Fitz's Finally Fixing Fotos

As mentioned in the 'snow' thread, my wife gave me some photography equipment so I could help improve my photographs. Unfortunately a new camera was not among them, but a staging area and better lighting. I think I still need to work on my background (I recall several taking photos on a dowel rod to change the focus of the background - I may try this when I get a chance); as of right now I am taking pictures on a green background and erasing them. Some of the green is still in the pictures... And due to some instability in my tripod, I think some of my photos are still a little out of focus (the reverse on the Henry II example...). Anyway, what do you think? An improvement?

Old:

New:

German States, Cologne
Archbishop Philipp von Heinsberg, r. 1167-1191
AR Denier, 3rd type, 18.05 mm x 1.4 grams
Obv.: HITARCH EPICOV, Archbishop with mitre, crosier, and bible seated on lion throne
Rev.: EIACOLONIA PAICHAI, Three towers over wall and gate, likely representing the Cathedral of St Peter, Cologne
Ref.: De Wit 1993

Old:

New:

French Feudal, Aquitaine
Henry II, r. 1152-1168
Bordeaux Mint, BL Denier, 16.57mm x 0.8 grams
Obv.: +hENRICVS REX, cross pattée
Rev.: º+º / AQVI / TANI / ºEº, in four lines
Ref.: AGC 2 (1/a), Duplessy 1030, Roberts 3881, SCBC 8001, (Elias 1)
Ex. R.D. Frederick Collection. Ex. A.H. Baldwin

Old:

New:

Whoops! Got the obverse and Reverse switched in this photo...
French Feudal, Aquitaine
Eleanor, r. 1185-1204
AR Denier, 17.86mm x 0.8 grams
Obv.: + DVCISIT, M above, A below, two cross pattee on either side
Rev.: + AQVITANIE, Cross Pattee inside
Ref.: AGC 9B (1/a), Duplessy 1025 (Anonymous of William X), Roberts 4313, SCBC 8011

The color of the new pictures are more accurate than the old I believe (although I think the color looks a little better in the old...). I'm a little disappointed in the focus of the two Aquitaine coins (They are naturally grainy, but they are still out of focus. Unfortunately that wasn't obvious until putting this together, as the play-back screen on my camera is a little small). Oh well, I will keep playing since school has been cancelled again...

 

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they all look green FN (new pics), i think you should shoot without the green background...maybe black?

 

I have been seeing that too as I look closer at others. I was having difficulty removing a black background from the pictures, hence trying green,

 

It is hard to say without seeing the coins but the green does not look good to me. Are the coins green? Overall, I prefer the old set.

 

I always thought my pictures looked yellow before, so I think the green is slightly improved, but I think you are right, chrsmat...

 

The Aquitaine coins are a little green. Not the Cologne coin though...

 

On my computer the new images look very green while the old look better. But if the green is more true to the coin, then good on ya.

 

I used to replace the background on my coin photos, but it was such a pain that I stopped. Now I use a dowel so that the background is out of focus. I"m not sure there's much difference except that I can now process about 50% more photos in the same amount of time--nice coins look nice either way, crummy coins look crummy either way.

 

When shooting with black I struggle with getting both the obverse and reverse to look the same when the photos are cropped and combined. I can offer no solution.

Keep at it! Memory space is free.

 

Very true - school was cancelled again, but the roads are clear so I might try to get some supplies to make this work.

 

The best way to have exposures match is to use manual exposure rather than letting the automatic camera functions overthink it. The same goes for color balance. Use manual. Some coins are lighter on one side than the other but you can correct that in postprocessing.

 

Check the camera's manual on how to adjust the white balance. On better cameras, you can "teach" the camera what white is under your lighting conditions. Set up your lighting, then snap a pic of a white piece of paper. The camera learns that as white, and then your pics are truer to real-life color.

Also, be sure that the RGB settings on your computer monitor are flat. If you're looking at your images on a monitor that isn't correctly adjusted, you're going to get false readings. Right now, the pics seem overly green.

 

Thanks guys - I have limited white balance settings on my camera. It was set to 'daylight' for the above pictures. Which seemed an approve,ent over the yellow pictures I had under the auto setting. I'll experiment some more today

 

What image-processing software do you use?

 

I forgot a keyword - background. I can't get the backgrounds the same.

 

Sketchbook express - I'm trying to get the photos where I don't need to do post-processing other than removing the background or manipulating the size

 

I'm not familiar with Sketchbook, so I can't offer any advice.

On my home screen the old photos look good and the new ones green. On my work monitor the old ones look pink and the new ones gray. Go figure.

 

Background gray. Processing: Lightroom, Photoshop CC, at least use Photoshop Elements.

Play a game with yourself by taking images of the same coin on different color backgrounds, and the same exposure settings. Remember, copper/bronze coins suck up light. Its the toughest metal to get correct images with. If you master bronze and copper, gold and silver becomes very easy.

Don't use auto settings, play with the light at different angles. All of this depends on what type of camera you have.

Remember that all coins have several surfaces that get photoed at the same time. What you should shoot for is to compromise focal points that give you the best overall photo of the entire coin.

I use a Canon camera that comes with it's own software that allows one to see and adjust settings on a live shoot format. This allows you to adjust exposure time, set white balance, and everything else that gives you the tools for satisfactory results. The goal is to make the coin photo to look like the coin looks like in hand.

The right tools makes any job easier. Good luck, and have fun.

 

Thanks all - still playing and not getting good results. My ultimate goal is to get a good representative picture where I can remove the background and have an image of just the coin which can be laid over any background. Unfortunately gray, black, and white backgrounds make that difficult since my software will remove any similar shades from the picture of the coin. I'm too cheap to buy photoshop, but do have it at work, so maybe I need to play with that once we're back in session...

 

Use a color, like Kelly green, that you are unlikely to see in a coin for your background.

Then don't buy any coins with verdigris.