I have not been having much luck getting decent pictures with my 10 year old Nikon Coolpix 4300 so I decided to play with the camera in my tablet. The results are much better than the camera but it has no where near the quality of some I have seen posted on the forum. I have a feeling I will be buying a new camera fairly soon. Here are a couple from the tablet.
The AP was taken with a single light and the token with two lights at the sides and high. They are daylight LED bulbs.
What type of Galaxy tablet is that? I have last year's model of the Tab S and I don't think the camera is good enough for coins, at least not in my personal experience. I'm almost tempted to buy a dedicated digital camera for coins. I know we are hooked to our phones, and no doubt that phone cameras (on very high end models) have gotten as good as cheap digital cameras...but due to the size of the lens and sensor size limitations I doubt they could match a 200+ dollar digital camera.
I could never get an image as good using my Galaxy tablet. Are you using a stand or just hand held? The AP looks great except for the shadow while the "medallion" could use some photo editing. But overall, I think it's pretty good.
Well, not bad. Still, think about investing in a digital camera. They've gotten quite cheap and the picture quality will be superior to any of the compact cameras in our cell phones and tablets. You'll be surprised at the amazing digital cameras you can get today for $150. Almost professional grade. If you go $200, you are getting into professional territory. Gone are the days you needed to spend $400+ on a digital camera for mind blowing photos.
I think your right. Besides it will be much easier to store the high resolution pictures to keep an accurate record of my collection.
No matter what you use for your images, you are correct about needing a good storage solution. I think you have to be able to recall the images without difficulty and you need to think of redundancy in case of the inevitable crash.
I highly recommend Dropbox for storing all your images and other coin related files. The free plan will work for most but if not the $99/year option almost certainly will. I've got all my coin photos, many scans of old books and auction catalogs and my photo file of thousands of RR coins as well as all sorts of other important files and I'm not even at 10% of my capacity. It also works seamlessly between my desktop, laptop and phone so I can always access everything. It's actually saved me multiple times since I started using it a few years ago in college to backup my papers and code.
Wow, that looks pretty darn nice. The coin itself looks a bit darker and the black background sure is an improvement.
I don't even know if it has a green patina. This is one of the better busts of Antoninus I've seen. Awesome coin, sir. This is the type of coin where I would cut the bust out, only; to use as an avatar or a phone wallpaper.
The patina is not quite as green as your re-do. It's more brown with a hint of green. My original picture is fairly accurate. As far as the coins goes it looks just as nice in hand. I only got it 2 days ago from a dealer in London. It was a long 3 weeks to wait for delivery.
My photography setup is fairly primitive; but it does alright. I too take my photos with a mobile device; although, I'd say top line smart phones have a much better sensor in them than tablets. I tried taking photos with my Nexus 7 FHD, and the turnouts were poor. I currently use a Galaxy Note 4 and am waiting for the release of the Galaxy S8+ in April. The camera improvement is supposed to be drastic. I have a hard time getting anything under 12-15 mm, depending on the metal, to focus at a decent distance. I have a few different sizes of tetrahedron stands for the coin to sit on, elevated about 1 inch off the surface. I have two, three point desk lamps with white light LED Halogen bulbs to adjust the lighting depending on the surface of the coin. I have two LED pen lights that I shine on either side of the base; but sure not to reflect off the edges of the flan. This helps with providing a visible edge and won't simply wash into the background when cropping out the background. It also prevents a washed out bright white surface when shining white light directly onto the face. I tilt the light, coin, and camera as needed; snap about 3 photos each side, holding the phone as steady as possible; then inspect and choose which one is best. A few minutes cropping, and voila; mediocrity: Kings of Macedon, Struck under Pasikrates 325/3-319/8 BC, Cyprus, Soloi mint. AR Tetradrachm. Head of Herakles right, wearing lion skin / ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟY Zeus Aetophoros seated left, holding eagle and scepter, in left field, prow right. 17.26g 27.27mm
OP pictures are better than the median eBay seller already. They look a little overexposed, but overall not a bad first attempt.