Please critique my pics.

my lighting problems were solved when I got my lamp dual bendable lamps in 1 so I can get the light to hit it from 2 angles, eliminating shadows.

 

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Thanks for the nice words! Sometimes there's a bit of luck to it all.

I have a dozen different bulbs but mostly I use two halogen floods and sometimes a third halogen spot which I move around a lot. Of the three macro lenses (50, 105, 180mm) I use the longest most often. That way I can bring the lens 12-18" away from the coin and get the lights very high and direct.

Most problems with photos are related to focus, exposure, and saturation. Poor focus is fatal. Nothing will save it. Overexposure and glare, as well as underexposure, can often be corrected with post-processing s/w especially if you shoot in the "raw" mode. You can recover data in shadows and bring back data due to excessive glare. Saturation, like excessive contrast, can yield images with stunning color but they're not realistic. Who are we kidding?

Here are images of an ordinary Morgan with unusual colors and pretty surfaces. They are very close to what the coin really looks like in hand. PCGS was a little tough on the grade (64).
Lance.

 

Yo Lance, welcome to CT!

I guess you aren't shooting with Canon or you would be jumping in the wagon over tethering instead of all that post editing you have knowledge of???

I am stoked that I was able to guess fairly close on your set up. 95% of what I shoot are Lincolns so I keep my halogen spot high over head stationary and move around the Reveals to highlight/even out devices. It is important to me to keep each shot lit nearly the same as each other for comparison purposes. That little practice in itself has taught me a ton!!!

I found coins with luster that seem to loose that luster under the lens because of the "skin" of oxide, that in itself makes me suspect the coins surface. anyways I babble and blather...

what is your choice of camera and software?

 

Well, I usually say that the actual gear is not that important. D-SLR's are so good today I don't think you can choose badly.

I am one of few using a Sony (a300). I like it because I don't have to use the viewfinder to see the image. There's an LCD screen. But I do love the idea of seeing everything on a computer and making adjustments from a big picture before shooting it. If I ever start over that will be a requirement.

Here's a pic of my set up. It's not on the floor anymore and I use a longer macro lens but otherwise it is correct. A steady, strong copy stand, remote shutter release, more than enough lighting, and an A/C connection instead of charging and swapping batteries.



Finally, and most importantly, is software. I know Photoshop pretty well and it is everything anyone might need. But a few years ago I moved to a Mac which, as everyone knows, is the preferred platform for anything arty or creative. Apple has a wonderful application, Aperture, which does everything I need. Except circle-crop! How could they forget that feature? So there's an extra step to get something like this.



Cheers,
Lance.

 

I like your set up. I am a total newb to coin collecting, about a year now. I figured out quick that I couldn't ask questions without pics. So I went out and got a $100 12MP point and shoot with super macro and found that didn't really produce what I wanted - So I taped a loupe on. nope. time to Google. I found Goodmans Book right away and bought it.

One of the requirements, if I was going to buy a new camera, was that I wanted images on my computer when I took the picture - at that time I was selling other small stuff on eBay and it was a big time consuming hassle, transfer, moving images, trying to remember what went with what.. etc etc.

So I searched for a camera that I could tether to my computer. Turns out this was a common feature with early digitals but now, Only DSLR's have the capability. after searching photo forums and such, Canon was the only camera that came with software that did that. Big lump in the throat.. 1k what!!!! SO I held my breathe, crossed my fingers and bought used on eBay. with in a month, I decided I want more. A monster was created. The rest as they say is history.

I can rave all day long about the benefits of tethering. it starts with focus. My eyesight is shot and even though I can focus the coin on my monitor I find in magnification mode (about 75x) that I could fine tune even closer. Then came lighting.. I swear you can have 2 coins, same grade, same Year and mint that look the same in hand that will reflect the light different. Either they are tilted in the slab, they were struck crooked... whatever. being able to slide the light over just an inch or two while viewing it on the monitor allows comparison to previous shots in a blink..

I know I said I wouldn't rave, but after my limited experience, I can't picture for the life of me how Todd does it for example, I believe he mentioned that he looks through the viewfinder to focus. (BTW I have mine electrical taped because light does leak into it)

The Browser that comes with Canon EOS cameras has a filmstrip of recent shots at the bottom, which is super nice when shooting a series for consistency between shots and makes "production modes" a breeze. I can computer control the cameras white balance, ISO, shutter speed, exposure with out getting my lazy butt outa the chair.. I could switch over to AUTO and do less work , but I prefer the tiny tweaks that you can do in manual, besides I'm kind of like our 7th planet.

I guess the point is, that with all that tweaking of camera settings from the comfort of my chair, the only post editing I do, is the circular crop and I do that in GIMP since it was free and my old PS won't run on my 64 bit system and the tools for me feel more intuitive. The middle Lincoln of the 5 above had NGC prongs that I cloned out. IF you look super close you can see where they were.

I am a fan of SONY I started with them and the Mavicas - I thought I was the Chit with floppies and all .... lol The last few years I got off into video with Sony VX2100 - this is one of my edits of one my sons friends. shot and edited by moi truly! http://www.newschoolers.com/ns/content/viewvideo/id/261289/

Oh forgot to mention that you can look at the coin and look at your monitor to see if looks the same colorwise. Or you can pull around the lights to best position for color/tone captures.