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Message:: [QUOTE="SuperDave, post: 2784643, member: 1892"]Don't touch the zoom. It's digital, not optical, and what happens when you're using it is, the camera's software inserts pixels where it "thinks" they ought to be based on what's already there. Or, even worse, it just effectively increases the size of the pixels so a smaller area of the coin covers a larger area of the fullsize picture. Either of those options, by definition, decreases the quality of the resulting image, most normally enough to completely ruin it. Your camera can only return its' best results using no zoom whatsoever; the onus is on you to determine the closest distance at which it will achieve sharp focus. It appears, in this case, that you can achieve pretty sharp focus at a distance close enough so that the coin more than fills the sensor. This is a good thing, because it allows you to increase the distance  between camera and coin, which helps with lighting. The first minor modification I'd suggest for technique is endeavoring to get the entire coin into the image every time, rather than losing detail off the 1080px edge of the sensor. Your images are good enough to contemplate grading, and viewers will want to see the whole coin. In addition, crop away extraneous detail; just the coin, please. <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /> As regards color, what you're showing here seems pretty close on hue - if a little desaturated - to the actual color of a Dansco 7070. If your background color is accurate, the coin's color will be accurate. Makes me want to ask if you see that "golden" hue under the exact_same_lighting used with the camera shots, because I think the camera is close to getting it right. Here's your coin with the saturation increased in postprocessing somewhat to what I remember as close to the actual color of a Dansco album: [ATTACH=full]645070[/ATTACH] I didn't need to play with any individual color channels, just all of them at once, which tells me the camera is getting the basic color correct even if it's desaturating it somewhat. It added a little color to the coin as well, but I don't necessarily know if that's accurate. Coins really ought to be shot on a monochromatic background, because color of any sort in the background tends to play hell with the camera's ability to color-correct since that color is being reflected back into the lens and therefore onto the sensor. A typical incandescent bulb, with a color temperature around 2800-3000k, is going to impart a yellowish cast to anything it illuminates. We generally learn to somewhat tune that out subconsciously, but if you switch the bulb in your table lamp from Soft White to a Daylight (5000-5500k) design, you'll see a very different set of coloration around you. If your in-hand viewing is via incandescent, and you're using some other color temperature for photographic lighting, it may be that this is the first time you're actually seeing the true color of the coin. That's more theory than explanation; I could be wrong. For the moment, while you're refining your technique, steer away from really lustrous coins. They present a whole different category of lighting problems, and will only increase your stress level and slow your learning curve. If you need magnification greater than what your camera can offer, better to explore add-on lenses rather than degrade image quality with digital zoom. I've heard good words about the Olloclip line, and there are other inexpensive possibilities. But if you can do this well with a Half, I'd have to say you've got a pretty decent camera there. And keep in mind for down the road - the slabbed retail value of the coin you're presenting here will come very close to putting you into a system capable of images as professional as any you'll ever see posted here....[/QUOTE]

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