A couple of weeks ago, I included an image of a coin in a thread. I thought to myself that image was horrible, so today I decided to take a new image. It turned out well in my opinion. Old image: New Image: L CALPURNIUS PISO CAESONINUS & Q SERVILIUS CAEPIO ROMAN REPUBLIC; GENS CALPURNIA AR Denarius OBVERSE: Head of Saturn facing right, harpa and legend PISO behind, CAEPIO and symbol below, Q below chin REVERSE: AD FRV EMV EX SC, the two quaestors seated left between 2 grain ears Struck at Rome 100 BC 3.6g, 20mm Crawford 330/1a; Syd 6031 I don't much care for the color of either, so I may just take another in different light. What is your opinion?
I like the newer picture. Seems clearer and has more contrast. The color looks like it may be a bit washed out though. What is the actual color of the coin?
I like it, all my pics are taken with cellphone. I sit it on a glass cup and zoom in, getting every detail, like yours. My most recent is this... Dealer pic. My Oppo Reno Z. Showing the true tonining of the coin.
The second is much better, both in clarity and color. I have found that I can get pretty credible images with a cell phone camera by using natural daylight giving me a higher shutter speed and thus less fuzziness from camera shake. Also I place the camera on top of three or four books with the camera projecting over the coin at a height of about five or six inches and pressing down a bit on the camera as I push the button. This tends to hold the camera still as the image is taken and produces usable images for Coin Talk purposes. My avatar image was taken in this manner.
Nice coin, @Bing ! The details appear a lot sharper in the New Image. The portrait of Saturn is very appropriate for the Eve of the Saturnalia Too bad I don’t know any Saturnalia carols to sing
All photos require a setting for 'color balance'. Our eye-brain unions do all this automatically but cameras have to define 'white'. Some have very good routines that do almost as well as can be expected. Some do not. Some people set their cameras to one balance manually and then us the wrong color light. The old photo is waaaay too blue as if the camera were set to expect 'indoor' tungsten light bulbs but was used in daylight. The second is believable to me but you say it is wrong. I have not seen the coin. All that really matters is that the camera is set (automatically or manually) for the same mixture of colors that make 'white' as the light is that falls on the coin when the photo is taken. With nonadjustable cameras, you are at the mercy of the settings they gave you. I am not going to learn how all phones and cameras work but reshooting until you luck out and they match is one way to do it. Often, these cameras work best in daylight but not bright sun so you might have better luck in indirect sunlight near a window with no artificial lights on in the room.
Thank you, @kevin McGonigal ! What a beautiful anthem I only knew the tune as part of Brahm’s Academic Symphony.
That's how I took this second image. Indirect sunlight on my covered patio (lanai here in Florida). I'll try again tomorrow to see if I can match the coin.
New images are much much better, IMHO. I’ve never been able to take a decent pic with my phone’s camera. Those are great.
