[Ancinets] I built a camera stand (umm...yay?)

Oh man i been struggling with taking pics I'm happy with...these were great tips!!

 

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I'm bumping this thread.

I had a smidgen of extra time, so I took some pics and did a bit of messing around with GIMP. I'm going to try messing around with adding words and other such stuff, but it'll have to wait a few days.


I received this Gallienus from our own JA (along with three other coins), so I wanted to give him a shout out for that.

Hail!

 

That's a mighty fine pic, vlaha. Incidentally, the dealer that sold me that coin claimed it came from the Antioch Hoard of Gallienus. There's no way I can verify that, but it does have the earmarks - high silver content and very little wear, but finely porous.

 

Muahahaha!!!!! I have taken my editing to the next level, text!

 

Nice but I would prefer a less elongated format with the halves closer together and text limited to three longer lines at the bottom. Retaining a 4x6 format allows you to print cheap paper prints (13 cents at Costco) that fit the format most people use.

 

Ah ha, I'll see what I can do.

 

I agree with Doug, I prefer the obv/rev closer together. Nice coin though.......it looks familiar?

 

Better?

 

Doug advocated using a 4x6 format for ease of printing, should that be a goal.
Example:



Your photography is getting quite good!

 

I know I am strange in many ways but I force most of my photos into 2:3 proportions simply because I get prints in 4x6 and 12x18 sizes and my cameras (and most all DSLR's) shoot that proportion. I have extra black at top and bottom of many photos or place letters in those spaces. I also have a stack of nearly a thousand 4x6 photos on paper of my coins (the better ones) most of which I got for free at Costco using coupons they pass out requiring buying 100 prints at the same time.

When I got a Nook I started placing all my coin images on it so I could carry them to shows for reference and avoiding buying duplicates. I discovered it was easier to find the photo I wanted if I put large letters on the images. I do not feel the obligation most of you do to tell everything I know in that space but only label things that are not obvious from a distance. For example, I want dates on Republican denarii which are sorted by date and ruler names on Sri Lankan coins that I barely understand. Neither benefit from having the denomination listed. At one point I was going to start labeling all my new coins and photos but find myself forgetting that. I am not exactly sure how I benefit from the lettering on the Maesa below but it was bought when I was in a labeling mood. I have been doing some new pages for my website and did not want labels on some coins so had to save a cut down version in 1:2 proportions just for that separate purpose.

I agree!

 

I was referring to the images of each side being closer together. As I'm still getting used to GIMP, I am trying to take things one at a time.

Camsa hamida!

 

gimp is pretty easy to use, i've been messing with it a bit. maybe some day i'll retire that old table and buy a real camera. then again...that less money i have to spend on coins if i get a new non-coin stuff. hmmmm..

 

не за что

 

Not coin related, but I'm proud of it, and had to post it somewhere...

 

Ignore the image above.

Another coin from Doug Smith. With this example, the Probus shown in Steve’s Coin/song thread, and another yet to be revealed specimen I took a different approach to photography.

Earlier Doug stated, "Auto exposure cameras try to make everything a medium gray and this works fine when the subject is made of various middle of the road tones. However when the background is tube blackened, the camera will lengthen the exposure in an attempt to bring detail where there is none. That is where you have to override it and tell it to nevermind the black and just expose for the subject."

Keeping this in mind, I did away with my tube and simply used the grey background featured in the original post. I also took the reflective strip idea suggested in post #11 (also dogsmit), but I utilised a hard large size currency holder instead. Then, all I had to do was invest approximately 45 minutes into GIMPing the images.

Volia!

 

45 minutes? Seriously! I never spend 45 seconds on a background. Admittedly, you have more time before you run out of time for postprocessing. I have not used GIMP since I already had Photoshop Elements when I first heard of it but does it not have a magic wand or other cut out tools. I really need to learn GIMP so I can recommend it to kids without resources (or not). I work with school yearbook people who sometimes have full Photoshop (older versions) at school and nothing at home. Rarely is there a school activity photo that could not be improved by some postprocessing.

 

BTW, the reason Vlaha can take such good photos is that he looks at the coins and images and sees what needs to change to make the photo better. It is not a matter of doing it right the first time but being able to diagnose what is wrong and what might improve. Since many cameras show you what the result will look like on the screen before you click the release button, you can skip many wasted shots just by looking at the screen before you take the picture. I never cease to be amazed at how many people just clicking away without thinking, looking and thinking some more.

 

Vlaha, I haven't used GIMP but from what Doug says, you might find Pixlr better. It is quite similar to Photoshop Elements. It has the magic wand tool just like PSE.

http://pixlr.com/editor/

 

Sadly I have to take a ton of shots to get even one right, it doesn’t help that the camera I use can't take focused photos when zoomed.

45 minutes tops for total editing time. I can't figure out how to cut out only the coin from the grey fuzzy background, so I cut out a circle and manually black out the borders. Very time consuming.

 

very nice indeed, i have 2 left hands so.... i'll manage


eric