I decided to give my point and shoot camera one last hoo-rah today. I tried to re-shoot my whole entire Sower collection, and the results only came out good on 2 coins. The rest were absolutely terrible, and matched, were slightly better, or were worse than the pictures I already had. I have much confidence that with the new camera, and lens I am about to obtain, that my pictures were greatly improve. One can only go so far with a lower end piece of technology. Anyway guys, here are two coins in which my most recent photos were better than the previous photos. I included another one, in which I got really close, but not close enough. 1916 NGC MS66: Northeast Numismatic Photo 1916 NGC MS66: My Current Photo 1918 PCGS MS65: My Original Photo 1918 PCGS MS65: My Current Photo The next Franc is the coin in which I will continue to use the Northeast Numismatic photo as my primary photo. I did not like the final result of my current photo, but it was a heck of a lot better than my previous attempt! 1919 NGC MS65: Northeast Numismatic Photo 1919 NGC MS65: My Previous Attempt 1919 NGC MS65: My Current Photo I look forward (and dread) re-shooting my entire collection with my new camera, starting with the Sowers. Thanks for looking!
You have been busy behind the camera!!! Even with better photographic equipment, if you cannot match the seller's pics, I wouldn't overlook in many seller pics a little fiddlin' with the color saturation/balance/levels/contrast to make color pop and ensure sales. We recently touched on that a bit in one of Paul's threads, SLQ Photo--Cast your Vote! particularly where he has been trying to achieve results for some time like that of the sellers results.
Well the 1919 is very tricky. I feel with the better equipment I can make better strides than I already have. I think that if I am getting darn close with one coin, and made my picture look better with another, I think I'm doing something right. (Especially since both the 1916, and 1919 came from Northeast Numismatics) The 1918 had bad seller photos to being with, and my original photo wasn't that good either. I think my current photo is better, but not as good as it could be. In reference to Paul's thread, I still like his latest photo better than Anacondas. Not only do you want to make the best photo you can, and try to beat what the original seller had used for his picture, but you also have to like the photo yourself. Anaconda's photos in that situation were just a little too flashy for me, made the coin looked over-edited, almost.
I should also mention that I don't mean to imply that just because anyone may not be able to precisely match a sellers pics photographically, suggesting as I did that a seller may also have done a little (software) adjustment to color and contrast balance to the image file, doesn't mean I'm saying that such a seller is unjustly or deceptively juicing their pics. It's important to remember that we each use different types of bulbs, camera settings, lenses and that the finished product, the image file, is viewed on many different monitors of differing calibration, none two the same.
Those pics are not bad for a point and shoot. But more importantly those are all great coins. Non modern/proof world rainbows are TOUGH to find!
And when you do find them, they are gone fast. I just watched two beautiful Sowers fall through my fingers. One was around $50, and today I got the money to pay for it, and of course, it sold! The other want was way more expensive as it was a real monster, sold in the $200's. Hopefully I can continue adding more Sowers to my fast growing toned set. Thanks for the comment!
I love the sowers and as I mentioned in one of your other threads I wish they made a crown sized coin with her!
