I'm having some difficulty getting good photos of my slabbed coins. Seems like there's always either glare from the light reflecting off the plastic or there are scratches or other imperfections in the plastic that show up in the photos. My only solution so far has been to try different lighting angles and use photoshop to cover over the plastic scratches, but I can't seem to get results as good as some of the coin photos I've seen in this forum. How do you guys deal with this?
For scratches, the only true fix is to polish them out. There are several threads about that, but basically scratch remover for plastic. As for the glare, is is the angle of the light and camera. Keep playing.
As icerain said, I think using a flash is out of the question. Most cameras you can adjust the settings to use the light you have available and don't really need the flash anyway. The right way to do it is to use a copy stand with the camera mounted. The slab may still need something put under one end to give it a very slight tilt. Not too much or part of it will get out of focus. Then you need 2 or 3 lights mounted off to the sides at the right height. Works better for some coins to have the light diffused but doesn't need to be for everything. So far, I don't have a copy stand yet but we do have a Canon T3i now. I've still been using my Canon S3 though because I have the lenses for that and it does a pretty good job. You just have to tilt the slab and move the camera around. It's tricky. Good pics can be difficult to get without the proper set up. It takes time.
omg, I'm so glad you asked this question. I have been experimenting with a cheap table shoot settup and two lamps.
It's An Art!! I was virtually in stitches reading your post, as I've just forwarded some photos of a slabbed coin, with an apology for the quality, stating that although I've taken many photos, I just can't produce the quality of majority I've seen on this site. The coin always seems to have better appearance being rotated in natural light, relative to my images. Although I have a quality photo stand/bench with numerous variable intensity adjustable lamps, 4 dimension movable/fixed camera mount, the photo process for slabbed coins is a variable parameter process. It seems dependent on coin size/type/material/holder, surface characteristics, etc.. I ultimately virtually always need to shim somewhere on the holder to achieve something optimum. I'm also looking for the "mystical answer". :thumb:
Glad it's not just me being frustrated by this. I've got some lamps for angled lighting but hadn't thought about scratch-removing polish. Anyone recommend a particular brand?
I have been successful at taking pictures of slabs with one are two scratches, having them not show up in photo. One as posted before you may have to tilt the slab at an angle, so the scratch does not pick up light. The other thing also posted was playing with light. If you use a two lamp copy stand. You can place different watt bulbs and have a bright and soft lamp, or it may take two soft lamps. Playing around with lighting is important when it comes to good coin photo taking. Big Ed Happy New Year everyone
You always want to be sure to have the slab positioned directly below the lens (perpendicular). If you tilt the slab, you need to reposition the camera to maintain the proper angle. Photos taken at any other angle not only distort the coin (make it appear slightly oval) but also has a tendency to hide some detracting marks. It is better to reposition the lights so that the light rays are bouncing away from the lens. You should never have a light source positioned directly over the subject, and that's why you shouldn't use a built-in flash. I'm not a really good photographer, but I've never had a problem with glare on a slab photo. Chris
Use at low speed and do not let buffer get dry. BTW camera is mounted on copy stand with high angle lights.
This CT thread describes a technique that I use to tilt the slab & coin: http://www.cointalk.com/t56856/ Very best regards, collect89
Here's another helpful hint for minmizing the appearance of scratches in photographs. Position them in the same plane as the light. Said a bit differently, scratches (whether on the coin or the slab) show much more dramatically when perpendicular to the position of the light. So if you want to make the scratches look less impactful, position your light to the top of the camera, and position the slab so the scratches are up and down. Hope this helps...Mike p.s. polishing the slab should be a first step, but this also helps if you can't get them out completely.
I can agree with this only if you collect coins at face value or directly from the mint in this day and age.
