I finally purchased a copy stand and have been practicing on improving my photograph skills. If you would please provide me with your opinions. I am using "Otto lite High Definition natural lighting" bulbs and I am only croping the pictures using photoscape. Thank you
Here is another Thanks for the comments, here is another for your review. I have spend a week hopefully finding the correct way to set up my camera. My camera is Canon Powershot A590.
Your photos look great. One of our members once told me that it is not important that your photos look good. It is most important for your photos to look like the coins. If your photos look like your coins in hand then you are doing a great job with your camera set-up.
Good point. I have a feature in my imaging software (Fireworks) called "Auto Color > Auto Levels" that I have to apply to every picture I take of a coin. It really does work well and makes the coin look more like it does in hand.
My camera is Canon Powershot A590IS 8mp, using a manual setup, manual corrected white balance, macro setting, no flash and set for 2 sec delay. The keys imho to my set up was setting up the white balance and using the "Otto lite" natural lighting bulb.
Pretty darn good! The first shot is very, very nice. The second shot need a bit of light tweaking to even out the light and show the luster a bit better, but overall very good.
The coins look just like the photos in hand. I did nothing to the photos except to crop them. I am trying to accomplish the best photos without using any enhancements except cropping.
Yes I was thinking the same thing. I am using a single lamp setup and for coins that have luster perhaps should use a two lamp setup. Would that help? I am still having to work on some adjustments for taking pictures of copper coins and think the two lamp setup would work there better also.
I see that camera has a reasonable price tag. Good to know. I have been wanting to upgrade from my 5MP cameras, since I started taking pictures of coins. Anyone else have recommendations for a quality camera for a reasonable price? I'd like to do some comparison shopping.
Good looking pics there Farstaff. Using Photoscape you can also slightly rotate a pic (do before cropping) to align the coin details vertically. Use the circular arrow button just above the CROP button.
PennyGuy Thanks for the tip. BTW: I still am going to be posting the copper 1864 2 cent piece pictures you reviewed on another site, once I have my copper pictures taking skills down correctly. Copper coins appears to be a completely difference setup
very good pics. I'd like the images to show a higher resolution. Good luck with copper! I periodically search for threads that might contain photos of various coin collectors camera set ups and other info. I find tidbits everywhere. It would be nice if there was a section for photography and software - maybe a technical section? Or maybe just a thread, "Post a Pic of your Camera Set Up"? I also started about a year ago with a lot of with a point and shoot and a lot of trial and error. I taped a loupe onto it, then found out I needed a tripod, then I found out I needed a camera with a timer, then found out I needed a super macro, then I found out it was hard to get the whole coin in focus, then found out my lighting was wrong, on and on and on..... those of you who have been down this road, you know what I am talking about. For anyone wanting to improve your photography skills or figure out how to take good pictures. Get Mark Goodmans book. Numismatic Photography. His website is http://coinimaging.com/