new camera. need some help with using it.

so i am going to use the camera my wife uses for her magazines, but i cant figure out how to adjust the brightness of the pics it takes. im not a photog by any means, and really cant use anything other than a point and shoot. is there a way i can adjust the light sensitivity of the camera? it is a canon eos rebel XT. i used it to take these pics of some end roll toned wheats, but it still is a little dull.

 

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The most direct method of manipulation for an otherwise satisfactory image, in my opinion, is to edit the image using software after acquisition.

 

i know i can juice it a little, but i kind of feel like thats cheating when it comes to photographing toning.

 

i took those pics under a full spectrum Ott Light with a white plastic bag over it to diffuse the direct light.

 

It's not cheating Riff. I sometimes purposely under expose the picture I'm taking and then lighten it up in the photo editing program. It's not juicing......

 

ah okay. i misunderstood what tom was saying. i thought he meant adjust the color. so under expose, then brighten in post. i will try that.

 

Well, not always. Sometimes it works for me and other times not. The secret is taking lots and lots of pics under different lighting and exposure scenarios. Depending on how picky at the time I'm taking my shots, I could shoot upwards of thirty or forty frames. If I'm in a not so picky mood I might only shoot five or six.

 

The setting you want is "exposure compensation" -- setting it higher will make the picture lighter, and setting it lower will make things darker.

Placing the coin on a darker background will also drive the camera to do a longer exposure, making the coin appear lighter. If you can find a good neutral gray background, you can use that to set your white balance, which is also helpful.

The Digital Rebel XT is an old camera, but it still gives you plenty of control over exposure. (I used a Digital Rebel for several years before upgrading to a 20D, which I'm still using.) As you gain more knowledge, you may want to start shooting in RAW mode; this lets you retain more information in the image, and gives you more leeway to correct exposure and color balance in post-processing.

 

I'm not writing about "juicing" at all. The goal should be the most accurate representation of the coin in-hand. If producing the most accurate representation means that you must do some post-image acquisition editing then that is what you should do. Most folks do not realize that their cameras are already making these decisions for them before they even take the shot based upon the software package installed into the camera by the manufacturer. Truly, there isn't such a thing as an unaltered digital image produced from any commercail dSLR.

 

What mode are you using?

 

macro.

 

I'm using a Canon Rebel XSi but I owned the XT a few years back. The cameras are pretty similar. This is what my setup looks like. Canon XSi, 50" tripod($20) 2 desk laps($13/each) Bulbs are 43w Halogen Clear with 800 lumens. I took a picture of a similar toned end coin to show how this set up looks. I used the Macro mode to take the pictures.


2 Lights
1 Light

 

Use a piece of plain white paper for background if you don't have a grey card. (helps camera determine white balance)

Set your camera to take the largest format image it can. (resolution)

Set your camera to take the largest pixel image it can. (mega pixels)


BigTee, your camera is focusing on the background, look at the fabric how in focus it is compared to the coin....try a piece of plain white paper or get a grey card from the camera store.

 

Working on finding something for the background. That was the softest thing I had and I didn't want to scratch the coin on regular stock paper. I do see what you mean though.

I just asked gbroke that question, do you know one can get a jewelers board?

Anyone used a light board? I just want something that isn't going to scratch my coins.

 

Is the jewelers board velvet covered?

if it is, your camera may do the same thing, focus on the texture of the back ground.

Another solution would be to manually focus your camera.


Having the grey card is the best solution, your camera will have perfect (or as close to perfect as possible) white balance.

 

Whats a grey card? Just grey paper?

i do believe the jewelers board is velvet.

 

coinzip, I use a grey jewelers board. The texture is very fine and the camera does not focus on it (not your standard velvet texture). It also doubles as a grey card. Here is mine. I was given a couple of these from my local coin shop. I cannot find another example of them anywhere.
Although, I just assumed they are called jeweler's boards. I have no idea, but they work very well.

 

A grey card is used as a reference for your camera to determine white balance.

gbroke that looks like a grey card to me, does it have any writing on the back that says something about 18% grey?


they are not extremely expensive 15-20 bucks

 

Ya know, I never looked lol. What I can say is that it is very soft on top and rigid on the back.