Please critique my coin photography

pendragon1998 · January 28, 2008 6:19AM

I'm working under new lights - a pair of 70w Phillips halogena 'energy saver' lamps (each supposedly equivalent to a 100w incandescent lamp, which I agree with). They produce a somewhat yellower light than my old standby Phillips Natural incandescents, but my camera's custom white balance seems to get along with them a little better. Only caveat is that when I plugged them in and lit them, I got a strange chemical odor which persisted for a good half hour when I stopped shooting due to mild nausea from the smell. I hope it goes away. Nothing in my lighting fixtures or under the lights seems to be overheating, so I can only assume it's something on the bulbs. Very strange.

Anyway, would anyone care to critique my shots? I just got this PCGS MS66 1943-P wheat cent and I'm having fun dealing with it's somewhat challenging brilliance. I'm having a little trouble getting the hair not to blow its highlights (no pun intended). A little time and It'll get done, but for now, what do you think?

STONE · January 28, 2008 6:25AM

I think the picture is very good.

I think the only problem is getting the sharpness of the image through the plasitc slab.

rgCoinGuy · January 28, 2008 6:27AM

I think it is a nice photo with great details, but the coin appears to be the same color as the holder, maybe a little white balance post photo adjustment could be made for that? You may try a red wheat to add to your post for some contrast.

pendragon1998 · January 28, 2008 6:27AM

<< <i>I think it is a nice photo with great details, but the coin appears to be the same color as the holder, maybe a little white balance post photo adjustment could be made for that? You may try a red wheat to add to your post for some contrast. >>

There's white paper behind the holder - perhaps that's what you're seeing. I think I've got my white balance pretty decent (at least on this monitor).

doh · January 28, 2008 6:27AM

Pretty good. Nice detail. Seems a touch dark though

Edit: Why would you put white paper behind the coin? That would wash anything out...especially a steel cent. I use my black mousepad as a background and it works very well.

rgCoinGuy · January 28, 2008 6:34AM

It could be my monitor too! It's just a lot of grey to be trying to critique with suggestions

, still I think its a nice pic...

pendragon1998 · January 28, 2008 6:43AM

<< <i>Pretty good. Nice detail. Seems a touch dark though

Edit: Why would you put white paper behind the coin? That would wash anything out...especially a steel cent. I use my black mousepad as a background and it works very well. >>

I put down a piece of paper just so that my slab wasn't rubbing on my desk, possibly scratching up the window on the other side. I shoot in manual exposure mode with custom white balance, so it doesn't matter what is around or behind my coins; a piece of white paper might be over-exposed and a black mousepad might be under exposed, but because I usually crop out my coins when I'm done shooting them, I just use the proper exposure for the coin surface and ignore the surroundings.

What you said might be true if you were shooting in some sort of automatic exposure mode, but not for manual.

JapanJohn · January 28, 2008 6:46AM

Looks awesome to me. Lay some camera details on us. I tried to peek at your EXIF but it's not there.

John

pendragon1998 · January 28, 2008 6:57AM

I'm shooting with a Nikon D70 with a sigma 150 mm macro lens on a short desktop tripod.

JapanJohn · January 28, 2008 7:06AM

Wish I'd have never sold my D70. 20 years from now it'll be regarded as the first successful consumer DSLR that started it all.

John

pendragon1998 · January 28, 2008 7:15AM

It's a great camera, no doubt - but it does have some missing features that I wish I had. There's no mirror lockup function. There's no cable shutter release (there is an IR release, but you have to buy a separate remote and the IR sensor is on the front of the camera, making remote releases for, e.g., wildlife photography, difficult). The custom white balance feature leaves a little to be desired (it's about 90% there). There's no native feature to plug in your camera to your computer for remote operations, although you can buy a program from nikon to do that. Also, the AF sensor (like in most other cameras) is useless for macro work.

Lots of complaints, but it's still a very, very solid camera for the money. I plan on using it for many more years, until it's really obsolete and the amazing Cameras Of The Future are dirt cheap. Maybe one day we'll be taking holograms of coins

Now, back to my photos - anyone else have critiques?

mgoodm3 · January 28, 2008 7:58AM

Most of the time you will blow a few highlights in order to get a nice looking image. That's kinda what highlights are.

Pics are a little less sharp than I'd like. It looks like you are shooting at f18. The images will never be sharp at f18. Try f8.

drwstr123 · January 28, 2008 8:10AM

Very nice pics. I have a silmilar difficulty in consistancy. Notice the difference in the brightness of the two pics as to the slab background. Love the double die break on the right wheat ear. Mike

tightbudget · January 28, 2008 8:13AM

Excellent!

23Pairer · January 28, 2008 8:18AM

Pick up an 18% gray photo board from a camera shop, I got two for $10....Use it to calibrate your WB for custom shots, although the slab will always give you fits.

I was thinking of cutting various size holes in the board for each coin type, building a custom jig for the slab to slide into, thus masking much of the plastic.

pendragon1998 · January 28, 2008 11:03AM

Here's a new photo that I think captures the coin a little better. I'm still not happy with the lighting, though. I think that the deep dish under the rim at the top of the obverse calls for a third light - nothing fancy, but something to cast a little light on the motto. Otherwise, aside from the slightly soft focus I'm plagued by, I like this one okay. I'll continue working on it tonight.

As for the color, this coin is simply blast-white steel-colored (actually zinc-colored, if you wanna get technical) There's virtually no color to capture.

As for the holder - Hopefully at some point this coin will be out of the holder and into a multiholder for the 1943-P date/mint set I'm working on. For internet display, I always mat the final images of my coins anyway, so the holder won't show on the final product.

The latest picture:

pendragon1998 · January 28, 2008 11:39AM

And the reverse:
The latest picture:

lordmarcovan · January 28, 2008 3:03PM

Pictures look great, and here's a public thankyou for the gift holey 1-1/2d. I put it on the vest, and wore it to the Macon show Saturday, and out of all the cool stuff on the vest that should have drawn people's attention, one lady singled out the little coin you had sent me to comment on; how it was tiny and really neat. It is the second smallest coin on the vest, only slightly bigger than the South American 1/4 real that is my smallest holey.

Please critique my coin photography

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