Was I wrong about cell phones?

I have said on several occasions that cameras take better pictures than phones. Before now, I've never had much of a phone so I was basing his on what I had seen posted by others. My daughter provides my cell phone on a family plan in trade for child care and now has given me my first 'Smart' phone (Samsung Galexy 6S). Below are my first coin photos with it. How much of the problems I see are my ineptitude and how much the camera. All strike me as too contrasty with poor tonal renditions. Perhaps I will find a setting that will improve the matter but, for now, I'll consider the phone for emergency coin use only. Hints welcome.

The colors here and surfaces are just not right but I don't know how to improve.

The bright silver denarius faired best of all. Contrast made it sparkle.

The gray silver tone here looks OK but is not smooth and subtle as on the coin.

The coin is dark but the contrast really killed the smoothness.

Shooting with the phone's built in flash gives good detail but nothing but glare. All the rest here were taken with the same Ott light I use with my camera.


To me the bottom line is that the phone can make sharp photos but I have not figured out how to control the tonal range with the controls see available. Considering that one can get a decent camera for less than a phone, I'm not ready to switch.

 

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I like the shots but do you have your original photos to make comparison? Your best representations of what you want the coins to look like?

 

Tone has been the biggest problem I've had. Does your phone have the ability to set the white balance on the camera? I've never tried with my phone but thought it worth mentioning.

 

I'd definitely recommend taking a look at this link
http://www.trustedreviews.com/opinions/samsung-galaxy-s6-camera-9-ways-to-take-better-photos

In particular scroll down till you find "use the pro mode for macro shots." The camera on the Samsung phone is stellar and I suspect with a bit more practice you will learn to better utilize the cameras features

 

This is another Samsung Special.

 

Very nice photos. I know little to nothing about ancient coinage and I am impressed!

 

I'm still having difficulty with using the camera on my S5, but once in a while an image comes out perfect like this one. The other side I can't seem to get into focus w/o a glare:


this is with my camera:


The S5 shot is an almost exact copy of the the coin while the camera shot has too much glare. I'll keep trying.

 

BTW, here is the image I had prior to these last:

 

I think for photos snapped with a phone...those OP shots are pretty dog gone good! Crisp detail and the lighting isn't that bad with or without flash.

My phone certainly wouldn't take shots of that quality.

 

Doug, your smart phone images are still better than most other people's coin photos regardless of what type of device they used.

As for your observations regarding contrast, iPhones also add a whopping amount of contrast and saturation (if picture is taken in moderately strong light). I can't tell about saturation, but it does look like the Samsung is liberal with automatic contrast enhancement.

 

me i have been dieing to upgrade!!! still using a hydro xtreme

 

I don't even own a phone (when I'm off the job, I'm off the grid!!)

... oh, but my young wife always has her phone in case of emergencies (ummm, or in case we have to settle some sort of trivia question that I usually lose)

... but if I did own a phone, I'm sure that I'd end-up taking photos of my thumb?!

 

my samsung 3 is not the best camera - perhaps the 6 has been improved for that.

 

And the 5.

 

This coin was sort of difficult to photograph. It kept wanting to come out blast white (PB) color like Bing's second photo. I moved the fluorescent light away and illuminated the entire room. Then I used http://apps.pixlr.com/editor/ to increase the brightness / contrast till it looked right.

 

Same thing here....

 

These two were laid flat with no adjustment.

 

Wow, Anoob! You've obviously been working hard to improve your images. Kudos!!

 

Thanks for noticing TIF. It means a lot coming from you.

I have quite a few coins that one does not see everyday, some are represented in reference only as a drawing and thus by not taking the time to give the specimen a proper photo, then I felt I was doing the hobby a disservice.

 

While on the topic of photos...

How can improve this photo? The coin has been mechanically buffed and appears very bright silver. (Its rare and will tone later not worried)

Bahram VI yr. 1 AD 590