Post a Toned Coin

Some Franklins I picked up last week off of ebay

 

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and this 1958

 

Picked up an old Whitman full of beauties.

I just posted them in the nickel thread, but here a couple to get your juices flowing.

 

i'm normally not a sucker for toners. but i couldn't pass on this guy

 

1897-o

«®»

 

Thanks. I've been trying to simulate something north of 3500, but I wasn't sure the CFLs would do it. I'll try that out.

 

oops wrong thread

 

Just picked this one up today--this isn't my picture, but the seller's. I have been looking for a nice, toned 51 Proof Frankie, with eye appeal. Bingo!!

 

This rainbow herd migrated to me today.

 

Beautiful Coins, Beautiful Pictures! Love that '81o :yes:

 

Haven't seen much love for the Canadian toners eh.
Not a fan? Maybe some of these will change your mind.

This was the start of an abandoned goal of completing a toned half dollar set.

 

1887 Morgan dollar. I don't really know what to make of this toning.

 

:devil:Alabama they would need a Pass Port:devil:
Just Joking
!!!! Gemmy Toners Greg!:yes:!
Like that 1967!:hail:!
Hex I like them All!:thumb:!

 

Pffft...Canadian toners...those are boring and ugly. Who in their right mind would enjoy looking at that dreck? Just send them to me and I'll dispose of them for you properly.



Canadian toners.....:veryangry:

 

Those have to be some of the coolest coins i've ever seen. If you're ever looking to sell any, tell me please.

The 1943 and the second 1944 are my favorites. I'm a fan of deep blue toning but all of them are amazing.

 

I found these two at a shop yesterday. They are common dates, but I did not have these dates already. They were in an old cardboard type of album.

 

I posted this before, but I finally had a chance to photograph it somewhat correctly.
Left to right:

Raspberry background w/ diffused indoor daylight.
Raspberry background w/ 9:00 and 4:30 5000K "daylight" CFLs.
Cyan background w/ 9:00 and 4:30 5000K "daylight" CFLs.

All shot 100 ISO (starting to think I should do 200, as a lot of these are getting odd washout), object white balanced to daylight.

 

@NK

Curious why you shoot the coin with any such color backgrounds (raspberry (=magenta/maroon?) and cyan), then crop the coin out of it's background and present it on a rich colored background (seen here)?

Try to shoot against white, black or a 50% neutral gray background and you'll eliminate the false color which the the other background colors impart on your coin. I can 'see' the overall effect of the warm and cool color difference from the backgrounds in each coin image and that gives a false color reading. That simply defeats the purpose of trying to capture the brilliant color range of your coins' toning. Any color background when you are shooting is reflecting some spectrum of that color and will be picked up by the camera, be it shot on film or a digital sensor. Those lamps will serve you well, but a color background is defeating the purpose of the balanced light you want falling on your subject.

Regarding the presentation... If your intention is to show-off the toning colors on your coin, but you have surrounded the subject matter with a 100% saturated background, this is also fooling our eyes. We see and sense way too much "warm" color looking at this image file. That's distracting our eyes and visual reading of the "WOW! color" on your coin that I'm sure you hoped to capture, share and impress others with.

Most coin images are presented on a black or white solid background and only feature the coin and it's merits. I think you should try things this way for more accurate results.

Using lamps such as you are, you should also do test shots with a range of ISOs, above and below what you think you should be shooting. Also note the lifespan of your bulbs as they too change over time. When you get a new lamp, and try a set up of various angles and distances of the lights from the subject, and if you use other lenses, keep in mind that each unique session and arrangement of all these factors matters and can affect your outcome. Many photographers keep notes and measured settings of these factors to reproduce image quality from one shoot to the next.

Given all the above tips and thoughts, there's always digital editing to get the right balance you may not achieve in your shots, but there again, we will all see it differently as we are all using different monitors of varying quality and resolution. You can go bananas trying to get all these technical things sorted out and still not get everyone on the same page, so start with eliminating the easy stuff like not shooting on color influencing backgrounds, rather than confusing any advice that pricey equipment and software is the key.

It looks to me like there's quite a lot of color on your coin and will really pop when it's not competing with other colors. Sometimes it takes many attempts to get it just right, but the effort is well worth the labor. Hope some of these ideas helped. :thumb:

 

Very nice colors for a Morgan Dollar. I just found them on Ebay.

 

It looks like we are both victims of the toned coin syndrome! I only have a handful of toned coins due to the fact that I don't see them too often at the coin shops that I go to and I don't go on Ebay at all anymore. I seldom see them offered in the on-line auctions that I follow and if I do it is usually a Morgan dollar with monster toning and way out of my price range! Someday I'll be able to get all the toned coins I want. I know it, but for now I'll have to be happy with what I have and keep my eyes open for good deals.