My first real photo attempt

Siggi,

How about some shots that were not improved with Photoshop or other software. Once I see "effects" I know the digital editing has been done...the question then is, where did it stop? How many marks were removed, how much smoothing was completed, etc. etc. Pictures look great...are they actually better than the coin?

 

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Sure, I just took these pictures 10 minutes ago,

The first thing I alway use is a white piece of paper to help the camera with auto white balance. If you use any other colour the camera automaticly starts adjusting and it can go wrong with blue green or reds. This is not perfect but auto never is. You can see some blue on the paper but using a white background will help conserve the natural toning of the coin. And by the way I never take away scratches from my coins.

This is a none edit shot straight from camera. I only cropped the picture for size.





Here you will see the coin on a background with some purdy effect. Coin has not been edited other then cropping.



Here you willl see how I would have the end resault. Because of the natural lighting and spread it only needs a small amount of brightness and contrast to help it a little.



Hope this answers your question

Siggi

 

The last picture is a perfect example...changing brightness and contrast has the effect of improving the luster of the coin and they appear much nicer than the previous pics which show a more dull finish that does not reflect the light the same way. The raised letters really pop in the last one, but in reality they are not that "contrasted" to the fields of the coin and your "small amount...to help a little" has effectively made these nicer in the pictures than they are in reality. Great pictures, edited to improve the coins appearance.

 

What I'm pointing out is that lighting from natural daylight will give you the best resaults possible for least amount of money. I have tried almost every light, trick in the book and if you have a around two thousand dollars and the space for your set up you can off course do this with with out the brightness button in photoshop. I'm not adding anything to the coin i'm simply adding light to the picture. There for bringing out the luster that's on the coin allready.

If you cant afford photoshop you can use a program called gimp. It's the best freeware around and has almost all the basic features as photoshop

 

So that is why my camera has trouble focusing! Thanks Siggi!

Can GIMP crop round? I just down loaded it yesterday and Im still trying to figure that program out too.

 

A white background will help you focus as it does not look for other points of interest.

Mark do you have macro settings on the camera

 

Yes I do have macro but the camera wont hold a focus when I use it. The photos I posted were taken WITHOUT macro. I'm thinking that the back round may be why as you said. I'm going to get both black and white felt today and try it out. What Canon camera are you using? The SX10IS is a midrange camera from what I can gather, that is the model I have.

 

Thanks for the new photos.

The new photo shows the luster in the fields and the obverse much better. There are not many hits in the fields but the primary area on Liberty's cheek shows a lot of breaks in the luster. Her cheek is important & I'm going to lower my guess to MS62.

I lived on the California side of Lake Tahoe as a year-round resident. Carson City was on the other side of a mountain range from my house. I always envisioned CC dollars bouncing around in the back of a horse drawn wagon coming over that mountain range. It was easy to envision how they could get all banged-up with that transportation environment.

 

The one I use is the SD600, I used to use the Canon 500D but it´s faster to use the 600D, Let me know how it goes with the macro. Dont pull in to close give it some time to focus on the coin and find the right distance.

 

Careful, there.

There's a common conception that a photo captures "reality", and that processing the photo "improves on" or "distorts" that reality. But it's just not so. Every photograph is processed in some way, and every photo is only an approximation to reality.

Your camera adjusts brightness and contrast in its image (subject in some cases to manual exposure and aperture settings). It interpolates image detail across its mosaic of color sensors. It performs sharpening (again, sometimes subject to manual control).

More importantly, your eye does these same things, whether it's looking at an image or an object.

Yes, you can clearly modify an image to make a coin look better than it is. You can also modify an image to make a coin look worse than it is. I would argue that you cannot modify an image to make a coin look exactly as good as it is -- there are too many factors to control, and too many areas of subjectivity.

And, if you choose "not to modify an image at all", you're just leaving those decisions up to the camera manufacturer. Which, unless we all use exactly the same cameras, under exactly the same light, with exactly the same settings, doesn't really make things any more "objective".

 

Well put Jeff, I often wish I could explain things better in English.

 

^^^ This!

 

And, in support of what Jeff has just stated, how many times have you guys taken a photo and discovered something there that you couldn't see with the naked eye? I've discovered things I didn't want to see......

 

Very often a coin goes down in grade when I see the pictures.....

 

Thanks. You do very well; I often wish English weren't the only language in which I could explain things...

 

Ok here is another set of photos, I used natural light as Siggi suggested. I know they are a little out of focus but I do like the lighting. (of course the dust is in perfect foucus) How do I get the dust off of the coins! The proofs are all kept in airtites and I used the canned air to blow them off before the photos were taken. I had no clue there was that much dust! Anyway, these are my favorite modern proofs especially the Irish 10 Euro. I also took photos of the reverses but they would not load after resizing? Why is that?

Thanks for all the opinions and all the help!
Mark

 

Here is the obverse of the morgan, I just noticed you can only upload 5 attachments thats why the other would not load

 

Bravo Mark, You are getting there. I really do love the lighting as it gives that natural colour and tone to the coin.

Just work on the macro, You will get better at it. I often take 5 pictures of the coin as sometimes you cant see if it´s out of focus. As I say just work on it and you will get there.

Questions
Did you take the top cover of the airtites ?

Have you cleaned the lense, If it´s dirty that will effect the macro as it´s focusing incorrectly on dust and grease ect.

Siggi

 

Thanks Hobo, I will try that as well!

 

Thanks for all your help Siggi. I think I'm on the right track now thanks to you and a couple others! I think I'm on the right path, now it is a matter of refining the process
:hail: