Taking Photos

atarian · March 15, 2011 3:51PM

Well Im gonna go shopping for soft lights so i can angle them instead of going head on at the coin from the top ( to hopefully cut down on glare on the cents). Dimes that are a few years old are looking good with the felt. Does cut down glare a lot here are some pictures from my set up.

0.7

1.5

2.5

3.0

The glare on the cents are still too bad for what i want to do BUT new lights can fix this. I still cant believe the pictures are this good with nothing more than a microscope and a cell phone BUT if thats what is needed to get the job done I will continue to think outside the box. Ideas suggestions and criticisms are welcomed.

DUIGUY · March 15, 2011 4:07PM

Your on the correct track!

atarian · March 15, 2011 4:31PM

just gotta figure out the best lights and angles for the cents. Hmm Ill be doing some searching on the board here tomm for ideas but any ideas here on what im doing now. Any suggestions or tips?

MikeInFL · March 15, 2011 5:15PM

Have you tried to diffuse the light a bit? In my experience, it will flatten the lighting and should cut down "glare" you describe. You might try something like a piece of paper between the light and the coin to see if the effect is positive in your situation. Just a thought I wanted to share after reading your post....Mike

Frankcoins · March 15, 2011 6:03PM

I can often kill glare by moving my hand in front of the light source and using my fingers as shutters....

GrumpyEd · March 15, 2011 6:29PM

You can use paper or fabric to diffuse the light. Be sure it doesn't become a fire hazard if you leave it on.

ricko · March 15, 2011 11:43PM

Those pictures are far better than mine....

Cheers, RickO

lkeigwin · March 16, 2011 12:16AM

<< <i>just gotta figure out the best lights and angles for the cents. Hmm Ill be doing some searching on the board here tomm for ideas but any ideas here on what im doing now. Any suggestions or tips? >>

Look around here.
Lance.

messydesk · March 16, 2011 12:37AM

I have a fluorescent ringlight attached to my microscope that I use most of the time. While it tends to be very flat light, I have a business card taped over about 1/3 of the area of the light, which gives me more depth. I occasionally use "finger collimators" like Frank mentioned, especially when shooting shallow clash marks. While fingers can affect the color, I almost always convert my microscope pics to grayscale, anyway, as the presence of color and color noise can distract from the details you're trying to see. If you convert to grayscale using the channel mixer instead of simply doing an RGB to grayscale conversion, you can eliminate color channels that are most affected by uneven toning. For example, if you have blue toning spots on a white coin near die doubling you are trying to shoot, the red channel will show these spots being very dark, while the blue channel will show them to be more faint. Another benefit of using the channel mixer is that you also eliminate some of the color fringing you may have in the picture if your optical chain isn't perfectly corrected that will make a standard grayscale conversion blurry. In doing so, you end up with a sharper picture. But I digress.

mgoodm3 · March 16, 2011 1:06AM

Lighting for microscopes dpesn't need to be complicated. Just need to get some light on the subject and for me it should be somewhat directional. I tend to just put my Ott light on its side near the objective. Diffused light is best in general. I would stick to cool lights such as fluorescents when using microscopes since the light tends to be up close and personal.

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