Tell me what you think of these. These are less blurry, and more detailed, I think I am progressing 1911 Before: 1911 After: 1912 Before: 1912 After:
Definitely like the after shots as you've mostly eliminated the hotspots, glare on the slabs throwing off color and contrast and especially on this coins design, you captured the depth of the details with shadow. I just have to rely on you, who can look at the coin in natural light if you feel that the color translates accurately when you look on screen at your photos and compare the coin. Great work!
T$, Definitely like the after shots better as I see improvement in the clarity of the coin especially. Because they are much more clear I'm assuming that you re-shot the photos and didn't just run them through a photo editor. For the 1912, the picture is very sharp and I can see all the details very well. However, it looks like the white balance needs adjusting in both the before and after pics as the PCGS label appears more pink than blue in both images. The adjustment is best done on the camera before shooting, but can also be done with a photo editor afterwards in many cases. Making that adjustment might brighten up that photo a little bit as it's a bit dark and should also make your coin look better as it sort of looks pink now too. Pretty much the same thing on the 1911 photos, the pic is much more clear, but again it's pretty dark. White balance adjustment would likely help here too. When I take photos, they usually come out very dark like your after shot of the 1911, even though I have decent lighting and I think my camera's white balance is set correctly. What I do for slabbed coins is take pictures of all of my coins with a white sheet of paper as a background. That way, when they come out dark I can do my adjustment in my photo editor to make the paper look white (instead of the dark grey it looks w/o adjustment). Doing that generally makes the coin look as it does in hand. Takes lots of practice and I still have a ways to go I think too. Bought Mark Goodman's Numismatic Photography book, but haven't tried all of the tricks just yet. Seems to be a book that would help beginners to experts. Good luck. P.S. The coins are pretty sweet too!!!
Thanks for the tips. The white balance is set the only way it will get those coins looking they way they should. The label picture was taken after I had turned the camera off, then turned it back on, but I didn't have the white balance set properly. I can see what you are saying about that pink coloring to the 1912, this one is actually kind of pink though, the photos get it pretty accurate, and every photo I've ever gotten it in it has been a lighter shade of orange, with some pink color. The 1911 is a little dark, but I took the pics that way to capture the details, and make it sharper, which I think I have done Just gotta keep trying
I have a few gold pieces with a little bit of rose colored toning too. Pretty Like I said, I'd try to shoot a few with the slab on a white piece of paper. Then when looking at your photo, you'll generally know if the color is correct when the paper looks white (and when the PCGS label looks blue). This is pretty easy with coins in NGC slabs as they are surrounded by white already.
Very nice....a great little collection!!!! The "after" shots are just so much nicer. What all did you do?
I got two lighting sources: A regular lamp to go over the slab from the right, then I got my halogen lamp and the neck bends, I bent the neck down to go almost in front of the coin but not quite, maybe a few inches to the left of the coin itself, so there would be no glare on the camera and the slab. So after that I took the pictures, taking the camera at different angles, but working the camera vertically instead of horizontal, as that seems to work better, and no more flash now, that helps A LOT, it makes it so nothing is over exposed or too bright, and gives it a good color. After that I crop the photos, then upload them in photoscape, I crop them again, roundly, so that I have just the coin, and have it in a black background, I do that for the obverse and reverse. Then I combine those two photos, make them into one, then combine that photo with the label, and that is how I make my photos
