Most confounding to photog...........A little listen to 'Steven' before you view my ubscoundabiies. [Sorry, musical excerpt removed, as the video came from an R-rated movie and the clip included graphic violence. -Mod.] Cut throat, ugly ababonations..........Please comment on how such miscreants can be improved........
I'm a huge fan of reverse proofs, but much like regular cameo proofs, hate trying to take pictures of 'em. I'm sure somebody must have some suggestions. PCGS's TrueView folks are able to do it successfully, albeit with full, professional equipment setup. Green - while not perfect, I think you've done a pretty great job with your photos.
Your photos are actually quite nice! The reverse proof ASE is a thing of beauty and I would sacrifice my life defending that ideal. Those nickels on the other hand...
Nice photos! When I take mine I use a Canon EF-S AF 18-55mm, on a 10 year old canon rebel xTi. Iso set to 100, I use a 2 second timer on a shutter speed of 1/100". I haven't tried it out with proofs though. I am a bit opinionated about reverse proofs though. Reverse proofs used to be something interesting to own, but now it just seems like a cash grab. 2006 (2019 is close to the same) Reverse Proof ASE was by far the best reverse proof. Given, the 2006's sell for close to $2100 in PR70. These 2020W nickels, I like. It is a premium item if you buy a silver proof set, which most people like me, do on a regular basis. We don't have to go out of our way to buy something The 2017 (2018? whatever.) reverse proof set, nah. No reason for those to be like that. I think the mint originally selled the 2017 for close to $100, and called it limited (I'll find sources for that). Side note: When I got my 2020W Proof nickel, there were these brown spots all over the proof finish
I don’t think the Roosie looks any different than the nickel in terms of attractiveness, but that Kennedy half looks great!
None of the details on the shield on the Kennedy reverse or banding lines on Roosie reverse are visible. Everything looks like a shadow.
These are the best photos I can get on my phone. It's a novel idea but it has moved into the category of money maker for the Mint.
First of all, diffuse the light. A lot. On these coins, all of the detail is on the unfrosted part, so you should concentrate on getting light there. The frosting in the fields is so coarse that they're pretty much unaffected by diffusion. Put another way, they provide their own diffusion, and adding more won't change the appearance. Second, you need to work on sharp focus and keeping the coin parallel to the image plane (film plane in days of yore). The first picture shows what happens when you don't do this. It displays longitudinal chromatic aberrations most visible where there are high points of contrast. Where the coin is too close to the lens, you have a magenta fringe. Where it is too far, you have a cyan fringe. Some lenses show this worse than others. My 105 mm Micro-Nikkor shows this a little and it actually works as a good hint for fine focusing. That your picture shows both tells me the coin and image plane aren't parallel. The ASE obverse shows this effect in the fields, too, because on a much smaller scale, you have some very bright edges throughout the entire coarse cameo finish.
While nothing can probably save the modern Jefferson observers it does look better as an RP and am a big fan of that style of look especially over normal proofs iPhones do a great job with them especially if you aren’t a big photography guy
I've thought that the current Jefferson obverse is just a beginning Hobo Nickel assignment away from being an Alice Cooper obverse. (A "Hello, world" assignment, for those who know what this is.)
I like a number of the reverse proofs, especially the silver eagles and the Kennedy halves. As far as that Jefferson obverse goes, the only thing that would help is a paper sack.
I took @messydesk 's advice and photoged some more shots of the reverse proof Jeff. The jansjo lights were masked with velum to mute the light a bit. All shots taken were done so at ISO 64 @f/5.6, 6.3, 7.1, and f/8 (in that progression in each set). All were taken at -0.7 EV. The first two sets were taken on a black background and the second two sets were taken on a white background.
