Charliemouse

Thanks to everyone. I've edited the list. I am not sure where I read about the 1/4oz platinums, but I can't find it now.

Yes, I have one! D'oh!

Cool. I have all the normal ones, orientals and now the privy edges. I have some of the specials, but nowhere near all. I think I have over 40 already. It is crazy. Useful resource: Britannia UK - The Complete Silver Rounds Guide (britannia-uk.com)

Complete set of Silver 1oz Britannia Lunar Edge Privy coins. I've had the last one (the Pig) for a couple of weeks, but I've been working out how to photograph the set. What I chose ended up looking more like a stack of pancakes, but you get the idea.

How many different sizes / metals / types of Queens Beasts are there? I don't mean designs - there are 10 of them plus the Completer. I mean 1oz silver, 2oz silver, etc. This is my current list, but every week or two it seems I find a new one. Silver 1/4oz reverse proof Silver 1/4oz proof Silver 1oz proof Silver 2oz proof Silver 2oz bullion Silver 5oz proof Silver 10oz proof (5oz piedfort) Silver 10oz bullion Silver 1kg proof Silver 1kg bullion (completer) Silver 2kg proof (completer) Gold 1/4oz proof Gold 1/4oz reverse proof Gold 1/4oz bullion Gold 1oz bullion Gold 1oz proof Gold 5oz proof Gold 1kg proof Gold 2kg proof (completer) Gold 5kg proof (completer) Gold 10kg proof (completer) Platinum 1/4oz bullion Platinum 1oz bullion What am I missing? I apologise if there is some online reference with this list, but I've looked and can't find it.

Not around here. We're more likely to insist you video the experience and post it on the forum. By the way, I think you should video the experience and post it on the forum.

For example:

Check out the Sovereign Photo thread for more details. Probably more details than you'll want. Yes, you can get good shots through slabs, but there are some caveats. You will lose a little contrast and obviously it's difficult to get an angle for depth. And, of course, the slab needs to be in good condition.

My oldest sovereign so far, from @shawy2510.

1860 Victoria Young Head Sovereign Very pleased with how this turned out. Used an extra macro add-on lens to get about 3:2 magnification. Also used a colour cube to get a very accurate reference for the white balance. With the higher magnification, the height of the frame was effectively only about 20mm, so even a sovereign wouldn't fit. I needed to stack the images, both panning and focusing. The images are 7000x6000 pixels.

Oh, and a gold 1oz QB Dragon would be nice, too.

All I want for Christmas is... ...you lot to carry on doing what you do. I joined the forum in the Summer, and since then I have made many (online) friends, learned so much, and had some great conversations. Some informative, others not so much 😉, but all entertaining and enjoyable. Keep being a great community.

Must be true, then. (Stupid submit button.) Yep, they are excellent. They are in the category of 'black magic' technical clothing, along with Gore-Tex. Forwarded to the Mrs.

It’s 4321. The photo he took on his phone to remind him, is upside down. It’s 4321. The photo he took on his phone to remind him, is upside down.

Hmmm. Sigma: Yep (me too). Boat: Good luck. Collection: EVERYTHING! Impulse: Never gonna happen. YP: Never gonna happen. Like my gym instructor told me, I think you need to set more realistic goals.

Catching up a little bit. This glorious thing arrived last week, from @ilovesilverireallydo. That's 8 different versions of the QB dragon I have now! And I'm pretty sure there are still 4 more.

Excellent job! Glad I could help. If you are having trouble with colour, use a 'grey card'. You can get a proper one on amazon for as little as a fiver, or you could literally find some grey card - but it needs to be properly neutral grey (a piece of paper probably will do at a pinch, but it's not ideal). Take a test photo with the card under the dohickey (no coin). Then carry on as normal. Use the card photo as the white balance reference - your software will tell you how.

Believe me, I was very nervous!

We are discussing photographing them, and there isn't a section that's really appropriate for that other than completely generic threads. But fair enough. Does this count?

East India Company Double Sovereign, courtesy of @SheepStacker. I still don't own a 1989 sovereign, but this is the closest I've got.

Can I quote you in a few years?

For what you are trying to do, you need to invest in something like: Neewer Pro 4-Way Macro Focusing Focus Rail Slider And then a small metal tripod that can hold it. Neewer make small desktop tripods. I rate the brand, as they make reasonable quality stuff at a good price. I personally use that macro head, but on a much bigger tripod on the floor, to give a rock-solid platform for a DSLR. I have not tried their tripods, but you would need an all-metal construction, height adjustable but with wide legs for stability. Your preference should be towards extending the legs rather than the centre column - much more stable. That said, the centre column might get in the way since you are photographing downwards. The ideal for this is a column-less tripod, or one that allows you to remove the column. The good news is that the macro head will transfer to a grown-up tripod for when you want to do other things. The head and tripod together are going to cost you around £100 minimum. Anything less than that is not going to cut it for quality. Tripods are definitely a get-what-you-pay-for thing. Buy cheap, buy twice. Neewer are the lowest quality brand I would buy a tripod from. I can recommend many others, if you want to invest.

It could be sub-millimetre DOF, so good luck. Quick tutorial: Load the individual images as layers of the same image. Select all the layers. Edit | Auto-align layers. Choose the Auto Projection option. That should account for any small differences in the alignment between shots. Edit | Auto-blend layers. Choose Stack Images. You should now have a single layer which is the combination of the best of the others.

Ah ok. Well, it's still 'electronic', since there will be a stepper motor involved, and hence finite. You might be better off physically moving the phone then, especially if you have a tripod that can move smoothly. Actually, that's probably fortunate. It would be fighting the focus of the phone unless you were in macro mode. Of course, it also means you are stuck with the tolerances of manufacture. You can focus stack manually or automatically, depending on the features of the camera. For automatic, modern cameras (I don't know if any phones have this feature, but I guess it could be software driven, so maybe an app?) can be programmed to take a series of shots, adjusting the focus slightly between each one. For manual, you just take the series of shots yourself. Personally, I usually do it manually unless there is a lot of depth - for a face on coin, you might need about 3 to 6 shots, but something like a bar or edge on coin may need 40-100. How you take the shots is one thing, but focus stacking is really about post-processing. Recent versions of Photoshop have a feature to do it, or you can use third-party apps. 7 Best Focus Stacking Software in 2022 (fixthephoto.com) You copy all your photos into it, press a button and it does magic to blend them into one sharp image.

You have the lighting level nice now, and the 'side' lighting is showing the depth well. As for focus. You have the top right quarter almost perfectly in focus on both shots, but the rest of it is out. Unless this is a really weird fault of the camera, it is almost certainly because your focal plane isn't exactly parallel to the face of the coin. With such a narrow depth of field, this is easy to do. If I understand correctly, when you say "manual focus" I assume you mean that you are selecting a point on the screen that the phone is focusing on. Your phone is still autofocusing, but you are telling it what to focus on. Alternatively, does you macro attachment have a focus ring? If so, it will be focusing in addition to the phone's own focus. What photographers would mean by manual focus is manually turning the focus dial of a lens, and taking the electronics out of the equation. So with that DOF, you have two choices. Either get the camera exactly in line with the coin face and still run the risk with bigger or deeper coins of not having everything in focus. Or take multiple shots, focusing at different points, and do post-processing to merge the images into one sharp image (focus stacking).