Wow! 

Thank you Bob, here is my attempt at photos for this coin.   Not too bad just not as nice as Mark's, his are so much sharper and have a richness that I have not been able to duplicate.

Yours is pretty darn good as well. The difference in the two is probably largely in post processing. Have you bumped up your saturation a tad? His looks like it may have a little brilliance bump too. I could be wrong I am just starting coin photography myself. But I’ve been doing wildlife photography for a long time. 

Thank you sir, true my attempt is not bad but still not as nice, problem is I only have an ages old version of photoshop elements to work with so I'm limited in the amount of post editing that I can do.   I actually think a lot of the difference is in the lighting, he is using some very high intensity lights and I am using just a couple of cheap IKEA lamps.   But having his as a reference now I will continue to work and see how close I can get.     

Are you shooting in manual or one of the auto modes? His appears to be slightly less exposed than yours, which also give it more color depth. Maybe up an F/stop or a little longer shutter speed. As you said it’s trial and error. I certainly haven’t mastered coins yet in the least. 

Always in manual but not in RAW, I can shoot in RAW but the old version of elements that I have will not read/open RAW images.   That could account for some of my difficulties, but I still think most of it is the lighting.

On 12/20/2021 at 8:33 PM, Coinbuf said:

Always in manual but not in RAW, I can shoot in RAW but the old version of elements that I have will not read/open RAW images.   That could account for some of my difficulties, but I still think most of it is the lighting.

If you're dialed in with the lighting and the exposure you don't really need RAW and Photoshop to get good images but it does help. I've never seen an image - of a coin or a person - that couldn't benefit from a bit of global editing.

Mark's Histogram:

Your Histogram

Your image is more like what I normally aim for because I don't like seeing the white core of the slab looking so dark when I know it's white, but I like to goose the histogram to get more of a full tonal range. This is something you should be able to do in Elements to a Jpeg (if you like it. You may not, but I think it helps things pop just a bit more).

Thanks for that adjustment William, yes I can do some adjustments to the histogram in elements.     And that does help some but its not really the color of my photo that I want to improve its the lack of detail; my photo looks flat and lacks definition vs the one Mark took.   His almost looks 3D with the obv portrait popping off the field and all the little details of the rock and hair well defined.   Same with the rev as in my photo the leaves look flat and poorly struck where in Mark's photo they are crisp and fully defined.

I do agree with you that I prefer the insert to look white, since it is white, but maybe I need to focus less on that issue and perhaps that will help me find some settings or lighting that will better bring out the look and details.

On 12/21/2021 at 6:11 PM, Coinbuf said:

 And that does help some but its not really the color of my photo that I want to improve its the lack of detail; my photo looks flat and lacks definition vs the one Mark took. 

Yeah. I see what you mean now that you mention it. Part of that is probably lighting but you also have me wondering what aperture setting or f/# you're using. A lot of times with my VR macro I'm shooting around f/16 to give myself more depth of field and to make sure the whole coin looks sharp, even if I'm not perfectly at a right angle to it. 

Sorry William been busy getting ready for the holiday and did not have a chance to get back.   I cannot say for sure what settings I used for my shot, I actually took that shot several months ago.   But on average I have been setting the f# at 5.6 or 8, I have tried some other settings but have found that with the lens/camera I have this seems to be the best.   But I need to experiment more and perhaps a higher f setting with more light might yield some better results.

Yes f 5.6 is probably too low. 8 or 11 is probably minimum. I was talking to a coin photographer recently and he said he shoots almost exclusively at F 11. Wide open (say F-16) add other issues. Any extreme in the lens will open up another issue, albeit most things are able to be managed. But try going up an F stop or two. His coin photo looks like it used the other elements of the triangle (iso and shutter speed) as yours but an F stop or two up. And I still think he hit the saturation a little to get that toning to show a little more. 

On 12/24/2021 at 10:43 AM, Coinbuf said:

Sorry William been busy getting ready for the holiday and did not have a chance to get back.   I cannot say for sure what settings I used for my shot, I actually took that shot several months ago.   But on average I have been setting the f# at 5.6 or 8, I have tried some other settings but have found that with the lens/camera I have this seems to be the best.   But I need to experiment more and perhaps a higher f setting with more light might yield some better results.

 

I used to use 7.1-8 but had problems with parts of the coin looking soft or fuzzy, even with smaller coins, if the coin was angled at all. So I switched to 12-16 like woods, and set the camera up on the table or a tripod to use longer exposure times. Maybe that could help you too. Your mileage may vary though, of course.

Edited to add, you of course, don't owe me a response at all, timely or otherwise, especially during the holidays, so thanks for humoring my curiosity.

I actually had a few minutes today and played with a higher F-stop, not very happy with the few shots I took though.   Which leads me back to the concerns that my lighting may need some changes or adjustments.   Hoping to have more time later this week to play with it more.

On 12/27/2021 at 7:25 PM, Coinbuf said:

I actually had a few minutes today and played with a higher F-stop, not very happy with the few shots I took though.   Which leads me back to the concerns that my lighting may need some changes or adjustments.   Hoping to have more time later this week to play with it more.

My recent efforts to re-image my 1986 mint set, and some others was done mostly using a ring light on a stand, behind and slightly to the side of the camera, with the coins angled relative to the axis of the lens just a little to get the luster to look nice. I'm pretty darn happy with these, though admittedly some of the final shots are nicer than others and the coin pops more in some than others. But ring lights are cheap, and this is easy to hammer through fast while still getting very solid results IMO.