Sovereign Photo Thread...

[drakesterling]

Here's an 1887 proof sovereign with something very special. Can anyone tell what makes it special? (Steve Hill and David Iverson would know.)

[Silverlocks]

Not quite up to @DrDave's standard, but I took Lizzie out for a photo shoot in direct sunlight - the sheen looks really good in direct sunlight, although it shows up the little scuff marks and imperfections a bit in the photos.    

 

[drakesterling]

The last of Sydney's sovereigns. This one is graded PCGS MS63.

[Paul]

What happened to sovereignsteve here?? He just seem to disappear.

He seemed a very nice and knowledgeable chap posting and dealing/trading with him 

[Shinus73]

27 minutes ago, Paul said:

What happened to sovereignsteve here?? He just seem to disappear.

He seemed a very nice and knowledgeable chap posting and dealing/trading with him 

I asked myself the same thing a few days ago after looking through some old messages.

[GoldDiggerDave]

On 18/10/2022 at 21:35, drakesterling said:

Here's an 1887 proof sovereign with something very special. Can anyone tell what makes it special? (Steve Hill and David Iverson would know.)

Second legend......should be a first legend for a London mint 1887. 

[Tn21]

18 hours ago, Paul said:

What happened to sovereignsteve here?? He just seem to disappear.

He seemed a very nice and knowledgeable chap posting and dealing/trading with him 

Still on the forum, maybe just not as active. 

I have done business with him not too long ago. 

[Silverlocks]

Another experiment with my redneck light box - this time a Gillick Sovereign with its satin finish.

Camera is a Samsung Note 10.  I think the light was a little bit low for its camera as it kept dropping into HDR mode.  I suspect I need a better diffuse light source.

[Silverlocks]

And, here's a modern sov taken the same way - I think you can see reflections of the inside of the box, so it might be better to paint the interior black.

Edited October 22, 2022 by Silverlocks

[drakesterling]

All Sydney Mint sovereigns in MS are tough, even the common dates. Here's an 1866 in PCGS MS62.

[Silverlocks]

Here's an attempt with lighting from both sides from my £29.99 lighting kit.  Still a bit of glare, but I brought the levels down a bit in Photoshop to take the edge off it.

I got it to take the photo as RAW this time, and used Photoshop to crop the picture and diddle the curves slightly to take off the worst of the glare and save it as the highest quality JPEG it would.  However, I still feel it's not getting a whole lot better, maybe not focusing correctly?

Edited October 30, 2022 by Silverlocks

[drakesterling]

A lovely early half sovereign from 1818 in NGC MS63.

[drakesterling]

The first sovereign. This one is in low grade (PCGS VF20), but the date has been very popular with collectors the last few years.

[modofantasma]

[Mox]

Up close, closer than close, so close you can almost see Her Maj's nose hair...

Obverse F, reverse EF? Any thoughts?

Edited November 9, 2022 by Mox

[Mox]

Different settings with a shiny sov

[Mox]

And same settings with an unshiny 1878 Belgian 20F

Edited November 13, 2022 by Mox

[Mox]

Bo11ocks, just realised this is a sov only thread....

[Silverlocks]

And from a suggestion by @Charliemouse - taken with just the camera's lens built into the phone.  I did discover if you just do it in normal mode you get fairly visible JPEG artefacts, which (I think) feature prominently in quite a few photos of sovs I've seen on the buy/sell boards.  Setting pro mode on the camera also gives raw images. With the camera a bit further away we can illuminate the sov a bit better, and it's showing its sheen without too much reflection now, although there's still a bit of glare on the obverse.
Making progress, I think.  I've got some 35l really useful boxes that I might be able to adapt into a light box, for a first level of quick and dirty probably by just taping white card to the outside as they're translucent.

[AaaGee]

Posted on another thread a while ago but my still pix didn't come out well. Will try again sometime.

 

[Silverlocks]

And, from another suggestion by @DrDave, this one is illuminated by shining a flat LED lamp through tracing paper to diffuse it.  Same 1963 Gillick sovereign - this one shows off the lustre of the satin finish quite well and you can pick out the detail of the Gillick portrait.
I think this approach has the best balance so far between not being too flat and not having too much glare from specular reflection of the light.  It does bring up the detail so you can see it. 'Pro' mode on the camera captures raw files, which are a win as the default JPEG coming off the camera has visible compression artefacts on the detail.  Loading and cropping with Photoshop allows saving it at the best quality JPEG (you can adjust how much detail to throw away), which retains the detail pretty well.

Edited November 13, 2022 by Silverlocks

[DrDave]

1 hour ago, Silverlocks said:

And, from another suggestion by @DrDave, this one is illuminated by shining a flat LED lamp through tracing paper to diffuse it.  Same 1963 Gillick sovereign - this one shows off the lustre of the satin finish quite well and you can pick out the detail of the Gillick portrait.
I think this approach has the best balance so far between not being too flat and not having too much glare from specular reflection of the light.  It does bring up the detail so you can see it. 'Pro' mode on the camera captures raw files, which are a win as the default JPEG coming off the camera has visible compression artefacts on the detail.  Loading and cropping with Photoshop allows saving it at the best quality JPEG (you can adjust how much detail to throw away), which retains the detail pretty well.

Looking good.

Try with different coins too. A bright bullion or proof will need a different approach to a dull circulated coin.

 

[Silverlocks]

25 minutes ago, DrDave said:

Looking good.

Try with different coins too. A bright bullion or proof will need a different approach to a dull circulated coin.

 

Thank you.  I did some playing around with silver coins the other day; there are some attempts at a 2021 Knights of the past coin, which I picked because it was very shiny.  I will go back to some of the other coins at some point soon; this project has been to figure out how to get a decent picture of a sovereign, which has taken quite a few attempts.

Edited November 13, 2022 by Silverlocks

[Charliemouse]

4 hours ago, Silverlocks said:

And from a suggestion by @Charliemouse - taken with just the camera's lens built into the phone.  I did discover if you just do it in normal mode you get fairly visible JPEG artefacts, which (I think) feature prominently in quite a few photos of sovs I've seen on the buy/sell boards.  Setting pro mode on the camera also gives raw images. With the camera a bit further away we can illuminate the sov a bit better, and it's showing its sheen without too much reflection now, although there's still a bit of glare on the obverse.
Making progress, I think.  I've got some 35l really useful boxes that I might be able to adapt into a light box, for a first level of quick and dirty probably by just taping white card to the outside as they're translucent.

Don’t be afraid to underexpose the image, to manage those highlights.  Just dial exposure compensation 1 stop down, maybe 2 at most.  You can always brighten the image back up in post.  It will mean you won’t lose any significant detail in the bright spots.

I use diffusion paper (sometimes cooking parchment) in front of a variable light panel.  Very effective for coins.

[Silverlocks]

3 minutes ago, Charliemouse said:

Don’t be afraid to underexpose the image, to manage those highlights.  Just dial exposure compensation 1 stop down, maybe 2 at most.  You can always brighten the image back up in post.  It will mean you won’t lose any significant detail in the bright spots.

I use diffusion paper (sometimes cooking parchment) in front of a variable light panel.  Very effective for coins.

@DrDave also suggested that, and I did another one that way here -

https://www.thesilverforum.com/topic/4681-sovereign-photo-thread/?do=findComment&comment=755677

 

Edited November 13, 2022 by Silverlocks