Well after reading many camera reviews and looking at cameras. I decided to buy the Canon Powershot SX110IS ($229 at wal-mart). What do you think of my new pictures. I am still playing with the lighting.
Way to go Schatzy. Beats the heck out of my scanner. I think your pics are excellent. I'll have to look at the specs for your camera cause I think they're that good. Was it difficult getting these shots i. e. settings, lighting, etc.?
I am using a cheap camera stand and a single halogen light. It took some time getting the camera settings right. I took over 200 pictures yesterday till I got the images that I like. I am still not able to capture proofs very well yet but still working on it. I just bought the camera on Sat. and I love it and would highly recommend it, others recommended it to me on the NGC fourm.
The pictures look good. Love that indian atop the page, AU details, a nice one All the pics are very good, and the black background, you will see, will make those colors pop.
suggestions I'm very new here but that does not stop me from having a few suggestions. I do not collect US coins but have a few from the old days when I did. My father gave me an Indian $5 many years ago so I dug it out and tried to shoot it. Compared to the ancient coins I usually shoot, US gold is a different game. My first suggestion is to avoid such high contrasts that you blast the highlights into detailless blank spaces. One way is to add diffusion to your light. I use compact fluorescent bulbs which are very cool and not the fire hazards that some lights would be if you throw something ober them. The top image above show my usual rig with a white pillow case thrown over the lights to smooth things out. This rig is shown below (minus the pillow case) in the center of this illustration I made for another purpose. http://dougsmith.ancients.info/ph2008.html The lower images (same coin!) uses a fluorescent ring light I bought at Staples office supply store for $25. It works for very shiny coins but what you get is really a photo of the glare from the coin rather than from the coin itself. Color rendition is not easy since your camera lacks that balance in its feature set so you need to shoot RAW files or use the manual color balance feature of the camera. When it comes to bringing out legends, it is hard to beat but it is not very natural looking. This rig is shown above left. The third rig shown was a control using natural daylight from the window and was not tried for this coin (partly because it requires a nice day to work). Whenever selecting a camera for coin photography, I always recommend a model that allows macro at the telephoto end of the zoom. That gives more working distance and makes light arranging easier.
I apologize for the hijack and thread killer above and for the fact that the image no longer matches the text. I updated the image and rearranged the coins into a horizontal format but am accustomed to Forum software that allows editing. I request the administration delete both my above post and this one. If there is any interest in the subject, I can start a new thread which I should have done in the first place.
Your pictures are coming along nicely. I would suggest that you move your first light to roughly 10:30 on the coin, and add a second light at approximately 1:30. I think you will like the way two lights show the luster and provide more even lighting (and exposure) to your coin.
Purdy good - These quater eagles were my first photos with a new camera as well. Unfortunately, all the coins are gone but the photo's remain
