a new bust half and black backgrounds

[MikeKing]

I forget where the post was, and I looked for it, but couldn't find it (duh), but it was about how to make a black background, which I had no idea what to do.

A couple of forum members offered to help me out with this, and I very much appreciate it, but I needed to figure out how to actually do it. And I did. I took the MS Paint program, opened a new space, filled it with black and saved it as a jpg file. I then used that as my background in Photoimpression, in which I pasted the circular cropped coin.

 

So far, I'm not happy with my results. My coins are too dark to look good with a black background, so now I have to figure out how to get my coins to not photograph as dark as they do. I am using 2 incandescent lights and they still come out 'too dark' ...well...too dark for a black background.

 

I also wonder what other colors might be good. Mike Prinz uses a blue kind of background that I think looks very nice. I was wondering about using certain kinds of dark green but will have to search around for the right color.

 

Here's an example of mine where the coin is too dark for a black background...I think...what do you think?

 

 

my feeling is that i'm going to have to start from scratch in photographing these coins....arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

[WinstonWare]

First, that’s a great looking coin I don’t know that the black background is too dark here. There appears to be enough contrast to me, but I have zero artistic talent...ZERO!

 

Why would you have to start from scratch photographing your coins? You can change the background w/o re-photographing all your coins.

[James_OldeTowne]

Over the past six or seven years, I've tried just about every background imaginable, including textured backgrounds. I've always come back to plain old black. Personally, I like your image (not to mention the coin)!

[Amanda]

Nice coin!

 

I like pasting my coins into black backgrounds very much. I don't know if this makes a difference, but I always photo my coins on a black background, too.

 

-Amanda

[supertooth]

Mike-----Here comes an opinion from someone who has not mastered the art of picture taking at all. But, IMHO, your pictures are excellent. It may be a 'tad' dark. But you can see the coin's true color and quality. Do not be soooo hard on yourself. Personally, I like a darker picture as I can tell whether the coin has been messed with better----seems to show hairlines a little better. I'd stick to the darker background---just tweak it a tad.

 

Now, as to my old age. My wife says that I act old----whereas she does not. And she is correct. I feel every one of those 60 years that I will turn on Nov.10th---next week. Sixty, in this day and age is not supposed to be old. But my years have been quite active. It's harder to climb those tree stands than it used to be. Bad to see your 31 year old son friendly chide you in the woods---can't horse around like we used to do when cutting and hauling wood. I can still grab and hold him----but that's because he respects me. You have a nice day. Bob [supertooth]

[NoTwilight]

I agree with what has been said: your picture looks pretty good to me. But here are some ideas to lighten it:

 

1. Do you have the white balance set to "Tungsten" or "Incadescent"?

2. Are you using spot metering--usually a box with a dot in it? This sets the exposure for the coin rather than the white or clear holder?

3. You can try just adjusting the exposure on your camera by 1/3 or 2/3 stop.

4. You can lighten them afterwards in various imaging softwares but I've had limited happiness with this.

 

Good luck,

--Jerry

[Stanley]

I like it , both coin and image.

I also admire your enthusiasm for this hobby.

[SkyMan]

Mike, it looks fine to me, a touch dark but nothing major. Remember, the hobby is about having fun, so if you're going arrrrrggggghhhhh it's probably time to do something else... like shelve the camera for a bit and buy another coin!

 

Pretty coin!

[MikeInFL]

I like the black background (and am partial to them myself), but as others have pointed out the photo is underexposed by about a half stop...Mike

[Bruceswar]

Black or White is what I use all the time works great! Your images look nice.

[MikeKing]

It's amazing what a difference in lighting etc...makes

I looked back at some of these threads and tried center weighted metering, manual focus and not having a grey card just set the white focus for incandescent lighting. Still, with two lights it came out a little dark and I had to lighten it with the software, also cheated a bit and tweaked it with the contrast. Couldn't get the confluent toning to show as in the first photos but where it's more concentrated, it still showed up:

[WinstonWare]

This looks good Mike. Are you happier with it? Really I find both pictures attractive.

[Bruceswar]

I bet the 2nd set of images look much closer than the 1st set.

[MikeKing]

I am happier with it. I think the focus is better, and it's brighter, but still not bright enough.

 

As far as how it looks in hand, perhaps the second one is closer because that coloration shows up the most as it's angled in hand, and only if you tilt it a certain way is the whole surface coloration seen at once.

 

Interestingly thought, there's a bit of a fingerprint I hadn't noticed until I took this shot.