Hi all, I'm having a bit of trouble photographing lustrous BU IHCs. Lincoln cents are no problem and a "breeze" due to its deep basining curve (i.e.: reflects more light into the camera lens), but IHCs are minted with a flat surface; thus making it rather tough to photograph any luster, details, or color without making the photo over-exposed and blurry. Anyone have any tips to help photograph these tough critters? -CB
I find the opposite...flat coins are easier for me. Just use 2 lights as high an angle as you can get them to the coin and you should be OK. Add diffusion as needed.
No problem! Here are a few of the same coin I've been recently struggling with -- mind you, they're not edited yet to fix the white balance -- the main issue is the details/luster/color.
Those really don't look too bad at all. There are a few issues that you might be able to fix: - Obviously the lights are just a little too high an angle and are glaring on the coin. Bring them down a bit. This will also help to bring out some luster. Having them as high as you do brings out color nicely but subdues luster. - There is a problem with sharpness. Either the pics are just a little out of focus, or you have the aperture set way too small. Set your aperture around f5.6 - f8 for Cents and you will get acceptable depth of field as long as the coin is flat to the camera. If you are at a lot smaller aperture than this (bigger number) then the unsharp quality may be diffraction. If you are around f5.6-8 already, then you need to do a better job focusing. Are you doing autofocus? If so, it's not working well for you. Try manual if you can. - Composition is a pet peeve of mine. The date on an Indian Cent should be level, which makes the Indian's face point slightly upwards. Remember, the priorities for photography are: 1) Composition 2) Focus (some say this is #1) 3) Exposure
Properly angling the coin will eliminate glare. I agree with ol' green18 that you're on the right track. One thing to be proud of is your photos' color accuracy - something most struggle with when learning the ropes of coin imaging. I have a $1,000+ set-up and I still can't nail the color on some of my coins. It's frustrating at times, but I must remember that I'm still learning. I suggest you have this same mind-set so you don't start pulling you hair out
I can't agree with the comment on color accuracy. The OP shows 5 shots. The first three are blue-tinged, and the fourth is green-tinged. Only the fifth image has correct color, so there's some work to be done on white balancing as well...Ray
I agree that you are on the right track. In fact, they look pretty darn good to me. Some adjustments in software will handle the white balance issue. As far as the blurry issue: Be sure to set your camera setting for "metering" to "centered". That might help. Here are my two cents: -Back those lights off just slightly so they are not shining on the coin/rims. -Give the slab a polish over the area of the coin. This can make quite a difference and will help remove glare. Remember to polish in the same direction as the light. So in your case, polish from 12 to 6. -Do some small, post editing adjustments. Not sure what the accurate color is for your coin, but I think these look pretty good (aside from the light glare, which is solved by moving them away a little bit). I did some very minor adjustments. When shooting through slabs, the first thing that needs to be adjusted in post editing is the contrast.
Thanks all for the tips! Green and MS70: Don't worry -- I always run the photos through PhotoScape before saving them . I only showed the raw ones here to show exactly what my camera is imaging. Thanks for the multiple tips. Your pictures are truly stunning; unfortunately I'm not able to come anywhere near that level because of $ and ability! I'll try bringing down the lights a bit; right now they're at around 1 1/2 ft above the coin. The sharpness is due to the camera. I don't exactly have the funds for an expensive camera; I use a point and shoot 10MP Panasonic Lumix. Hence, the camera has no aperture settings, unless I'm reading the manual wrong! I've tried using a stand and timer to increase the stability; the focus didn't seem to increase much. Composition shouldn't be an issue; I'll just turn the coin a bit. I agree with you. My camera always seems to screw up one way or another with WB, regardless of which setting I use (indoor, natural, manual, etc.). I always run my photos through PhotoScape, which seems to do a very nice job of fixing the WB. The pictures posted prior were raw. Gbroke, you are a magician! Always making less-than-superb photos look amazing. The photos I posted weren't edited yet; I usually bump up the contrast a bit, sharpen it, and darken the photos as well sometimes for super-lustrous coins. I'll try moving the lamps away a bit and polishing the slab. Not sure if my camera has metering/centered settings; I use a point and shoot Panasonic Lumix (10MP). Thanks again for all the help! I'll be posting a few more pictures tomorrow.
