New Photos - Still Improving

Please post your recent reshoots.

Java, Bali and the Eastern Archipelago
Kalasan or Kelurak (Empire of the Sailendra)
AR Masa 11 mm x 2.32 grams
Struck 778-782 AD.
Obverse: MA (Massa) - Early Nagari Script
Reverse: Irregular Sandalwood Flower place in Incuse square

Old photo


New Photo

 

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The new image is better in some aspects, but the first shows the depth on the reverse better I think. That is, it depends on what is incuse and what is not.

 

To my eye, lighting the reverse from the bottom makes the incuse areas look raised. I believe just rotating the reverse image 180 degrees would fix that.

 

@Bing @dougsmit Hows this? Rotated reverse image no change otherwise.

 

Much better!

 

Just a little bit to dark to my eyes, otherwise quite a nice reshoot

Q

 

Hey, I saw what you did there, Noob ... you merely spun the reverse-photo rather than spinning the coin and taking another photo (very clever, my Noobish friend) ...

Man, it's funny how merely spinning the photo 180 degrees can change the optical illusion, eh?

 

Overall, I like the new images better but they are too dark. Just a bit of lightening would help quite a bit .

 

Don't worry @Ancientnoob I'll chime in later with some of mine.

 

I think I'd prefer it that way (just played a bit on the light and contrast)



Q

 

I think turning it like you did playing and with the light the way Cucumber did makes it much better.

 

Coins without an obvious 'up' are easy to fool the brain into misinterpreting raised from recessed. When there is a recognizable subject, we see what we expect from that subject but without that clue we have to make assumptions of what we should see. The reverse was shot as it now sits with light coming from the top.

If there were one thing I wish coin photographers would stop doing it is sending light in from the bottom. Ghoul lighting never looks natural. I this case, the coin was shot properly but just spun the wrong way so it was easier to fix.

 

Also, more coins shown here on CT appear a bit dark on my computers. I know there are variations in equipment. There are many online sites on adjusting equipment. The point here is you should see all the bars both black and white in the chart but that the last couple on both ends should be very slightly different. Many people are a great deal more into this than I am and adjust for each color separately even using a meter that reads from your screen. I am an amateur photographer and computer user who spend very little effort on such things.

 

I have one coin whose obverse I purposefully lit from below in order to emphasize the ghoulishness. Admittedly though, I really should reshoot it.

 

TIF: I like it the way it is!

 

I'd reshoot it but keep this version for Halloween posts.

That said, however you choose to shoot it, I like this coin so much it's not even funny.

 

TIF => your coin is shot as if it was a co-star in The Blair Witch Project

 

You guys are right-- I'll keep it as it is. The uplighting seems appropriate and it really did bring out the details better than traditional lighting .

 

The best lighting for almost all coins is a macro ringflash, and we would recommend the Canon versions, although these are made to work with Canon EOS system cameras and lenses.
Nikon, and "other" afficionados will probably want to disagree, but about 10 years ago we junked our Nikon / Fuji equipment and replaced it with Canon because some of the Nikon stuff was incompatible with other Nikon stuff. Some online research found that the only major digital camera brand with a compatible macro system was Canon.
We have taken about 20,000 numismatic photos, many of which will be familiar as, despite being copyright, they get "stolen" and copied by many other dealers.

 

@dougsmit, perhaps the best photographer on the Ancients side of CoinTalk, recently acquired a ring light and offered up images for our opinions. For the unique challenges of ancients coins, the ring light alone was not a magic bullet.

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/a-new-toy-for-photographing-coins.259886/#post-2088918

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/photo-opinions-solicited.265760/

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/new-coin-photo.262423/#post-2130687

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/rediscovery.264925/page-8#post-2193464