I might have figured this out!!! how I photograph

[Keith]

As most of you know I am fairly new to the hobby and have basically jumped in with both feet. In the beginning I was taking shots with a little handheld canon powershot and trying to get close ups by holding the camera up to the eyepiece of the microscope - got the point across but not great pictures. Over the last several months I have graduated to a canon T3i with a 60mm Macro lens. My biggest problem was lighting but I think I just figured it out - I seem to get better pictures with halogen lighting so I had a brilliant idea (at least I thought it was ). I removed the head from the scope and inserted camera. First pic shows the rig, second pic is my biggest find so far! (1983 DDR) Let me know what you think. And if you think its bad tell me! I can take it!

[Antiquity]

I think it looks great to my amateur eye. The pros might have some critiques, but I love it. Great job.

[Maineman750]

Like Thomas, I'm no pro at photography, but the coin shot looks pretty good.

[ray_parkhurst]

Looks pretty good! The microscope stand will give you very fine control over focus. To get the most out of this setup, I would suggest the following setup parameters and workflow:

ISO 100
Camera in Av (Aperture Priority) mode
Lens Manual Focus
Aperture f5.6
Ev compensation to -0.5
Adjust coarse framing with the microscope stand
Adjust coarse focus with the manual control on the lens
Readjust coarse framing and focus until the coin takes up about 90% of the frame height (about 3100 pixels)
Adjust lighting to your liking in the main Live View window
Choose a focus window (white box) where there is high, middle, and low relief features in the window
Switch to 100% zoom window
Use fine focus control of the microscope to do critical focusing to the MIDDLE relief feature
Snap the shot
Downsize 4x, to 1296x864
Crop to 800x800 with coin in the center of the image
Do any post-processing on the final cropped image

For Lincoln Obverse, I use the corner where Chin, Neck, and Field all come together near the center of the coin for critical focusing. There are similar areas on most coins that have lots of topography variation.

If you're shooting RAW, then you would do your initial postprocessing for levels adjustment in RAW format, and any final postprocessing after downsizing.

[jfines69]

Nice pics... I like the set up!!!

[Keith]

Holy Cow Ray, I am going to have to go to school to figure some of that stuff out! I appreciate the guidance and the vote of confidence. I will start right now - Thanks.

[ray_parkhurst]

Holy Cow Ray, I am going to have to go to school to figure some of that stuff out! I appreciate the guidance and the vote of confidence. I will start right now - Thanks.

Don't hesitate to ask any questions about the suggestions I made.

The setup you have with the microscope stand is very similar to what I use and have built for many folks. Only difference (other than your T3i vs my T2i) is you're using a macro lens with the stand rather than bellows and duplicating lens. The functionality is the same as long as you use manual focus and aperture control . Manual operation will allow you to get a much sharper final image. The workflow I suggested will give you the best publishable image you can achieve, though as you've discovered getting lighting right is really the key to a good coin image.