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Author Topic: Jaimelai's Coins  (Read 40695 times)

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Offline mihali84

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Re: Jaimelai's Coins
« Reply #25 on: December 19, 2009, 06:18:10 pm »
Those are some great coins you added, the pictures look good to me.  I had the same problem with the shine on one of my tetradrachms, i must of taken 100 pictures before i got it right.  Your Severus Alexander is flawless, the flan cracks add a lot of character to the coin and Mars on the reverse is beautifully depicted.  Congratulations!

Regards
Mike
A man's character is his fate- Heraclitus
My gallery: https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/index.php?cat=23798

Offline Jaimelai

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Re: Jaimelai's Coins
« Reply #26 on: January 26, 2010, 09:40:32 am »
I've added a few more "interesting" coins (at least I find them so).  Thanks for the comments! - looks like my Geta and Severus Alexander are pretty popular, though my medusa where the snakes spell out something in a "proto-Hebrew" (or so it has been suggested) has gotten the most views.   :)

Offline Enodia

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Re: Jaimelai's Coins
« Reply #27 on: January 26, 2010, 04:43:56 pm »
i like the Medusa myself, but i believe it should read 'Gorgon' instead of Gordon (unless maybe this particular Gorgon is Canadian, eh?).

~ Peter

nikos k

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Re: Jaimelai's Coins
« Reply #28 on: January 26, 2010, 04:59:17 pm »
Very nice Gorgons and Lions collections! And some really beautiful Greek bronzes.

Offline Randygeki(h2)

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Re: Jaimelai's Coins
« Reply #29 on: January 26, 2010, 05:17:05 pm »
nice ones

Offline Jaimelai

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Re: Jaimelai's Coins
« Reply #30 on: January 26, 2010, 09:32:58 pm »
Thanks for the head's upon the typo - lol - guess I owe my neighbor an apology, wait a second, he hasn't returned my ladder yet - guess I owe Medusa the apology!

Offline Jaimelai

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Re: Jaimelai's Coins
« Reply #31 on: January 26, 2010, 09:41:36 pm »
Nikos - thanks for the comment on my Hamaxitos Apollo - I'm kind of excited about it as I think it may be fairly rare. I've found some similar ones listed, but they were of a smaller size.

Offline Johnny

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Re: Jaimelai's Coins
« Reply #32 on: February 02, 2010, 06:52:55 pm »
Love that MARS VLTOR,  great coin  and great collection

Offline Jaimelai

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Re: Jaimelai's Coins
« Reply #33 on: February 03, 2010, 01:00:14 am »
Thank you very much!  I am tending more toward the Greek side of things, but when that one came up, I couldn't resist!

Offline dougsmit

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Re: Jaimelai's Coins
« Reply #34 on: February 04, 2010, 10:16:26 pm »
To my eye, Caracalla is too contrasty and dark.  If your camera offers contrast control, try setting it on a lower setting.  If you are postprocessing using full featured software, try using the Shadow/Highlight tool to lower the highlights and lighten shadows without losing mid tone contrasts.  The shot as posted lacks a lot in the way of shadow detail because of the darkness so it did not process real well but I believe might do better with a lighter, flatter starting point.  This was done with Photoshop Elements.  Of course not knowing what the coin looks like in hand makes this hard to do correctly.  This seems to emphasize surface irregularities but I don't know if that is being fair to the coin or not.   


Offline Jaimelai

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Re: Jaimelai's Coins
« Reply #35 on: February 04, 2010, 11:12:42 pm »
Thank you very much for your comments and taking the time to help me with this coin.  It has indeed given me a lot of trouble. I believe it was cleaned with a silver polish at some point and now very minor surface flaws reflect light every which way, so no, my photo does not do it justice.  I don't really use any postprocessing other than Paint to combine and crop the reverse to the obverse photos.  The rest is all done with moving my Ott Lites at different angles with the camera settings on macro and auto (Cannon Powershot SX110 IS).  I only recently downloaded Gimp and so far have figured out how to change the backgrounds, but that is about it.  I was going to see how it looked with a white background (or perhaps a nice pastle? - just kidding),  but I could just reshoot on a light background.  What do you mean by "flatter"?  Raising the angle of the lights?  I have been using the Ott Lite bases themselves  to bounce the light off to help cut down on the glare, but perhaps I should try moving them further away.  Also, I just recently started shooting remotely from my computer resulting in sharper pictures, but cutting down on the camera setting options. 

I'll go try some of those suggestions now (well, as soon as my wife goes to sleep).

Thanks!


Offline Jaimelai

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Re: Jaimelai's Coins
« Reply #36 on: February 09, 2010, 11:08:13 pm »
Well, over 500 pics later, I came up with a little better pic of that coin.  I tried using GIMP, but that has a large learning curve for me also, so back to repositioning my OTT lights every which way and bouncing light here and there and through plastic and nylon light filters. And the new pic has already received a few nice comments!  :)

Thanks for those comments and to all who view my coins! 

Just added a new one today.  My smallest coin to date: a half-obol from Apollonia Pontica.  Boy, is that tiny!

Offline Jaimelai

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Re: Jaimelai's Coins
« Reply #37 on: February 27, 2010, 06:57:50 pm »
Just added a few more Roman and Greeks that caught my fancy.  Thanks for looking!  And thanks for the comments!  :)


Offline dougsmit

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Re: Jaimelai's Coins
« Reply #38 on: March 02, 2010, 11:28:50 am »
I like the half obol picture since the light angle shows the texture of the surface well. 

I'm sorry not to have gotten back after the last question (not having email notice of replies sometimes causes me to forget to look).  'Flat' in a photo sense is the opposite of 'contrasty' or the measure of how quickly the image goes from darkest to lightest shades and how many tones are retained between black and white.  Many people make very contrasty photos which lose a lot of details in the blanked out white areas or the pitch black shadows.  Too 'flat' will look muddy with nothing really black or white. Contrast control is an important postprocessing subject if photos are to be made to look most natural. 

Small coins can be a problem.  I've taken them several different ways and can't say I'm happy with all my results.  Among my my most photogenic little ones is my 5mm .1g silver (1/8 obol?) from Phocaea.  I have a lighter coin but condition on many little ones could be better.  It is a wonder anything survives that size.

Offline Jaimelai

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Re: Jaimelai's Coins
« Reply #39 on: March 07, 2010, 02:48:46 am »
Thanks for the comments and the suggestions.  Just added a few more to my gallery - some coins sure are a lot easier to shoot than others.  My new Prusias II of Bithynia coin only took a few shots (nice coin), while I've been working on that new Corinthian bronze for hours now and that is the best I could come up with (nearly all black and tiny).  That Apollonia Pontica half obol did shoot well - you can even see what looks to be teeth marks on each side - I guess the ancient Greeks really did put their money where their mouth was!  (sorry just read an article about Greek mouth money storage).  :laugh:

Thanks for all the comments - I really appreciate them!

 

Offline Jaimelai

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Re: Jaimelai's Coins
« Reply #40 on: March 24, 2010, 06:21:01 pm »
Just added a pretty cool Medusa (can't help myself) and a Mesembria bronze with a top notch reverse!

Thanks for looking and for the comments!

Joe


Offline Jaimelai

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Re: Jaimelai's Coins
« Reply #41 on: April 10, 2010, 10:12:16 pm »
Just added a few more coins - a little Greek and a little Roman and a siglos for fun  :)

Thanks for looking!

Offline Cleisthenes

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Re: Jaimelai's Coins
« Reply #42 on: April 11, 2010, 09:35:17 am »
Very nice collection! I especially like your Severus Alexander denarius (RIC IV 246, RSC III 161
Rome mint, 231 - 235 A.D.)! :)

Thanks for sharing.

Jim
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Nullum Gratuitum Prandium!
"Flamma fumo est proxima!"--Plautus
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Offline Jaimelai

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Re: Jaimelai's Coins
« Reply #43 on: May 06, 2010, 09:41:52 pm »
Added a few more coins and an especially sharp (for the issue) Medusa Aegis shield coin from Amisos.  The reverse is particularly fine:)

Thanks for looking!   :laugh:

Offline Jaimelai

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Re: Jaimelai's Coins
« Reply #44 on: June 07, 2010, 12:59:47 am »
Added a few more coins including a couple Ptolemaic bronzes.

Thanks for looking!

 :)

Offline Randygeki(h2)

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Re: Jaimelai's Coins
« Reply #45 on: June 07, 2010, 01:49:33 am »
alot of great additions!

Offline Jaimelai

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Re: Jaimelai's Coins
« Reply #46 on: July 28, 2010, 01:36:34 am »
Just added a really nice Zeus/Artemis Anaïtis coin from Apameia, Phrygia, as well as a few others.

Thanks for looking!



Offline Enodia

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Re: Jaimelai's Coins
« Reply #47 on: July 28, 2010, 03:22:55 am »
that's a beautiful bronze Jaimelai. in fact you have a great collection of Greek bronzes which i envy!  ;)

i've never noticed it before your new Apameia, but the Artemis statue reminds me of the Guadalupe Virgin, very yoni-like. interesting.

~ Peter

Offline Jaimelai

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Re: Jaimelai's Coins
« Reply #48 on: July 28, 2010, 09:20:06 am »
Yes, I noticed that too, especially interesting when you note that Artemis was worshipped as a virgin too!


Offline Jaimelai

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Re: Jaimelai's Coins
« Reply #49 on: October 20, 2010, 07:16:42 pm »
I've added a few more coins as they come into my collection.  Please check out the new Zeus from Antioch, quite the obverse! (and, I believe, the reverse depicts one of the first recorded images of Zeus holding the Holy Hand Gernade of Antioch, a little hard to see, but I believe it's there - well, ok, it may be Nike, but then again, if you look carefully, I think maybe she is the one that is actually holding it! - my theory at least as to why she is facing away from Zeus instead of towards)   Sorry, having a MP moment there.  :laugh:   Just setting the stage for my first official Black Cabinet member - my Pella Pollo Club token!

Thanks for viewing and thanks for all of the nice comments!


 

 

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