 100...just not paying attention I guess...same settings from a previous day)
f/22
Exposure was in the neighborhood of 10 seconds depending upon the shot.
I then used Adobe Photoshop CS4 to put the final images together....and do my best at editing.
Probably way more info than you wanted...sorry. I know some people get good results with a bit of planning and a macro mode on their point and shoot cameras but I am not familiar with that. What I did was probably overkill....but I'm happy with it....although there is still a good bit of room for improvement here. The circle field just around the ship is supposed to be gold in color like Elizabeth II's Head but....I kinda screwed it up a little.
Looking for Top Pop Mercury Dime Varieties & High Grade Mercury Dime Toners.