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Author Topic: Extremely high detail photo of my Falling Horseman Fel Temp  (Read 994 times)

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Cam D

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Extremely high detail photo of my Falling Horseman Fel Temp
« on: October 26, 2020, 11:56:51 am »
Hi all!
Longtime lurker here, I'm more active on the r/AncientCoins subreddit but I thought it's about time I start posting over here too.

So this is where my hobbies of collecting ancient coins and macrophotography crosses over in a big way. I've long been "stacking" my coin photos but I've been experimenting with "stack and stitch" recently.

For those unfamiliar with the terms, "stacking" is where you have a smaller depth of field than required to capture your subject in focus in a single photo, so you take multiple photos of the subject at slightly different distances and merge them together with software. This results in a single photo with the entire subject in focus. "Stitching" on the other hand is similar to taking a panorama: you capture different parts of the subject in each photo and use software to stitch them together to end up with one photo of your whole subject.

The two methods can be combined to achieve a very high level of detail. Usually I shoot coins at around 1x magnification so the whole coin is in frame, but with stitching I can shoot smaller parts of the coin at 2x magnification and combine them into one large image. Add stacking to the equation and you can ensure you end up with an entire coin in focus at 2x magnification.

This is what I attempted recently on my Fel Temp coin, the result is an 168megapixel photo of each side. You can see the results at the link below and make sure to zoom all the way in!
https://www.easyzoom.com/imageaccess/a46741e4d62f4bb0a0eeb4a02cd1f7ac

For reference, this is what the reverse looks like using only "stacking" at 1x magnification:
https://www.easyzoom.com/imageaccess/0bf7ebd26c66449fa5fce6fdc7a76eb6

Offline quadrans

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Re: Extremely high detail photo of my Falling Horseman Fel Temp
« Reply #1 on: October 26, 2020, 03:51:01 pm »
Great idea... +++

Joe
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Offline Blayne W

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Re: Extremely high detail photo of my Falling Horseman Fel Temp
« Reply #2 on: October 26, 2020, 05:51:31 pm »
What program(s) do you use?

Offline SC

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Re: Extremely high detail photo of my Falling Horseman Fel Temp
« Reply #3 on: October 26, 2020, 06:00:47 pm »
Fantastic!  Great fun surfing around the image.

You get a very nice view of a rarely seen feature - the standing Emperor's sleeve (on raised right arm) appear to be mailed.

SC
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Offline Molinari

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Re: Extremely high detail photo of my Falling Horseman Fel Temp
« Reply #4 on: October 26, 2020, 06:02:36 pm »
Looks great.  I am such a lousy photographer, which basically means I'm lazy!

Offline Jay GT4

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Re: Extremely high detail photo of my Falling Horseman Fel Temp
« Reply #5 on: October 27, 2020, 12:05:11 am »
Excellent results.  I'd like to know the program's as well.

Cam D

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Re: Extremely high detail photo of my Falling Horseman Fel Temp
« Reply #6 on: October 27, 2020, 04:25:30 am »
Thanks everyone!

In terms of the software, I'm using the following:
Zerene Stacker: import "substacks" into Zerene and combine into a single image for each substack
Microsoft's Image Composite Editor: arrange the substacks into the correct order to stitch them together
Lightroom: Touch up exposure, shadows, highlights etc and remove background
Photoshop: Combine both sides of the coin into one image.

On the hardware side, I have a Sony A7R III and Laowa 100m f2.8 2x macro lens. I also have built an automated system for focus stacking, you can see a video of that here: https://streamable.com/2k9s08

It doesn't help too much with "stack and stitch" since I need to move the coin between each substack but I have an automated XY axes that I can integrate into the system to automate that part of it as well.

The software is the key part though. You can do a lot with an older DSLR and secondhand macro lens or similar!

Fantastic!  Great fun surfing around the image.

You get a very nice view of a rarely seen feature - the standing Emperor's sleeve (on raised right arm) appear to be mailed.

SC


I've been looking at this image for so long and am still noticing some new things each time I look at it. I always preferred the reverse on these types but I have a newfound respect for the portrait seeing it this up close and how smooth the surface of the face is compared to the reverse.

 

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