New micro camera

Hi All,

I just purchased the Leuchtturm USB Digitalmikroskop DM4. I'm struggling with the lighting. My indoor lighting can be a bit yellow so will skew the results quite a bit and the microscope lighting is very white and will create a glare when using. Combining both lights can help with some coppers or bronzes but not silvers. I could use some practical advice from any of you who have had experience with issues of this sort. Looking forward to hearing your responses.

Larry

 

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Do you have an contraption you are placing the coin in or are you just sitting in on a table? I've seen guys build little boxes just for this.

 

Something like this

 

I don't speak German, and therefore can't find out whether the camera has White Balance adjustments or not. If not, as long as you use only one color temperature of light on the subject, it's correctable in postprocessing rather easily. But look for the ability to adjust color balance at the camera first.

 

https://translate.google.com/transl...al-mikroskop-dm4-inkl-stativ.html&prev=search

 

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Interesting concept Camreno. Not sure how I could apply that to photographing a coin. But diffusing the light some how would help with the glare. And my indoor lights just create a very yellow tone which doesn't complement my silver coins.

 

Did you figure out if your camera has a white balance setting?

 

All you need is white light with no interruptions, that's what the box is for. I found one on amazon Im gonna pick up.

 

There is no such thing as white light.

 

LOL alright...

 

Go on...

 

"White" is the complete absence of hue. The color temperature of light most closely resembling "white" is the maximum presence of all hues simultaneously, which is the exact opposite of "white."

 

You're picking one definition of the word "white", then saying that it's the opposite of another definition of the word "white". That technique's useful for pointing out that English is silly, but not much else.

 

Alright enough of this pissing contest. You can buy photography lights that omit WHITE light, at least the closest you will ever get to white and they advertise it as WHITE. Capeesh?

 

Actually, you'll see photography lights advertising a "color temperature". Because English was developed by ordinary people, not scientists, "warm white" has a lower color temperature, and "cool white" has a higher color temperature. Basically, a color-temperature rating means "take something that's black, heat it up to this temperature, and it'll glow with this color".

If you're dealing with CFL or LED lights, you also need to know about CRI -- color rendering index -- which has to do with how evenly the light is distributed across the spectrum. That can probably matter quite a bit for taking pictures of toned coins.

 

WHITE

 

Hey, if you keep triggering my traumatic memories of technical imprecision in descriptions, how do you EXPECT me to react?

 

Yes, white is a very complicated color. We call a pretty wide range of colors "white".

From a photographic perspective, the best color reference is the so-called 18% grey card. It has the most balanced RGB of any reference, so that you can white balance to it easily.

 

What you can buy is light that has a known color temperature. They are not "white" but because they have known color temp they can be white balanced more easily in-camera or in post-processing.