Whizzing
Issues with
Photography
At right is the setup used to capture the photomicrographs on this site.

Pretty sophisticated, huh? The el-cheapo (about AUD$230) digital camera is held against the RH objective lens by a piece of hardwood which is slipped over said objective.
Works OK, 'though a combination of misalignment(s) and appalling aberrations resulted in a number of shots which were sharp at one end and blurry at the other. For the most part I've managed to avoid this, but some shots still show it.

Both microscope magnifications (10x and 20x) were used. The camera's digital zoom was used, but only enough to remove vignetting.

Lighting was by a combination of:

  • the internal halogen light,
  • a halogen desk lamp, and
  • a fluorescent desk lamp.
The colour balance was all over the shop, so I've reduced the photomicrographs to greyscale.

I took a few before-and-afters outside, in sunlight, in an attempt to show the actual colours.

Lessons Learnt: Blast-white silver coins are much more difficult to photograph than nice, dull, toned coins.
(Actually, I knew that already, but this exercise really drove it home.).

Therefore, the "after" photos here are invariably not as good as the "befores". This is not a devious attempt on my part to conceal the results - it is an inevitable consequence of the above lesson.

The highlights washed out very easily (saturated the camera's CCD) whilst at the same time, the midtones took on an unnatural blue-black toning that was in no way representative of the actual colour(s).

I have done the best I can with the equipment and experience which I have, and I apologise in advance for the quality of some of the "afters".

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