GTG 1882-S Morgan Dollar

Very interesting change!

In your bottom set of images, however, I might argue that it's underlit. While the OP had significant areas of blowout, the new images have wide areas of dark grey with no detail.

How many lights are you using, and what type? What settings are you using on your camera?

 

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Gotcha, I understand what you’re saying. As mentioned it is very new to since I almost never buy white coins but that makes sense and thanks for the suggestions.

 

The first pic was 2 LED lights, but they were pretty directly aimed at the coin. The second pic I moved the LED lights about 6 or 7 inches higher than before, and added a third LED light at 12 o clock that was about 10 inches away from the coin and not directly pointed at it. As far as my camera settings, I can't offer much info. I don't know how to play with it. Just kinda took someone's word on the initial setup and used the adjustable base and lighting, combined with the PhotoscapeX program to make final adjustments.

 

Do you have Mark Goodman's book?

The basic idea with your second set of photographs is that they lack "contrast." There aren't any overlit areas, but the photos are overall are kinda dark and there is no idea of relief or high/low.

Usually your pics are pretty good, but it seems like this one is giving you a challenge for some reason.

 

Yeah this coin has hazy light toning throughout. Tough for me to capture.

 

There are two parameters of the light that you need to be aware of: brightness and contrast. Different coins have different requirements for how bright the light is and how contrasty it is. Blown out highlights (or lost shadow detail) can be the result of either. A general rule of thumb is that you want the contrast (also known as "hardness") of the light to be the opposite of the contrast of the coin. A hazy uncirculated coin or a brown uncirculated copper coin -- both low contrast coins -- can benefit from a harder light to capture some of the luster in a photo. An 82-S Morgan is usually (and in this case) a contrasty or flashy coin, so it needs more diffuse light. Something like a proof Mercury dime is nothing but contrast, so you need very diffuse light or you're going to have both blown out highlights and lost shadows.

Experiment with diffusion on this coin, leaving the lights all in the same place. If you're able, look at the histogram of the image you get. It shows you just how much of the image is being lost in shadow or highlights. As you add diffusion, the histogram will get narrower and less image information will be lost.

I show the effect of varying diffusion in the FUN presentation I did 10 years ago that I've posted here now and then.

 

Original and clean 66 not hard to grade from the 2 sets. Though that mark on the face hard to tell if it’s planchet mark or a hit

 

65+
Isn't this one of those dates that are graded a bit more rigorously?

 

I am 65

 

MS66

 

I'll stick at MS 64

 

If it wasn't for the marks on the cheek bones. I would say 66.
But I am stuck on a 65 maybe a star.

 

I'll say 65.
Word of the day award goes to @messydesk.

 

Took another set of pics @physics-fan3.14

 

Here's all 3...

 

I didn't make it easy for yall. Answer:

 

Just redid this one with the lights setup same as the last set of Morgan pics. Looks much better and true to the in-hand look.

 

This one just doesn’t photograph well. I would have guessed a range of 66 to 68

 

That is a huge improvement.

 

I agree. Funny... I didn't really notice how "bad" they were till I moved these lights farther away from the coin and tried again.