Coin Reshoots

@chrsmat71, I have been struggling with my photography too, and finally purchased an opti-tekscope. Who knew $90 would make such a difference?

Taken with iPod touch and marco lens



re-shoot taken with opti-tekscope

 

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lQQks professional to me..

 

hey jwt, have you run into this problem with your "light sink" contraption? the coins frequently come out way to bright....



i'm trying to reshoot this one for @Sallent current thread. if i take it in dim enough light that this doesn't happen, the inside of the light sink is clearly visible, which defeats the point.

take the same coin in the same conditions and put it on the floor...



still a fail because of dog hair! LOL! but the color is much better. this is why i've went back to painting the backgrounds.


here's one i did a couple days ago...

 

Not sure if any of this will help but here are some things I tried to overcome:

• too much light in the room. If too much than I skipped the lamp.
• too harsh. I put a piece of regular printing paper on the lamp to diffuse the light.

You lamp may be too close. Hopefully Doug will chime in. Any nice looking photos I've taken were due to his suggestions.

 

Even with the dog hair your Ptolemy is quite nice.

 

If your camera has no exposure controls either for manual exposure or to boas exposure toward underexposure, you are stuck with shooting on gray carpet. Most cameras costing over $50 have one or both of these controls but there are thousands of models. If you do not have a suitable camera, I'd consider buying one or just giving up on the matter. The gray rug is not all that bad but you still could shoot on a plain gray background with the coin suapended over it high enough that you would get an out of focus gray. However you will never get a perfect match of the two sides of the coin using a camera with no manual controls. At some point, it may be necessary to ask if you want better pictures or not. You do not need a $1000 camera but a ten year old model which cost ten times as much then as the same thing today may not be worth the effort.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/nikon-coolp...403085?hash=item5d6db2f48d:g:1f8AAOSwZVlXp128

I do not know if the used camera in the sale above works or not. It may be a complete rip off by a criminal for all I know. However, it is the exact model I bought in 2000, used to take the Failmezger plates and is still working today. It is not anything like as good a camera as I am using now but what I paid $1000 for in 2000 is now worth $26 .... really? On the other hand, most charities won't even accept donations of TV's or computers that cost $1000 in 2000 so that is life as we now know it. I notice some others of the model being sold as not working so don't go buying a camera without care.

The image below was one taken for the book with my Nikon 990.

 

Beautiful photograph! Beautiful coin! Beautiful Chi-Rho!

 

That does it!

I keep saying I'm going to add at least one of those beautiful square shaped Bactrian/Indo-Scythian coins to my collection and it hasn't happened yet.

Before the sun sets today I'm going to do it!

 

I bought a nikon 8700 in the mid 2000's that was quite expensive, but made the mistake of using a flatbed scanner a couple of years later because I thought it was easier to use. About a year and a half ago I decided to go back to using the camera. You can really see the difference.

Scanner

Camera
Although I need to work on my photography skills, the camera images come out much better.
The problem now is that I have hundreds of coins to redo. I don't mind the work, just don't have the time.

 

Blue says: "It is NEVER a 'fail' with dog hair!"

 

No lamp, I'm using sunlight. I tried to turn the sun down, but it didn't work.
shooting later in the afternoon (vs. high noon) didn't help much either.

yeah, i've advanced as far as i can with the camera i have i think. i've bookmarked the camera type you've shown....thanks! i'm still not sure if i'm going to try and improve my photography more...or just stay where i'm at.

Most of the shots i've taken recently have been on that gray carpet with a painted background. for some reason, the pics come out the best on that thing..i've tried several other backgrounds as well.

 

What is the camera you're currently using? I was able to get some very good photo's from my wife's older point-and-shoot after reading the manual and adjusting the white balance, exposure, and aperture. If you tell me what the make and manufacturer is for your camera I'll find the manual.

 

here's the final result of my big ptolemy coin, shot on gray run under full sunlight, post processed a tad and painted background. looks pretty good really.


ogirinal....







new...

 

Well done!

 

thanks!

ooops, i meant to reply to you jwt. it's a little kodak easyshare m530, it really is point and click. i did find the manual online, it has various "modes" (low light, action, macro) but not really much in the way of manual controls so to speak.

 

Oh OK. You absolutely can get very good photos so long as you can adjust exposure, aperture, light, and a timer. My wife's camera was a fancier point and shoot. All of these coins were taken with her camera and edited in Paint:

 

Excellent reshoot @chrsmat71 !!

That's a fantastic tray @Jwt708 !!!

 

Ptolemy and tray are both good looking.

 

here's another one of an apollodotus ii coin.


old...





new, now without cracker crumb....

 

Much better but you missed a couple spots in the painting of the black background.