A few weeks ago I photographed one of my coins and this was the result: Ouch. Needless to say, the coin isn't pink. So going back to play with the black and white settings I got this: And @John Anthony did the same and he got this: Quite an improvement, but the life-like colors are lost and they look like old photos from a catalog book from the 50's. So this is my newest attempt. What do you think? It definitely has a lot more details, and while I wouldn't say it's 100% accurate as far as color, it is definitely a lot closer than anything before. I would say passable, but I want a few extra pair of eyeballs to confirm if you see what I see...a huge improvement and something quite passable.
Your most recent shot is nicely focused. If you think the color is off, try adjusting it in a photo editor. Maybe simply decreasing the saturation is all it needs, or maybe the coin is pale yellowish brown in real life. Or maybe my monitor displays colors differently than yours. Or maybe something else. I wouldn't worry about subtly wrong colors if you're otherwise happy with exposure, lighting, focus, contrast, etc. Of the batch, I prefer John's images for lighting and focus although your most recent attempt is certainly very good
That last pic looks pretty damn good. I've all but given up trying to get images of silver coins that actually please me. For whatever reasons, bronze always comes out better. However, I did buy a fancy schmantzy SLR camera with various lenses and a 100-page manual, so maybe I'll get there someday.
@TIF I would say the color is about 90% or so of the way to the real thing. Some might say that's close enough, and frankly it probably is for an amateur like me with an average digital camera and basic editing software. @John Anthony in order to get the color contrast in my digital camera to not be wonky, I used a multi-color black and white background comprising of black stripes and white stripes. That definitely got rid of the pink hue.
Given we don't have your coin in hand, I'm not sure how we would be able to guess which color is best. I will guess it doesn't look like either of the first two examples, but as far as the second two, who knows. I would read up on setting a custom white balance in the camera that corresponds with whatever your lighting setup is. That way once you have a consistent lighting setup (ie, your own lights on the coin, not just whatever light is in the room or coming through a window), you will have the correct color balance, no matter the coin you're shooting.
The color of your newest attempt looks good, but you've lost some of the detail on the reverse (the alien head/face).
Another before and after: BEFORE AFTER I don't intend to rephotograph every single coin, but rather those which I have no good seller picture for or I think that I can do better. I have far too many coins to want to rephotograph them all just because. Maybe eventually over time I'll have more of my own pictures than seller pics, but it will be a gradual process
It takes practice or patience maybe both. Some days I have atleast one of those, but mostly I have neither. The third photo looks pretty good to me. Who am I to judge it takes me around 50 attempts to finally get one that I'd honestly say I did it.
I am red-green color blind, so I can't comment in any meaningful way, but I think the latest photo looks good, better than anything I can do with these torture devices called cameras.
There are many factors that may throw off your color. It could be the background, colors from the sides saturating the shot, or the color balance in your camera. The last shot looks good but may be a bit too bright. If you are using lamps, try angling them higher so the lights are not shining straight on to the coin. That should give it some contrast and bring out the details.
I love the before photo ... ummm, is that bad? (was it a test?) Both photos are better than I could do, but I'm a big fan of natural looking lighting and airy backgrounds
Here is the thing, when I got it the coin looked more like the before picture, though the before picture is not as detailed as the after picture (Before picture done with cellphone, after picture done with $400 digital camera). The coin over time has become lighter. While it still has some light toning, it lightened considerably in an acetone bath I gave it a few months ago (sometimes that happens), especially of some of the toning was a result of handling with dirty hands and/or tobacco tars as people smoked in their houses a few decades ago. Also, the second picture shows way more details. Now you can see metal flow marks you couldn't see in the original image. A digital camera sensor twice the size of the best cell phone camera sensor will do that.
