old coin

kwickers

100 years old

Lord Vetinari

Lovely shot- looks well worn !
Brian v.

Snowgirl

I am JUST learning about macro photography having received a lens etc. for Christmas. One of the projects I want to tackle this winter is shooting an extensive coin collection for sale and insurance purposes. Would you mind sharing your lighting and exif data information?

Thanks so much.
Ceci

basflt

Ceci , im afraid some coins will be to big for your MPE-65

OP used a 150 mm
[ you can check EXIF if you click the pic > show details on top of frame > info ]

Overfocused

kwickers wrote: »

100 years old

As a past time coin collector myself, and looking at the original sized photo on smugmug, if the photo really is about the coin... from a collector's POV I'm sorry to say that it is not a very good photo of a coin. There is artistic freedom in everything, and that's up to the photographer. But, if you sent this to me for sales or display on a collection website, I would not like this photo and I would probably find a new photog since nearly everything that can technically be done wrong is done here. Don't take it personally, cause this is nothing personal at all. I just want to give you a heads up since if a serious collector or appreciator wanted to look at a picture of one of your coins for the sake of the coin, their thought process is going to come from the same general area as mine.

There are 3 technical problems. The first and most important part being that the entire coin is out of focus. The condition of the art on the coin is almost completely what gives a coin its character. Now, I'd most likely not know this was OOF from a preview this size, but as a photog, I looked at the original sized photo, and all the detail is blurry and in the end it just gives a bad representation of the coin. Since I know there is a lot of headroom for rendering the coin better, I am going to mention it as your primary issue. If the original photo was accurately in focus this forum preview would still yield more detail, even to the extent that it has been downsized. Second and third go together. The coin is very evenly yellow and there isn't really any brilliance to the coin. I've seen a Morgan this evenly yellow but the coins are still very brilliant and bright, even when yellowed. This photo shows an almost matte finish to the coin, which leads me to believe the white balance is off mixed with underexposure. Or it had a nasty dunk in a chemical bath that turned it a muted yellow. I think it's %99.9 likely the white balance and exposure is off though... I doubt you're dunking your coins in some chemicals, lol.

With that said, I will say the position of the lighting, however, is good. I like the highlight on the face. Lighting is where I'd say you have the most room to get creative, too. Depth of field can get creative and fun too, but %99.9 of the time you can't do much creatively with DOF if you're looking at the coin straight on. It could get creative straight on if you get your depth so shallow that you could isolate parts of the art from others (MP e-65 territory) But that's a different level of macro and it'd require a ton of precision and possibly patience if you don't have the right platform to set it up on.

Snowgirl

basflt wrote: »

Ceci , im afraid some coins will be to big for your MPE-65

OP used a 150 mm
[ you can check EXIF if you click the pic > show details on top of frame > info ]

Thank you very much. I played with a nickle from my wallet and I can see where this will be very challenging for many things.

Appreciate your insight!

Snowgirl

Overfocused wrote: »

As a past time coin collector myself, and looking at the original sized photo on smugmug, if the photo really is about the coin... from a collector's POV I'm sorry to say that it is not a very good photo of a coin. There is artistic freedom in everything, and that's up to the photographer. But, if you sent this to me for sales or display on a collection website, I would not like this photo and I would probably find a new photog since nearly everything that can technically be done wrong is done here. Don't take it personally, cause this is nothing personal at all. I just want to give you a heads up since if a serious collector or appreciator wanted to look at a picture of one of your coins for the sake of the coin, their thought process is going to come from the same general area as mine.

There are 3 technical problems. The first and most important part being that the entire coin is out of focus. The condition of the art on the coin is almost completely what gives a coin its character. Now, I'd most likely not know this was OOF from a preview this size, but as a photog, I looked at the original sized photo, and all the detail is blurry and in the end it just gives a bad representation of the coin. Since I know there is a lot of headroom for rendering the coin better, I am going to mention it as your primary issue. If the original photo was accurately in focus this forum preview would still yield more detail, even to the extent that it has been downsized. Second and third go together. The coin is very evenly yellow and there isn't really any brilliance to the coin. I've seen a Morgan this evenly yellow but the coins are still very brilliant and bright, even when yellowed. This photo shows an almost matte finish to the coin, which leads me to believe the white balance is off mixed with underexposure. Or it had a nasty dunk in a chemical bath that turned it a muted yellow. I think it's %99.9 likely the white balance and exposure is off though... I doubt you're dunking your coins in some chemicals, lol.

With that said, I will say the position of the lighting, however, is good. I like the highlight on the face. Lighting is where I'd say you have the most room to get creative, too. Depth of field can get creative and fun too, but %99.9 of the time you can't do much creatively with DOF if you're looking at the coin straight on. It could get creative straight on if you get your depth so shallow that you could isolate parts of the art from others (MP e-65 territory) But that's a different level of macro and it'd require a ton of precision and possibly patience if you don't have the right platform to set it up on.

Excellent information. Thank you. I inherited my grandfather's coin collection (sadly, an enormous box full of coins from Canada, the USA, England and parts of Europe - various denominations - not mounted in any books) and my winter project is to go through the box, sort the coins, photograph as many as possible (once I learn MUCH more about this macro thing!) and determine the value of the coins / total collection. Since I am not a collector myself, I will probably sell the collection eventually, but in the meantime it will make an interesting historical exercise since I assume the foreign coins were collected during WW1 when my grandfather was overseas with the military. I have his old letters to my grandmother so it may be fun to try and match the coins to his travels for a bit of a story.

Overfocused

Snowgirl wrote: »

but in the meantime it will make an interesting historical exercise since I assume the foreign coins were collected during WW1 when my grandfather was overseas with the military. I have his old letters to my grandmother so it may be fun to try and match the coins to his travels for a bit of a story.

very cool, sounds like its worth pursuing

kwickers

Hello, Thanks for all the comments. I understand the issues brought up, focus, DOF, Yellow light, WB All could be improved for shooting a serious coin collection.

THIS photo was a quick knock off (not sure why it is not razor sharp, I think slight camera movement maybe at a slow shutter) But MAINLY it was one of the first test of my New lights that Santa brought me.



I am just learning how to shoot with this kind of lighting. 2 Continuous 500 Watt Soft Box lights. They are awesome!! But I'll admit this was only my 2nd shot using this lighting.

P.S. Shot with a Nikon d80 with a Sigma 150mm Macro at ISO 400 f/25 .2sec.(1/5)

Here is a new shot done under the same lights,

The Cryptex


Keith :-)

basflt

^^
with again the warm brownish color
allthough i like it , i say , cool down on the WB a bit , either in camera or in PP
artificial lights is always warmer then natural light