A new coin and a chance to help me become a better photographer.

Discussion in 'Ancient Coins' started by Aethelred, Mar 30, 2019.

  1. Aethelred

    Aethelred The Old Dead King

    First let's get the coin out of the way, it is a Sestertius of Titus (RIC II 170) issued at Rome in AD 80-81. It was purchased from Marc Breitspreacher this month.

    Now the photo: I am using old glass*, but some new methods. I had been using the 18-55mm kit lens and a 13mm macro extention tube, but I have never really been happy with the results from the kit lens. I decided to try a Tamron 18-200 f/3.5-6.3 that I bought years ago to take on my honeymoon. I'm using it with the 13mm extender and shooting at f11 ISO400 using a Canon t5.

    I want to ask for honest advice on what I have right and what I could improve on. Please bear in mind that I am red/green color blind, so anything related to getting the color adjusted, corrected et cetera of beyond my ability level. I thank you in advance for your opinions.

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    *I have new glass in the form of a Canon 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM coming, I think it will serve me for coins (with a 13mm extension) as well as a good walkaround lens, but I also plan to get a 100mm macro one of these days.
     
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  3. Dave M

    Dave M Francophiliac

    It's got to be tough trying to figure out colors if you're color blind!

    I'm thinking though, that the best bet is to use consistent artificial light, and a fixed white balance temperature that's set somehow while you have a friend there to help match the color to the coin. Once you've got that done, it shouldn't need to be changed for future shots, as long as you use the same setup.
     
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  4. Aethelred

    Aethelred The Old Dead King

    The photo seems a little "flat" to me. Do you think my lighting needs to come from a slightly lower angle?
     
    TIF likes this.
  5. Dave M

    Dave M Francophiliac

    VM Titus Sestertius.jpg I don't know the coin, but yes the image does look a bit flat and would be helped by dropping the lights some. Also the dynamic range of the image file is rather low, and just setting the white and black points seems to help a bit (and fixes your eraser marks in the background).
     
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  6. Aethelred

    Aethelred The Old Dead King

    I think that is a color blindness issue, I cannot see the eraser marks, I was feeling good about editing out the background:facepalm:

    Your processing did seem to give the coin a little more life.
     
  7. dougsmit

    dougsmit Member

    Describe your light set-up. I suspect the flatness is from having two equal lights from opposite sides. I don't see any advantage of lowering the light angle but might try one light raised higher and stronger than the other. For coins, I consider really bad light being the flat even set up that comes with copy boards intended to shoot 2D flat paper.
     
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  8. Numisnewbiest

    Numisnewbiest Well-Known Member

    This is just my personal opinion on camera settings that I would use myself - specifically, the ISO setting. If I am taking a shot of something stationary, indoors, and my equipment is on a tripod, the ISO would be set as low as my camera allows, to avoid any issue with image quality from too high an ISO (although 400 isn't very high). If image brightness is a concern, I would slow the shutter down instead, until the image brightness is where you want it, and keep the ISO as low as it will go just to get every bit of image quality you can.
     
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  9. Clavdivs

    Clavdivs Well-Known Member

    Perhaps sharing Mark Breitsprecher's photo of the coin as well? More information is never a bad thing...
     
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  10. TIF

    TIF Always learning.

    Yes, quite flat and not sharply focused. It can be very hard to photograph bronze coins with a patchy patina. It acts as camouflage.

    If you want to bring out the devices you'll need to use oblique light (perhaps more than just "slightly lower"), otherwise the details will be lost in the uneven patina.

    Do you have an iPhone or other similar phone with a good camera? I'm curious to see if you can shoot a better picture with that.
     
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  11. Aethelred

    Aethelred The Old Dead King

    @dougsmit You nailed it, my lights are at 10 and 2, just like they teach in drivers ed. I'll tinker with that a bit.
     
  12. Aethelred

    Aethelred The Old Dead King

  13. Aethelred

    Aethelred The Old Dead King

  14. Aethelred

    Aethelred The Old Dead King

    @TIF I have a Samsung Note 9, these have a great camera, but I am sure I can't hold it steady enough to get the coin pictures I want.

    I'm going to play with the lighting today and see what happens.

    As to the sharpness, which is the other obvious failing in this photo, I was using the AF. Maybe this is as good as the budget Tamron lense can do, I am hoping for more out of the Canon L-series that is on the way.
     
  15. Numisnewbiest

    Numisnewbiest Well-Known Member

    No, I agree with what's been said about adjusting your light sources, which will add some contrast to your image, which will make it easier to focus better (use manual focus). If your camera has manual focus peak, it's a great tool for really nailing the focus, too. If not, you can always use the live view and magnify the image and focus from there...same thing as focus peak.
    My thoughts against using higher ISOs is that it starts to introduce graininess into an image, but usually not until around 800 and up, but there's no reason in this scenario to even bother with ISO when you can keep it at 100 or 80 and just slow the shutter down to get your desired image brightness instead.
     
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  16. Aethelred

    Aethelred The Old Dead King

    @Numisnewbiest that is very helpful and give me some ideas to try, Thank you.

    Btw, I was shooting in AV mode rather than M.
     
  17. Numisnewbiest

    Numisnewbiest Well-Known Member

    If you want to get accurate colors, you can set the white balance to "custom" and shoot a piece of blank white paper before you move on to shooting the coin. It's easy with Canon...just follow the messages on the back screen. If you decide to shoot in manual mode, set the ISO to 100, keep your f/11 that you're already using, and then slow the shutter speed down until the view of your coin is the brightness you want. The final thing is to use the timer for the final shot, so you don't shake the camera.
     
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  18. Numisnewbiest

    Numisnewbiest Well-Known Member

    I should have added that for setting up a custom white balance, you need to take the picture of a blank white piece of paper first (just lay it across the coin and shoot). Then go into your camera menu and start the setup for custom white balance.
     
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  19. TIF

    TIF Always learning.

    Don't hold it. Place it on a tumbler or short stack of books with the camera hanging over the edge. You do have to touch the screen to activate the shutter (or maybe not-- with iPhones you can deploy the shutter via the earbuds or earbud cables) but even so, the light touch won't disturb the image. I'm only suggesting this because I see a lot of people here struggling to take pictures when the results they're getting with fancy cameras is not as good as they could probably get with the average smartphone, so it might save a bunch of money and gnashing of teeth :).
    This subject came up a few days ago and I summarized tips for iPhone coin photography in this post (summary of my own experiences and tips given by other CT members).

    If you really enjoy photography and want to study all of the settings and their use, more power to you :D. If you're just trying to take internet-ready coin photos, in focus, with good resolution, consider using your phone.
     
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  20. Aethelred

    Aethelred The Old Dead King

    @TIF I can use the S-pen as a remote shutter release on the phone.

    However, my real goal is to finally master the DSLR to the extent that I am able.
     
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