Practicing with the camera again with small Greeks

I think I'm finally getting the hang of the camera at least with silver coins. The bronze coins still need some work but are getting better. All coins are around 10mm.

 

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I like them on the dark side, easy on the eyes.
Love the centering on your bull/gorgonian.
I was gonna pull the trigger on a lesser centered example. But again I see myself waiting for a better one.

 

Good shots for 10mm coins!

John

 

good pics!

 

I suffer from not enough light too. The first one looks the best. Keep at it because more practice will lead to better results. Make one small tweak at a time. If you change everything at once you won't know what's working or not.

Lovely coins, by the way.

 

I would prefer them a little lighter but these are quite decent photos in other ways. Keep up the good work.

 

I will try bumping up the light a bit next time. I agree they would look better a little lighter to a point. These are unaltered from the camera. I have been trying to get attractive contrast and shading by positioning my light source.

 

A wee bit dark, but good images otherwise.

 

Playing again with lighting and see improvements. Here is one coin re-shot.

 

Looks nice, but that depends on how the coins really look in hand. The first set of pictures look a bit dark, the second re-shot picture looks nice but it may not be how the coin looks. Whether too dark or bright, you just want to get the picture as close to how the coin really looks.

 

nice, the details look great. man do i have serious trouble with those little coins.

maybe just post process your original pics to make them a bit lighter, i just did this in my windows photo gallery viewer with brightness/contrast.



any better?

 

I'm lovin that coin.
I guess I'm gonna have to buy me one sooner rather than later.

 

My latest try looks very much like the coin in hand. I'm finding that there is a pretty fine line between too dark and too much light that makes for stark contrast that looks like the surface of the moon. I moved my light source away from the coin and at a higher angle. The higher angel seems to help with the stark shaddows. Crsmat71' 's post processing looks really good too. I am learning to post process while keeping it look real. It's all a work in progress.

 

I know most have heard all they want of my opinions on coin photos but the whole concept of a coin photo looking like the coin 'in hand' is totally bogus. If a coin looks dark and hard to see 'in hand' move that hand to a place with better light. To me, the worst problems with coin images are when they have large areas of either or both absolute white or absolute black. Worst is probably when there are large areas of both (start contrast). Continuous tone images need as many steps from one tone to the next as they can to look smooth. When images have no highlights, they lack sparkle. I tend toward this fault making grey coins look like plaster casts. 'In hand' and well illuminated, dark or shiny bright coins still have quite a number of tones. I guess, in the end, we each have our opinions as to what makes a good photo or good lighting just as we do what makes a good coin worth photographing.

Yes!

 

Doug, your opinion is always appreciated. I have learned quite a lot from your pages including your photography information. It's been an indispensable guide. I think I finally got the camera figured out but the lighting seems to be as big a challenge for me. Especially with bronze coins. Those are darn hard to get an accurate and attractive picture of. It's an aspect of the hobby that I have really been enjoying though.

 

Lighting is the hard part. I just bought an expensive ($29) new light and am quite happy with my first tests but I'm not ready to say it would help people who don't have their camera figured out and certainly won't help those who don't see a need for a camera. Your latest are well above average for this list. Caring enough to practice means a lot. I have only one new coin since I got the new light so I guess it is time to reshoot the losers. Half of the time I reshot coins I had shot before and the result was worse not better. However if the other half turned out better I should be happy --- right? The easiest way to be a good photographer is to take 1000 pictures and only show people the best one. They do not need to know about #2 or #1000.

 

I had a good night shooting some coins. I dropped a couple of F stops for the silver coins. They are not perfect by any means, but they are a vast improvement on my usual offerings. It has at least given me a bit more enthusiasm to practice more.
Kopek

 

I dunno Pish: MY Kopek looks like THIS when I have my glasses on.
I take my glasses off, and Boom, it is as clear as your pic!

Russia Peter the Great AR Kopek 1682-1725 Wire Money Horse Rider - Great Tsar Peter 11.1mm 0.27g

 

Looks great Pishpash. That's a pretty tiny coin too. I'm looking forward to seeing more of your pictures.

 

I was playing around a bit with bronze this morning and am seeing some improvements. Of course the bronze is dark to begin with.