My numismatic photography journey

Discussion in 'Coin Chat' started by Coinsandmedals, Feb 5, 2020.

  1. Coinsandmedals

    Coinsandmedals Well-Known Member

    I failed to mention this earlier, but I recently won an NGC award for "Most Creative Custom Set". This was a complete surprise, and I am deeply honored. In addition to all of the other perks, NGC also graciously gave me a $500 grading credit to use toward my next submission. I had been saving up coins and money for my next submission; however, the grading credit NGC gave me covered the entire cost. This freed up a good chunk of cash that was otherwise unaccounted for in my budget. I had been playing with the idea of getting a fancy camera setup for some time, but could never justify the cost. I would always pick the coin over the camera. Well, I found a nice Canon Rebel T6 DSLR for a reasonable price and pulled the trigger. Now I had a decent camera but no lens and no copy stand. I contacted @physics-fan3.14 for advice, and he provided some sound initial guidance, but he referred me to @rmpsrpms for more information. Ray turned out to be a HUGE help, and I eventually ended up purchasing a camera build from him. Ray has been a class act from the start. If anyone is looking for a super reasonably priced camera build, I can not recommend Ray enough.

    I am entirely new to editing, so this is still a learning process for me. I am posting these images here in hopes that I can get feedback from community members. I still have a lot to learn, but this has added an entirely new level of enjoyment for me. Please let me know what you think and what changes you would suggest!

    I have about 40 coins imaged and edited. I will try to post them over time in groups of 5 or less.

    1806 Great Britain Soho proof Halfpenny Peck-1371
    IMG_0001.JPG IMG_0003.JPG

    1806 Great Britain Soho Penny

    1806 GB SOHO Penny Obv..JPG 1806 GB SOHO Penny Rev..JPG
    1937 Great Britain proof Halfpenny

    1937 GB Proof HalfPenny Obv..JPG 1937 GB Proof HalfPenny Rev..JPG

    1913 Great Britain Penny

    IMG_0004.JPG IMG_0005.JPG

    1813 Isle of Man proof Halfpenny

    IMG_0012.JPG IMG_0013.JPG
     
    Last edited: Feb 5, 2020
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  3. green18

    green18 Unknown member Sweet on Commemorative Coins Supporter

    Coins in clear focus. Who could ask for anything more? Is the color in the photogs the same as in hand? If so, you've bloody nailed it. :)
     
  4. RonSanderson

    RonSanderson Supporter! Supporter

    You went to the right person to start your photographic journey. I started there, and I have really enjoyed where the trip has led me.

    Those shots are clear, well focused, great color, and a heck of a beginning.

    With other coins you will face challenges of how to depict proof surfaces, to show the reflection, brilliance, mirroring, cameo effect, and depth.

    For MS coins with luster, you face choices about where that radiance lies on the coin, how much color lies down in the luster, and how surface texture (whether a fresh die, one with flow lines, repolished with die lines) helps define the luster.

    For well circulated coins you will be able to learn to position the lights to bring forth the remaining contours of the coin without ending up with a flat blob.

    Light positioning will be key, as will judiciously tipping the coin to either capture direct light beaming off the surface (for proofs) or to scatter it more to emphasize the surface shape and luster.

    Welcome to the photographic dark side! I find that photographing the coins is a deep extra layer of engagement that overlays the finding and acquiring of the coins themselves.
     
  5. physics-fan3.14

    physics-fan3.14 You got any more of them.... prooflikes?

    Well hot dang, @Coinsandmedals . Those are some really fantastic images of some really fantastic coins. I was happy to point you to the right guy!

    The only comment I'd make about your pictures is they seem a trifle dark. Now, I know we're talking about chocolate copper, but see if there's a way to get a bit more light on them.

    Absolutely fantastic first shots with your new setup!
     
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  6. green18

    green18 Unknown member Sweet on Commemorative Coins Supporter

    A thought of mine too, as hense the 'in hand' question.
     
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  7. rmpsrpms

    rmpsrpms Lincoln Maniac

    I agree, they are a bit dark. The reason is that my recommended settings are to set EV to -2/3. This forces the shutter speed to be a bit faster than its normal setting, thereby avoiding blown highlights. To compensate I recommend setting contrast to -4, which helps keep the shadows from going to black. Together these settings result in good "raw material" (assuming good focus, white balance, and framing alignment) for final post-processing. These look like excellent raw material to me, so I will pick one shot to give an example of the post processing which will recover the original exposure values without blowing any highlights or crushing any shadows. First, I'll show the result of a simple edit in DPPv3, then I'll explain the changes made:

    IMG_0012a_3.JPG
    Here are the adjustments I made in DPPv3:
    PictureA.jpg

    Most of the adjustments were done to the histogram. I selected 3 points on the tone curve, and increased them until the overall brightness of the image was good. Then I manually adjusted the black level a small amount (from 0 to 2) and white level a similar amount (from 255 to 230). I could have pushed black a bit higher, and indeed if I moved it to perhaps 4-6, the background (represented by the big spike near 0 in the histogram) would push to all black.

    Another of my recommendations is to use "neutral" Picture Style, which de-emphasizes color saturation a bit. I increased saturation from 100 to 130 to compensate. I also recommend shooting with sharpness at 0, so a little sharpening to compensate is needed.
     
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  8. physics-fan3.14

    physics-fan3.14 You got any more of them.... prooflikes?

    Yes! That's exactly what I imagined that coin probably looked like based on my "dark" interpretation of those original photos.

    @rmpsrpms , are you a wizard? Magician? Alchemist? What sort of magical profession do you ascribe to?
     
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  9. green18

    green18 Unknown member Sweet on Commemorative Coins Supporter

    I'm only new to this concept. I've shot at EV 0/0 my whole life.
     
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  10. physics-fan3.14

    physics-fan3.14 You got any more of them.... prooflikes?

    I'm even newer to this concept.

    I don't know what EV is.
     
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  11. green18

    green18 Unknown member Sweet on Commemorative Coins Supporter

    It's when you lower the exposure a fraction or two.
     
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  12. green18

    green18 Unknown member Sweet on Commemorative Coins Supporter

    It's like when you're shooting at a subject that is backgrounded (back lit?) by a sunlit window.....you lower the EV to get a better exposure on that subject.
     
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  13. rmpsrpms

    rmpsrpms Lincoln Maniac

    Let me explain the EV reasoning...

    But first...I recommend using AV mode (Aperture Priority) for coins. This works well for lenses with electronically-adjustable aperture in that it fixes the aperture at a particular value, thus depth of field and diffraction are held constant. For manual lenses, it simply tells the camera that the lens is to be ignored.

    In Av mode, the camera will adjust the shutter speed to push the metered highlights into saturation. This is not desirable for coins since they generally have shiny surfaces that give specular reflections to the incident light. It's best to keep these reflections to a minimum, and if they exist, to push their exposure down such that they are not saturating the sensor.

    This is where EV comes in. By setting EV to a negative value, the overall exposure time is reduced, and if you reduce it enough, the specular highlights will maintain true color rather than looking bright white.
     
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  14. green18

    green18 Unknown member Sweet on Commemorative Coins Supporter

    I gotta try this on proof (brilliant) coins........
     
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  15. -jeffB

    -jeffB Greshams LEO Supporter

    When I was learning to shoot DSLR (with a Digital Rebel, no X-anything, the original 300D), I saw lots of advice to overexpose slightly when shooting RAW -- when importing the image, you could recover one or two thirds of a step of detail in the highlights, and end up with more dynamic range as a result. Does anyone know whether that's still the case with this generation of Canon bodies?
     
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  16. physics-fan3.14

    physics-fan3.14 You got any more of them.... prooflikes?

    I have always used full-Manual mode. I've adjusted the f-stop and the exposure separately, and sorta played with them until I found the one I liked for the coin/lighting I was using.

    I'm going to play with Av, and see what it does for me.
     
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  17. green18

    green18 Unknown member Sweet on Commemorative Coins Supporter

    Ansel Adams........what would he have done?
     
  18. -jeffB

    -jeffB Greshams LEO Supporter

    I'm picturing a big old view camera, on a tripod taller than me, looming over a tiny coin...
     
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  19. Mkman123

    Mkman123 Well-Known Member

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  20. robec

    robec Junior Member

    I use Av as well. I think you will like it very much. You can still adjust f-stop and exposure settings.

    Edited to say, @Coinsandmedals, Great photos and congratulations on your Registry set award. I can see it was well deserved.
    And........Ray is the man!!
     
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  21. Coinsandmedals

    Coinsandmedals Well-Known Member

    I want to thank everyone for the flurry of support! This thread reconfirms everything I know about the comradery of this hobby. I have a lot to learn. The editing portion is still throwing me for a loop. I noticed that images were a bit dark, but I wasn't sure if it was eyes playing tricks on me. I also have a difficult time capturing toning. That 1806 Penny and the 1937 proof Halfpenny are both colorfully toned. I did a little more editing using Ray's suggestions, and here is what I came up with for the 1813 Isle of Man halfpenny. I will edit the others and repost as soon as I can. Once again, thank you all for the help!

    Isle of Man Test Obv..JPG Isle of Man Test Rev..JPG
     
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