Opinions much needed!

[duece2seven]

Could you rate these for me please? If you would, base your opinions on which coin displays the best marker qualities.
I've been working really hard on whole coin shots for eBay. The coins are numbered 1-4. Rank them in order of preference.
These are basically unadulterated except for external diffusion and lightning. I will post enhanced pics of these after considering your
opinions. Thanks so much for your help!

Tracy

[willbrooks]

I like #2 the best and #1 the least because it is too dark. However, in all of them, the hair detail is lost in the shadows. See if you can tweak the light to pick that up better. That said, they all beat the heck out of my crappy photos! lol.

[mustbebob]

I am kinda thinking 4 is the best for me, them 3, 1 and 2. I think 2 is too bright with a glare. 1 is a little dark as Will states, but it is not terrible. the others are real close. Something to take into consideration is that when the differences are so minor, the settings on someone's monitor or video cards could make the small differences irrelevant.

[Roller]

4 is the best because you stopped down the aperture the most on that one. They're good but appear a bit out of focus. Change your background to black and crop your pictures to see if that will improve things.

[GrumpyEd]

I think 2 is too bright, 1 is too dark so 3 or 4 are better.

Someone has liked each one the best. Maybe there is no real right answer.

[willbrooks]

\

Someone has liked each one the best. Maybe there is no real right answer.

Well, right. I agree. To clarify, I think they are all adequate, and very close to each other in quality. The only significant issue to me was the shadows in the hair.

[dinkyblue]

I like number 4, it seems to be sort of "in between" the others as far as lighting. Can't say much about the color, my wife say's I'm color blind............................................D an

[jfines69]

Except for the focus 4 - 1 - 3 - 2 for reasons stated by the others!!!

[onecent1909]

For Me it is 3 4 1 2
But as stated they are very close.
I would not want it to bright or to dark as their monitor may make it darker or lighter.
try for right in the middle
When I would take nature pics I would bracket it with 3 pics by 1 stop
and chose the best to me

[duece2seven]

Many thanks, gentlemen! Sorry for the out of focus shots. I was so focused on brightness I forgot to "focus"! I was also using a new, very expensive ringlite - a Styrofoam cup placed over the coin with a hole cut in the top for my DinoLite to fit through. 😉.

You all made very valid points that helped. These were all the exact same shot with varying degrees of contrast. I see now that the cup mutes out the background too much which somehow threw off the focus. Switching to black should neutralize that. I need a north/south light source which should add the hair and lower bust detail I'm missing. I can also get a bit closer to the coin. Working distance is a huge issue with my scope. I'm right on the edge of it's capabilities vertically in these shots. Much closer I can't get the light in. Much further away and I lose detail around the devices.

Gonna dial in the focus and throw all your ideas into the Helicon Filter blender. I shall return later with the results! Thanks

[jfines69]

Cool... I love to experiment... Especially when it goes boom :LOL_Hair:

[Frank]

Booms are fuuuuun!


http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g143/frankvsmaximvs/TDR%20Stuff/GRINCHSMILE.gif~original

[jfines69]

Booms are fuuuuun!


http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g143/frankvsmaximvs/TDR%20Stuff/GRINCHSMILE.gif~original


:sign10: The bigger the better :LOL_Hair:

[ray_parkhurst]

I am coming in late to this one...I prefer #4, it has similar characteristics to #1 but more "pop".

[TJ1952]

I'll go with #4.

[duece2seven]

Haven't had time to revisit this yet. I've pondering the concept of cutting down an enlarger lens or something similar to give me a little more working distance. I wonder if that would work? So hard to keep proper lighting and luster with this scope. This is a blazer of a coin but it doesn't show.

[ray_parkhurst]

It looks like your lighting is hitting the coin from all around, like a ring light? If you block the light from hitting the coin from between 4:00 and 8:00, and between 11:00 and 1:00, it might improve the luster. Use masking or electrical tape over the lights and see what happens!

[duece2seven]

This about as good as I can do, guys. This coin was a real challenge. In hand the luster just booms in some areas but is broken/mottled in others.
I ended up ditching the styrofoam cup as a filter and just kept moving my two jansjo desk lamps around until the lighting made sense.
I also took Rollers advice and switched to a dark, black background. That made a tremendous difference as it made it much easier to control
the contrast and focus. My main goal was to find a consistent scope/lighting arrangement for BU coin pics that I could "set and forget" so to speak.
It's a little darker than I prefer in a few areas (upper left hair and lower left bust) but, overall, I'm happy with the pic in total. Definitely have room for improvement but I'm pretty satisfied that I've maxed out the capabilities of my scope at this point. Thanks again for your feedback, guys!

Tracy

[jfines69]

That is a good pic... I like it... A little fuzzy on the highest point of the rim and Abe (That could be me tho)... You do use Helicon Focus for image stacking??? How many pics do you use for full coin shots???

[duece2seven]

That is a good pic... I like it... A little fuzzy on the highest point of the rim and Abe (That could be me tho)... You do use Helicon Focus for image stacking??? How many pics do you use for full coin shots???

I actually didn't even use Helicon on this one. I was so happy that I was finally able to fix the lighting to pull the luster off the coin that I completely forgot to refocus and stack in Helicon. I actually haven't done enough stacking to be sure I'm doing it correctly but I normally use 4 to 5 pics, Jim. Seems like I remember Ray recommending 5 if memory serves me correctly. You know how my memory is, though!🤔

[jfines69]

I actually didn't even use Helicon on this one. I was so happy that I was finally able to fix the lighting to pull the luster off the coin that I completely forgot to refocus and stack in Helicon. I actually haven't done enough stacking to be sure I'm doing it correctly but I normally use 4 to 5 pics, Jim. Seems like I remember Ray recommending 5 if memory serves me correctly. You know how my memory is, though!樂
I use 4 to 5 pics for stacking... That pic came out so good I thought you had used Helicon but wasn't sure... Wish I had a memory :LOL_Hair:

[Ordinary Fool]

On my monitor, that coin is almost 17" in diameter. The first one appears far more natural on it's 2K screen than the rest although with large pixels. I haven't checked it on any Super Amoled devices.