Just bought this Cannon SX150 today, along with a couple lamps and a couple of different bulbs. So below is a picture of my basic settup (taken from cell phone). Also included are various shots with mostly slabbed coins. The two things that were slightly irratating was that the toning didn't show up like I wanted, and at sometimes there was a shadow that got in the way. ALso some of the files were too large? Any advice = Greatly Apreciated. ~Jason
First three lamps is probably overkill, second make sure all the bulbs are the same type/wattage. The camera may have trouble focusing if one is halogen or CFL and the other is incandescent. Light placement will probably be best at either 10-2 or 12-3 o-clock
Next try reading This thread by green18 about downloading and editing pics with photoscape. Great write up and great program Oh and it's free
Pictures are definitely better, though you may want to be more direct with the angle you point the camera. 3 lamps is definitely overkill especially if they are different bulbs. You might wanna try taking photos of the same coin with each different light to see what gets more "Accurate" photos of the coin, because lighting changes everything. I am using a Nikon D3100, and don't worry much about the lamps, I actually use the camera's flash capabilities and am getting very well photos with it. (The white blotches are slab scratches, I need to buff them out) I can get photos of my setup soon, but now I am not with it. I understand in order to get the toning, you do have to get a certain angle, but with the others without toning, I'd suggest a straight 90 degree angle from the coin to get the best pictures.
None of the amazing 64 lincoln tone even remotely showed up. Thanks for the suggestions. Keep em coming I'm taking copious notes.
Taking pictures of toned coins will take a lot of practice and movement of your lighting. Sometimes you may need to tip the slab or diffuse the lights to get an accurate pic. You can also try This thread. Try searching through some of lehigh96's threads. He has some great suggestions on taking pics of toned coins. If you aren't already make sure you are shooting straight down. Try pointing the lamps at the camera and not at the slab. Or extend the legs of your tripod to get the camera farther away and zoom to the max of your macro. Remember you can edit background out afterwards. Oh and turn off any other outside light source.
Being a serious amateur photographer that is way more serious than I should be, I would suggest that if you want to get really radical about coin photography pick up a semi-pro camera (The Sony SLT A55 is a good, moderately priced camera) with a very good macro lens (Tamron 60 or 90mm so that you don't have to be inches away from the coin). Also invest in a light tent, which it looks like you may have a variation of such. However I will say that the photos you produced are very nice with the setup you have. Looks like you have the talent you need to excel at this added facet to the hobby. Good job!
Thank you. I was happy with the 28 bust half pic. My uncle is the photo guru. He collects rocks. He was talking about some film cover? some sort of screen or something, and something 1.4? DLRS?? I'll have to speak with him again about it.
I'd like to add that the barber quarter example was frustrating. Even if I held the camera just above the coin, I couldn't get the details "Liberty ect.." On top of that when holding my camera 8 inches away and zooming in it would no allow me any clarity.
I have a light tent, and it really doesn't do any good on anything except proof coins IMO. Don't try zooming all the way in. Find out how far the max zoom is for the Macro setting on your camera and take the pic from there. When you crop the background out the pic will have more than enough detail. I have a small tripod like you do, tilt it so that the camera is pointed straight down at the coin, zoom it to 1.9-2.0(on my camera that is about max for the macro to focus) and crop what I don't want out of the pics. I use a sony cybershot. There is no need to get an expensive camera to get good photos, it just takes practice. If you want to get really involved Todd at Bluecc teaches a class at Summer seminar on taking photos of coins.
This is quite literally my setup. Nothing special I am using an 18-55mm lens on a Nikon D3100 Yet I can yield some pretty accurate and quality photos. For example, A 1965 toner that I didn't realize I had. BOY! These tone some wild colors!
The thing I like to keep in mind is that coins are like shinny little mirrors. The angle that the light hits the coin is the exact angle the image is bouncing off the coin. That is where the camera needs to be to capture the best image. So if the camera is directly above the coin and the light at 45 degrees then although you will be taking a picture of the coin, all the pretty toning will be cast across the room somewhere. The best shot is usually right at the edge of the light bulb image that is reflected off the slab. That is a balancing act for sure and always takes a little adjusting. Same as when looking at the coin in a loupe. I prefer images with bottom light too. Also, remember that a digital image is still a "negative" and you are really shooting potential. These files need to be "developed" in a photo program. Same as the days of film so to speak. But stay honest, don't take out blemishes on the coin or juice the color or we can tell. I think taking out a few slab scratches is OK but thats it with the touch up tool. Matt
Shoot, ImageMagick is the easiest way, especially if you need to resize a ton of pictures. Code: for JPG in `ls *.jpg`; do convert $JPG -resize 50%; done I've done that command above to resize thousands of pictures, one command, walk away, come back a few hours later, you're pictures are ready. You can also do just about anything from the command line that any graphical editing program can do. Very awesome to use if you have tons of pictures to resize, add watermark overlay to it, etc. It's great for multiple pictures, but use a graphical editing one if you're just editing one photo, etc. Yes, Linux beats the snot out of Windows any day of the week and it's all open source free software.
