Whatcha' think of the mint band running through her face?

bolivarshagnasty

Recent newp. Trying to flood light in that lower area left of the date but the purple just isn't having it. Any suggestions?

Unknown

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BryceM

It's pretty tough to lighten up that area without over-exposing the un-toned part of the coin. I'd try positioning a bright light at a high-angle near 7 o'clock and two dimmer lights at 2 o'clock and 10 o'clock. I'd then try to mask the lights a bit to knock down excessive glare in the white area. Play around a little. I think with this one the image you've posted is too dark overall. Nobody cares about the white part of this coin. If it ends up being a little burned-out to show the color, most people wouldn't complain.

AUandAG

Tough one, just sell it and be done.

bob

lcoopie

Use software and increase your shadows

lcoopie

<< <i>Recent newp. Trying to flood light in that lower area left of the date but the purple just isn't having it. Any suggestions?



Shadows increased

bolivarshagnasty

I went back and took another photo but lcoopie nailed it. Thanks. Sooo, what software did you use? I tried the Microsoft editing software on my computer, but it doesn't allow me to increase
the lightness in a specific area. More info. please???

lcoopie

I did it on my iPad with the free Photoshop express software app

It's a breeze to do with photoshop or Lightroom as well

The shadows are the darker areas and the software lightens those areas selectively

bolivarshagnasty

Thanks! Can you tell me if Lightroom has circle cropping capability?

vibr0nic

I like it. At first, the toning has the appearance of a classic crescent shape, but actually there is a little more angularity around the edges. The waviness of the toning around the "E" and the star below it also caught my eye. Nice coin with an interesting toning pattern.

lcoopie

Lightroom doesn't have circle cropping but it is very easy to use and very powerful for photography

It can crop in squares or rectangles

Cam40

Super nice! Your pics aren't too too bad. I think most of us can get the jest of what it looks like.

oih82w8

First thing I thought of (without reading your post) was Zorro!

bolivarshagnasty

Does anyone know of a software package that will circle crop as well as adjust shadowed areas as lcoopie has done? I want to purchase something so I don't download all of
the hidden crap in the free software available such as photoscape.

lcoopie

Photoshop elements

SeattleSlammer

<< <i>Super nice! Your pics aren't too too bad. I think most of us can get the jest of what it looks like. >>




+1

lostincoins

The free canon photo editing software has the circle cropping

Broadstruck

I use PhotoScape which can be downloaded for free and is pretty simple to use

bolivarshagnasty

Thanks BS, but my security setup won't let me upload photoscape. It's just as well as I believe it caused a lot of issues on my old computer. It was about the time I uploaded the free software, that
I noticed a lot of programs I didn't recognize running in the background. I'll buy photoshop element 12 and hopefully circumvent any hidden crap.

messydesk

Selecting the shadowy area with a lasso tool with a highly feathered edge and then lightening that part up is the recipe for this coin, as lcoopie shows, although he must have started with a different picture than the one I see in the OP. This is one situation where HDR is almost useful for coins. If you want to light up the date, put the lights at 11 and 3. Since you have a lot of color and luster, diffuse the lights a little, tool

lasvegasteddy

sweet example there...i love how clean it is where that surface stuff has taken over

with any luck you'll dial it in and bring us that purple too

i do like those flowing bands and how the blast white area is clean and all sparkling...pretty

brg5658

<< <i>Bump your iso up a notch or three. >>



This is bad advice. You should leave the ISO alone...

Sometimes when a coin is blast white in one quadrant and near terminal black toning in another quadrant there isn't much you can do.

Fiddling with things like HDR or "focus stacking" but only changing your lighting/exposure locations will work to lighten up the dark areas, but then "fiddles" with the reality of what your camera catches in one shot. I don't really see any big problem with the originally posted image.

bolivarshagnasty

<< <i>Selecting the shadowy area with a lasso tool with a highly feathered edge and then lightening that part up is the recipe for this coin, as lcoopie shows, although he must have started with a different picture than the one I see in the OP. This is one situation where HDR is almost useful for coins. If you want to light up the date, put the lights at 11 and 3. Since you have a lot of color and luster, diffuse the lights a little, tool >>



Messydesk, Thanks for the advice. The coin pic in the original post is a later photo after lcoopie had processed the original. I had inadvertently deleted the original pics.

messydesk

<< <i>Fiddling with things like HDR or "focus stacking" but only changing your lighting/exposure locations will work to lighten up the dark areas, but then "fiddles" with the reality of what your camera catches in one shot. >>


Your camera doesn't catch reality. It only samples it, and then your monitor maps that to something else. You're able to see much more in terms of color and dynamic range than your camera sensor can, so why restrict yourself to what a camera can get in one shot if you can get better realism otherwise?

brg5658

<< <i>

<< <i>Fiddling with things like HDR or "focus stacking" but only changing your lighting/exposure locations will work to lighten up the dark areas, but then "fiddles" with the reality of what your camera catches in one shot. >>


Your camera doesn't catch reality. It only samples it, and then your monitor maps that to something else. You're able to see much more in terms of color and dynamic range than your camera sensor can, so why restrict yourself to what a camera can get in one shot if you can get better realism otherwise? >>



Why? Mostly because I don't want to take 3-5 bracketed images of every side of a coin and then remap them. HDR also doesn't map exactly the way a coin looks to the human eye, so using such methods for any other than artistic reasons mis-represents a coin (unless you very clearly state when you show the image what you have done).

John, I never said that a camera catches reality -- YOU said that. I said using such methods distorts the reality of what your camera catches. Those two statements are very different. What your camera does catch in one image is what people are used to interpreting online to get a feel for reality. Yes, the HDR method is a nice artistic and technical method -- but it must be used sparingly and with 100% transparency to those who are viewing the images. Just my 2 cents...

lcoopie

<< <i>

<< <i>Fiddling with things like HDR or "focus stacking" but only changing your lighting/exposure locations will work to lighten up the dark areas, but then "fiddles" with the reality of what your camera catches in one shot. >>


Your camera doesn't catch reality. It only samples it, and then your monitor maps that to something else. You're able to see much more in terms of color and dynamic range than your camera sensor can, so why restrict yourself to what a camera can get in one shot if you can get better realism otherwise? >>





Well said

messydesk

<< <i>John, I never said that a camera catches reality -- YOU said that. I said using such methods distorts the reality of what your camera catches. Those two statements are very different. >>


I said cameras don't capture reality, not that they do. But since the reality of cameras is that they occasionally don't sufficiently capture reality of your scene in one shot, why not see if a technique like HDR helps? Many DSLRs do this in camera now, and even some smartphones do as well. As I implied earlier, with my statement about HDR being almost useful in this case, there is often little benefit to using HDR that couldn't be realized by simply controlling the lighting, but as it becomes easier to do, there's less reason to simply dismiss it, and this is one coin where I'd experiment so that at worst I could have some results to learn from.


<< <i>What your camera does catch in one image is what people are used to interpreting online to get a feel for reality. >>


I don't know about you, but I'm used to seeing such a wide variation in quality of photographs, that any feeling for reality I get from interpreting an online image usually has a margin of error you could sail an aircraft carrier through.


<< <i>Yes, the HDR method is a nice artistic and technical method -- but it must be used sparingly >>


Any postprocessing, not just HDR, must be done so that the viewer wouldn't notice it. I've seen HDR pictures at art shows wherein the effect was so strong that I could tell the kernel size of the high pass filter used in the level separation step of the algorithm. Nasty.