I am more of an old time in age and collecting coins of that nature. I am retired now and can get back into the hobby I loved some much for decades. It aso takes my mind of the neurological issues and pain I suffer from a severe trauma fall. I started not too long ago ordering mint rolls for Kennedy Halves from Uncle Sam. I just opened some rolls after a while and found some of the D coins to have super finishes. Not the find of all times but just interesting how they compared to the other rolls of Kennedy's from 2015 and 2016. I compared tone of these coins from the gem roll to other coins from just opened rolls in the photos. By the way I am not a professional photographer and shake due to my medical conditions so the pictures may not be of the greatest quality. The coins do not have that yellow appearance or the greenish hue around the peripheral as the photo shows. I enjoy reading the posts on the forums here. Best wishes to all. Stephen
The pictures look good. Thanks for the post! At least when your retired and play with coins; Time is Money!
Thank you, I just got one of he newer cells and have had it about 8 weeks so I am still learing light angles, type of lighting, background of coins, etc.
Couple easy tips: Make the background monochromatic - black, white, grey. That gives your camera the best chance to get the color right, and distracts the viewer the least. The preponderance of blue in your current background is probably what's causing the yellow/greenish patches on your images. One coin at a time when you can, although for this thread it's understandable why you'd include both. Your best shots come when you're directly above the coin, lens plane and coin parallel, because angles tend to distort the appearance of the coin. This is especially important when you want to illustrate doubling or feature locations. Trigger the shutter remotely. Most modern cellphones will respond to verbal commands to shoot the pic, for selfie reasons, or will have a timer. You don't want to be touching the camera when the shutter snaps. Lighting is a tradeoff. The closer to vertical you can get above the coin, and the closer to a pinpoint light source, the better you capture the actual luster. The more diffused and generalized the lighting, the better you'll show all the coin's details. Experimentation is in order here.
Welcome aboard 1953.... Kennedy halves are interesting.... wait until you catch the fever for accented hair Kennedy's.... Cheers, RickO
I have found that the Denver Mint quality on Kennedy's is far, far superior to the Philadelphia Mint.
Welcome to CT! If you're using a cell phone to take pictures, you're already ahead of a lot of your cohort. If you're willing to spend more than a couple of hours concentrating on learning to take good shots, you're already ahead of a lot of everybody, and you'll end up with great results. Pay close attention to @SuperDave's suggestions, along with one he seems to have left out this time: finding a way to prop the phone, like on top of a stack of books, so you don't have to hold it while taking the photos. When you're trying to take extreme close-up (macro) shots, nobody is steady and shake-free enough to get top results hand-held, no matter how young and uninjured they may temporarily be. Again, welcome!