Imaging my ancients.

Hey JA ... how is your Saturday night treatin' ya so far?

Ummm, that gorgeous coin is the same coin that dougsmit chose to show on page 1 of this thread (that's why I chose it as an example) ... for the record, I love doug's backgrounds too => I just wanted to get in the "mix"

:flirty0wink:

Anyway => this coin is an Asian coin from 1236-1245 A.D. => Seljugs of Rum, Kaykhusraw II (AR Dirham)

... dougsmit posted it one time on a CCF thread and I fell in love with it, so I hunted it down and eventually found the lil' beauty that I posted (oh, but sadly, I didn't actually take that wonderful photo => it was the seller's photo, so I don't know if it's actually sitting on foam/snow or if it's a fake background? ... but whatever it is => it rocks that coin!!)

:bow:

 

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It's a fantastic coin! As far as my Saturday night is going, I've got the flu, so does the wife, and one of the kids. So if you like hacking, coughing, spitting, and various other expressions of malaise, come on by!

 

Get well soon.

I just took this photo depicting my basic coin photography setup. The lamps are daylight Tungsten bulbs. I use the old wooden labyrinth-toy to accurately adjust the angle of the coin.

 

The labyrinth toy is a great idea, thank you! We've got one of those in a closet somewhere...

 

Huh (*awkward*) ... yup, every now and then I'm kinda happy that we couldn't have kids of my own ...



=> anyway => I sure hope that all of the Anthonys feel better soon!!

Ummm, hey I'm no medical doctor, but I have always found that large doses of red wine usually sorts everything out (.... well, until the next morning) ...

Coin-on my new firnd (take care)

:thumb:

 

Collect89 => is that a fully stocked bar in the background?!!! .... well played my friend, well played

:cheers:

 

Yeah, lol. Party at Collect89's!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Yep. No driving home intoxicated since I'm already home. There is no shortage of friends anxious to visit either. When they are both friends and coin collectors, then the fun really begins. :smile

Depending upon the coin’s surface characteristics and toning, the lamps may be diffused using a couple pieces of plain paper. I typically use drafting velum (translucent paper) as a diffuser.

When photographing a proof coin, I sometimes use a tube of velum to diffuse the illumination all around the coin while minimizing the axial illumination. The camera is aimed down the tube depicted. We sometimes put a black card on the camera so that the camera’s reflection doesn’t appear in the coin’s mirror surface.

 

Ther is a small jar of moonshine behind the bar for you. After a shot, you will still have the flu but you won't care too much about it any longer.

 

ssshhhh ... "you had me at fully stocked bar"

 

I wonder if every thread turns into a Bacchanal as soon as Steve stops by, lol.

 

Mmmm... booze. Oh wait were talking about coins right?

I usually use a white background on my coins, which I photoshop out later. Not sure if that helps but I know the next advice will.

Don't hack, cough or sneeze on your coins.

 

Keep one of these for when you are feeling sorry for yourself with the sniffles. Year 14 was when a plague killed a lot of Byzantines:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plague_of_Justinian

This coin is used to suffering. It doesn't care if you cough.

 

I've noticed that auction catalogs tend to illustrate coins on a black background when they want a more dramatic effect for a particular coin or group of coins, while the majority of coins in a catalog are illustrated on a white background. But the white background may also be just a concession to not using (i.e., wasting) a lot of black ink.

Recently, the Goldberg catalog for the Hunter Collection used a gradient green background on every page. I found this OK, but marginally distracting from the presentation of the individual coins.

Of the two pictures above, my personal preference is still the white background, but the exposures and lighting look different between the two pictures as well. Both of them, however, are outstanding pictures and excellent illustrations of the coin's features.

 

We should not minimize the matter of black ink. When I print a photo at Costco Photo Lab, they charge 13 cents for a 4x6" print no matter what colors are in the photo. If I print out the same size photo at home on my inkjet printer, the black background version would cost me at least four times as much in ink (and a lot over 13 cents). If I were to reproduce my black background images on normal (low priced) paper, I could not print anything on the back because of bleed through from all that black. A dealer using black for added drama will also be using heavy coated paper stock. We will see how different the catalogs for major dealers were in the 1990's compared to those of today in this regard. Only the very high end sales had a few huge, glossy color photos back then while today the sales catalogs can resemble coffee table books.

There is one other factor to consider. White backgrounds can be too bright and cause flare in the camera that reduces image contrast on the coin itself. I prefer to shoot coins on an almost white background and whiten the result in postprocessing so as to avoid risking flare. Since I make prints at Costco and post images online where the dark background adds drama without negative side effects, I prefer black unless there is something that makes me really want another answer. One I recall was a Greek bronze coin that had the bottle cap edge treatment. Another is below:

 

For what I had at my disposal, blue worked best for me.

 

Well this is what I decided on. The black background definitely looked too dark for bronze coins, but I didn't really like white, so this medium gray seems to work pretty well. I really can't make the coins brighter, because this is how they look, even in bright light.

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I just realized I misspelled Constantinopolis, but I'll fix that.

 

Good job imho. :high5:

 

Another for practice...

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Nice ... but it might be a bit too dark?

NOTE => far better than any of my efforts

:bow: