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Please Tell Me: How Awful are these Pictures...? (critique the pics pls, not the coin)
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<p>[QUOTE="messydesk, post: 3533439, member: 1765"]The pictures aren't awful.</p><p><br /></p><p>You show the surfaces reasonably well. I can tell how "hard" they are, and where there's porosity and defects. The color, I'm not sure, as I don't have the coin in hand. As you know, proper representation of the color of copper is critical. A little too pink or green (it doesn't take much) and the coin looks really weird. Specular reflections will mute the color, which doesn't do you any favors, either. If I were to guess, I'd say that the color and overall appearance of the coin is best represented by the horizontal slice of the obverse image passing just below Liberty's chin and being about 10% the height of the image. Above that, you lose color to the reflection, below that, you lose surface characteristics. The reverse looks to be a different color from the obverse if I look at the bottom of the reverse.</p><p><br /></p><p>How best to deal with this if using sunlight? Maybe try a white piece of paper near the bottom of the coin as a fill reflector to bump up the light there a little, thus evening out the lighting a bit. You don't want to totally fill in all the shadows, or you won't see the coin's detail, but some experimenting might bet you what you want.</p><p><br /></p><p>Another thing you might want to do if a dark coin is taking up most of the frame of your photo is to tell the camera to underexpose it. Your camera's meter is expecting something that is lighter overall, and may be overexposing to make it appear that way. Underexposing will counteract that.</p><p><br /></p><p>My preference, of course, would be to use lamps that are at a lower-than-normal angle and diffuse. This will make the light more even, give good shadows showing the detail of the coin, and avoid specular reflections.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="messydesk, post: 3533439, member: 1765"]The pictures aren't awful. You show the surfaces reasonably well. I can tell how "hard" they are, and where there's porosity and defects. The color, I'm not sure, as I don't have the coin in hand. As you know, proper representation of the color of copper is critical. A little too pink or green (it doesn't take much) and the coin looks really weird. Specular reflections will mute the color, which doesn't do you any favors, either. If I were to guess, I'd say that the color and overall appearance of the coin is best represented by the horizontal slice of the obverse image passing just below Liberty's chin and being about 10% the height of the image. Above that, you lose color to the reflection, below that, you lose surface characteristics. The reverse looks to be a different color from the obverse if I look at the bottom of the reverse. How best to deal with this if using sunlight? Maybe try a white piece of paper near the bottom of the coin as a fill reflector to bump up the light there a little, thus evening out the lighting a bit. You don't want to totally fill in all the shadows, or you won't see the coin's detail, but some experimenting might bet you what you want. Another thing you might want to do if a dark coin is taking up most of the frame of your photo is to tell the camera to underexpose it. Your camera's meter is expecting something that is lighter overall, and may be overexposing to make it appear that way. Underexposing will counteract that. My preference, of course, would be to use lamps that are at a lower-than-normal angle and diffuse. This will make the light more even, give good shadows showing the detail of the coin, and avoid specular reflections.[/QUOTE]
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Please Tell Me: How Awful are these Pictures...? (critique the pics pls, not the coin)
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