Tell us your photo tips and hairbrain ideas!!!

[bsshog40]

I didn't want to take over zoins thread anymore and I noticed people have tips and tricks here for photographing. So I thought, give us your tips, give us your ideas for better pics, and give us your tricks. I have one to start that I'm gonna experiment with here in the next couple days. We all know that proper lighting is essential. Well I only have one lamp. It is a circular florescent lamp that has a magnifying glass in the middle of it. I'm gonna take out the glass, which will leave about a 4" opening in the middle. I should be able to set this around my coin, place my lens in the middle of this and the round florescent light "should" have no problem distributing light evenly aorund the coin??? Here is the light that I have, $25 lamp. Ya thinkit will work?

[EZ_E]

I had good results from a quick shoot once by placing the slabbed coin on an end table angled slightly to the wall about 18" away, with my OTT light actually focused on the white wall. This allowed indirect lighting to be reflected back to the coin. My camera was on the tripod and angled perpendicular to the coin. The results were very sweet indeed.

 

[bsshog40]

was this an Unc. or proof picture?

[WaxonWaxov]

gotta be uncirc

[bsshog40]

That's what I'm thinking.

[EZ_E]

was this an Unc. or proof picture?

 

Reverse Proof

 

Here's the uncirculated:

 

[WinstonWare]

I received this old copystand from my stepfather. While I agree with those that say that a copystand isn’t necessary for good photos, I do think it makes things a whole lot easier.

 

[Stanley]

I’m no expert.

My lowly Sony Cybershot 5.0 Mega Pixels MPEGMOVIE VX DSC-P92 cost around $400.00 new at Walmart a few years ago and I believe it has been discontinued. For the type of camera it is it takes effortlessly fantastic pictures outside. Images inside take more effort. Small objects such as coins even more. Finding a set up that works consistently has been challenging.

Hopefully someone can get some ideas from my post which they can apply to there imaging.

 

First I want to post an outside point and click image incase there is any doubt as to this cameras capabilities.

Note: resizing the image for this post greatly reduced the image quality.

 

 

For the small stuff here is a set up I stumbled across last fall.

My kitchen is by most standards large, but more importantly there is a lot of outside indirect light. One window on the north, an entrance door to the east, a doorway to the den on the south which is of no lighting benefit, an arch to the west leading to the living room where there is large picture window. I can actually close doors and adjust blinds to adjust my lighting if I want.

 

The location I discovered to be most consistent for me was the top of my porcelain white Electric Range.

 

 

 

[nwcs]

A few tips:

 

1. Use at least two light sources

2. Lightly diffuse the light (tissue paper works great -- beware of heat problems!!)

3. The lights should be as perpendicular to the coin as possible

4. Avoid sunlight, it's very harsh lighting, except on cloudy days

5. Spot metering the highlights and placing it at EV+2 will quickly show you the imbalance (if any) of your lights on the coin surface

6. Use f/8 to f/10 for aperture

7. Stablize the camera, this is very important for sharp pictures. Try to make sure your shutter speed is either over 1/10s or below 1/2s to deal with mirror slap unless you're using mirror lockup and a cable release.

8. Don't use the fancy saturations that are applied by the camera. A normal tone curve and normal saturation represents the coin correctly.

9. Avoid hot spots (areas where the light reflected overwhelms the detail of the coin)

10. Avoid ring flashes, it produces an unnatural look. Two diffused point sources work better.

11. Keep lighting to the same type of bulbs when possible

12. Always remember to set your white balance

13. You don't have to fill the frame with the coin to get a good picture. Sometimes being a little further away can really help.

14. Beware of glare. You can do that with light positioning and adding black velvet to surfaces being reflected on the plastic.

[66rb]

I got a hairbrainer for you. I have a few slabs that are very scratched up, and I have been unable to polish away the scratches.

What I thought of doing was to lay the slab down flat on the copystand and carefully put a few drops of water on the slab directly over where the coin was in the slab. Due to the different focal distance caused by the drops of water I did have to refocus the camera, but it worked like a charm, as the slab was now crystal clear, and no evidence of the scratches were visible.

They did reappear after getting a paper towel and soaking the bit of water up off of the slab.

[EZ_E]

Great idea!!!

[nwcs]

Of course the water adds some distortion and magnifies the surface a little...

[WaxonWaxov]

I got a hairbrainer for you. I have a few slabs that are very scratched up, and I have been unable to polish away the scratches.

What I thought of doing was to lay the slab down flat on the copystand and carefully put a few drops of water on the slab directly over where the coin was in the slab. Due to the different focal distance caused by the drops of water I did have to refocus the camera, but it worked like a charm, as the slab was now crystal clear, and no evidence of the scratches were visible.

They did reappear after getting a paper towel and soaking the bit of water up off of the slab.

 

now THAT'S a good idea!

 

[bsshog40]

I got a hairbrainer for you. I have a few slabs that are very scratched up, and I have been unable to polish away the scratches.

What I thought of doing was to lay the slab down flat on the copystand and carefully put a few drops of water on the slab directly over where the coin was in the slab. Due to the different focal distance caused by the drops of water I did have to refocus the camera, but it worked like a charm, as the slab was now crystal clear, and no evidence of the scratches were visible.

They did reappear after getting a paper towel and soaking the bit of water up off of the slab.

 

Amazing what tips we may be able to gather here. That's a good one!

[bsshog40]

Ok, here are the results of the desk lamp with the magnifying glass removed and the coin placed in the middle of the circular florescent light. What ya think?? By the way, the spots on the washington are on the washington.

2006 Proof SE

1959 washington. Was told this was not a cameo???

[66rb]

Of course the water adds some distortion and magnifies the surface a little...

 

nwcs...this is correct. The magnification isn't a problem at all, easily overcome by backing the lens away from the coin a little bit.

 

The distortion should not be hard to minimize. The trick I used was to put a little more water than what would cover the area of the coin,

so that the edges of the 'bead' of water were well away from the edge of the coin.

 

 

Those are fantastic photos bsshog!!

[bsshog40]

 

 

Those are fantastic photos bsshog!!

 

Thanks, now I have to find me a circulated coin to shoot to see what kind of detail I can get with that. I think the proofs turned out decent myself. I did catch part of my camera lens in the rev of the SE though. Gonna have to watch that.

[rrantique]

WOW Bobby great photos

[MunkyMan95]

1959 washington. Was told this was not a cameo???

 

It's not a cameo.

 

Those are nice high-quality photos there Bobby,

[bsshog40]

The cameos have a frost on the designs I'm finding out. Wish it didn't have those pitiful spots tho". Thanks Chad.

[IrishMike]

My hairbrain idea is to read and become fully knowledgeable with your camera's manual. I know this is a novel idea but there is no quick substitute for it. Mine also came on a CD and until I spent many hours studying it as I played with the camera I was barely proficient.

[al_e_gator]

My hairbrain idea is to read and become fully knowledgeable with your camera's manual.

 

That goes waaaay beyond hairbrained ... that's just plain insane!!!

[bsshog40]

My hairbrain idea is to read and become fully knowledgeable with your camera's manual. I know this is a novel idea but there is no quick substitute for it. Mine also came on a CD and until I spent many hours studying it as I played with the camera I was barely proficient.

 

Mine or yours?? I have went thru every menu and setting in my camera to try to figure things out. I used to only take basic pictures with an old Canon T90 35mm. I had canon rebuild it a few yrs back when I bought it from a pawn shop for $35 and it didn't work. It takes great pics now but the only lens I have for it is a 75-200mm. I'm getting better with my new canon I think, but I know they do take time.

[nwcs]

Well, one thing that can really help is reading Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson.

[bsshog40]

Well, one thing that can really help is reading Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson.

I think you're right. I usually take about 4 different pics and different exposures because it don't always look the same on the PC as it does in the lens viewer.

[Fergie]

My hairbrain idea is to read and become fully knowledgeable with your camera's manual.

 

That goes waaaay beyond hairbrained ... that's just plain insane!!!

 

 

IS SO funny, man.... my brother is a Proffessional auto mechanic (25 years or so)and reading the instructions is many times his last resort !

 

And I also bought a camera without the instructions at the pawn shop.

[bsshog40]

Believe it or not, I actually went thru every page in my manual to see what interested me. I can tell that the section explaining what f/# (aperature) meant must not have interested me.

[nwcs]

That's why I recommend that book. It helped me finally get over the hump in learning how ISO, aperture, and shutter speed relate. As far as having to take multiple pics...

 

Calibrating your monitor is a must in order to get good results. And if your picture taking is not using standard srgb color space then web images should be converted to srgb since most browsers are not color management savvy. If it doesn't get converted, it can appear differently than you intend. Same can happen with an uncalibrated monitor.