DetectingWales.com

Ok I've taken three pics of a coin.  The left one under normal living room light, the middle one in my lightbox I made and the right one in good old fashioned living room window daylight.

What you recon?

I would say the daylight one is the best, Rob.

I agree with you fella.

Rob it's difficult for me to advise without knowing the exact lighting set up ie placement and angle of lights, but first thing I notice is that the camera seems to have taken an average light measurement which has over exposed the coin. if you can change the metering modes then change it to spot metering (or on some it's called centre weighted) if you are stuck with average metering then if you can adjust your exposure by -2.
Now if all this is not possible try either using a black background or print out a piece of paper with a 20% tint printed on it. (Word has this facility) and use that as your background although the tint may make some silver Coins look slightly flat. But not as flat as it is now.

Hi Rob I prefer the one on the right

Try a Skylight 1B or a Polarizing filter it my give you the warmth your require for your coins
Failing that just run them under a scanner and play with the colour editing on your computer.

Ok is this one any better ?

(http://www.detectingwales.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=7020.0;attach=19675;image)

Rob it's still too flat and lacks contrast, this is you photo but with the the background whitened  and the contrast turned up. I think your first thing is to colour balance the camera so that you background is white not blue then find the exposure for the background, manually input that and then take your shot. we'll get you there.

Hi Rob,

I might be wrong, but I think your light box is "too" good. That is, you have managed to get the light totally diffused, which is what a lot of art folks want to achieve. However in my opinion, I believe that significant shadow is better for coins and artefactss, to bring out the detail. Are you able to move the light source to a more oblique angle in your box?

This is my attempt at artificially introducing a shadow using a digital filter to induce a NW-SE edging effect, but obviously a natural light shadow would be best. The digital light effect is also exagerating the jpg artefacts.

Regards,

Tony

Tried it with one light today geoff, dont seem to be much difference bar a little shadow.

i use a light box i find it dont cast a shadow
if you place the light right  ;D ;D ;D

Taff its still flat, I'm not sure now if it's caused because of the amount of light flying about or because of colour balance.
Taff just try one with some black card behind it as the background.

Chef check this one out and explain "flat"   ;D

I may have sussed it

Taff, your obviously on the right track as the background is now whiter, but you still need more contrast ("flat is when you have very little contrast) You have black areas on the coin and with the correct exposure those areas will always be black regardless of how much light you throw at them, but they appear grey and "washed out" this is usually caused by the photo being overexposed. This is contrary to how an auto exposure system should handle that lighting set-up as with so much light it would be normal if the camera was underexposing the coin.

As a rule in traditional photography you would get a 20% grey card put that in the base of your light box and take a light reading from that (ie f-stop and shutter speed), now input those setting into your camera (set on manual exposure) and regardless of what colour coin you have the exposure will always be the same. the only differences would be if the item being photographed was much thicker and therefore closer to the light source.
Try taking one with the lens hood on.

I've switched to manual as auto is not allowing me to do spot , or light measuring or any of what you told me to do. The only thing I cant find now is how to alter the contrast.

I took one of my daughter in manual no flash living room light.

Taff that exposure is technically perfect unyet still not what you would be after for a portrait. Not your fault or the cameras. photographs are one dimensional, a face is three dimensional and to capture that we have to use light to give both depth and form. that photograph is taken under ambient light so all skin tones will appear the same, thus flat. A coin on the other hand is one dimensional so we are only recording it's tonal range from it's brightest white to it's darkest black, the problem we are having is that the white is a grey-blue and the black is a dark grey.
God why did I ever give it up, I can feel the passion in me.lol
I shall have a read and get back to you later.

Any better Geoff ?

Much much better Rob you can now see every little detail, in fact you could afford to give it 1/2 a stop more exposure, but its fine and you now have the contrast between the background and coin.

Final effort Geoff

And side by side

Yes Rob thats got it, the last one was a bit out of focus but hey that's easy to sort out. the colour balance and contrast is sorted as is the exposure and the mystery is solved, well done.

Thanks for all your help fella, I really appreciate it. I was about to sling the camera.

ps. Been reading up on Auto mode on reviews and it gets a slating. In manual its great though.