Great Coin Photos! How do you take them?

Hi I am new here. I just spent about 4 hours looking at coin info posts and pictures on this site. Most of the coin photo's are awesome! Would someone please tell me some tips on taking good coin pics? Are most of them scanned or taken with a camera? and if by camera, what kind do you use?
I would like to post some of my coins but I cant take decent enough pictures! :desk:
I would love to someone to tell me how they take good coin pics. Please, pretty please, and Thank YOU!
NumisPam

 

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I use a Canon Powershot SD880 IS (10 megapixel) camera with two gooseneck lamps with fluorescent light bulbs and a copy stand. I just recently upgraded to a Nikon D90 SLR but need a macro lens.

My advice to you is to use the search function at the top and type in photography. You will find some very informative threads.

Also, if you are very serious, consider purchasing a book by Mark Goodman called Numismatic photography. He is one of the best coin photographers in the business and his book is very easy to read and follow. In case you want to see his credentials, here is a photo of a coin I own taken by Mark.



:smile

 

Takes lots of practice, plenty of trial and error. I also bought a copy of Mark Goodman's Numismatic Photography book which helped some too.

I use a Nikon Coolpix P80, just a $250-$300 or so point and shoot. I think it's 7 or 8 megapixels, but the most important thing is you need to put the camera in macro mode (has a little flower symbol). Then you zoom in just a tiny bit to bring the coin into the shot, Goodman's book tells you that having the camera further away from the coin rather than closer is better so that lighting can make it to the coin. After I get the photos off the camera, I'll sometimes need to fix the white balance in my photo editor, or maybe the brightness if the photo doesn't look like the coin. Then I cut out the images in photoshop and put them in the template I use. Again, just plenty of trial and error.

 

Wow illini! those photos are great and that template...amazing! It looks so professional, where do you find templates like that? And what background color do you use for photographing coins? Black, white, cream lol?

 

Thanks for the nice comments

I just take the photos of the slabs lying on a sheet of white paper. White paper makes it much easier to do the white balance adjustment in the photo editor later on if needed to correct the colors of the image.

The template I use was made available by a member of the Collectors Universe forum and another member wrote up a good set of instructions on how to use photoshop to crop out the images and insert them into the template. Took some time to get the hang of doing it, but now I find it pretty easy to do.

If anyone wants a link to the information regarding the template, just let me know

 

Thanks for the info, I would like the link please, thanks!

 

I've been noticing your images too.
VERY appealing presentation.
I'll stick with mine, mostly because this is my third time imaging most of my coins and I'm tired of reinventing the wheel.

Lehigh96, I've got a Nikon D90 too and also the Nikkor 60mm Micro Lens (Nikon doesn't call it Macro).
I'm confident I could do better, but eventually I had to start taking pictures and stop experimenting.
But at the moment I have to change some settings. My current settings don't work with brown copper and that's what I'm trying to image now.

 

i bought my wife the new canon rebel digital slr for christmas. i have ordered the book mentioned and will read up on it, so when she gets the camera i can try it out

 

Excellent photos, I'd like to get the template as well...
Thanks

 

I've heard his book is good, and his pictures are amazing. You can send him your coins to professionally photograph them if you want..I sent one of mine in. I bet the book is good too, I haven't really dabbled too much with coin phtography myself. Here's a few pictures of his that he took for my coin:

 

Do a search on "axial lighting for coin photos" which is a technique that produces incredible images, especially for proof coins, which are some of the hardest to photograph. I haven't tried it yet, but plan to.

 

If you have a Canon DSLR camera (interchangeable lenses), look for the 60mm macro lens. For $350 - $400 it's the best for macro lens out there.

Most quality coin pictures are taken with a camera with a two light setup. (Trial and error involved).
Scanning a coin on a flatbed scanner makes the coin, well.. appear flat and unappealing.

 

I use a Canon MP470 Scanner:hail:
it cost me about $40 and can print things also

 

Welcome to the forum NumisPam, and take stock in what these guys are sayin'.....

 

I take photos of coins on a white sheet of paper under one of these:

http://www.wizardcoinsupply.com/product/tensor-light.html

With one of these:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/CanonS3IS/page2.asp

It's a Canon S3 IS and I attach a cheap macro lens onto the front of it for close ups. It works great. Under that light, you can set the custom white balance to the piece of paper. Then it's just a matter of using the manual focus (button on the left side of the lens, adjust with scroll pad on the back). You can also physically move the camera forward and back to get it to focus. You can adjust the brightness by tapping the directional pad on the back left or right.

I just took a pic of this MS66 38-D/S buffalo nickel last week. It is in an NGC slab. These shots were without a tripod and taken at a slight angle so I didn't block the light. IS stands for Image Stability so you can get away with it (without the tri-pod) reasonably well. I admit they are a bit out of focus though. :

 

Here's the same set up as I listed above but shooting a loose coin.






One easy thing you can do that will help is always have one lighting source. You don't want day light and artificial light. Only one or the other. Then you don't want two different artificial lights. The camera can't adjust and it will screw up the color.

Once you're under one light source, if your camera has it, always be sure to fill the view finder with something pure white under that light (in manual mode) get in custom white balance and hit ok or set. That tells the camera what pure white looks like under the particular lighting you're using. AWB works ok, but setting it manually is much better. That's one easy battle to get out of the way before you start.

A cheap macro lens can really help with close ups too. As high tech as that camera looks, I would not be able to take good close ups without the macro lens attachment. My marco lens came on a wide angle I bought. It serves a double purpose now.

Here's one more. A MS66FB Mercury dime in a PCGS holder. Having only one light source probably isn't the best as some coins like this and the buffalo nickel have somewhat concave fields from the metal getting hammered and it leaves shadows that you can't get rid of.

 

Hi NumisPam and welcome to the forum!

I use a Canon 590IS. The necessary things are a Macro function ( usually a flower), a tripod screw receptacle ( to use a tripod, or you can get similar threaded bolts and nuts from a hardware store to jury rig all sorts of camera holders), color balance function, and a nice focusing function.

and Although other books are important, non are as important as your camera manual. Read it and keep it around.

Looking forward to seeing some photos.

Jim

 

Cannon Powershot A560 ..., And hours of playing with camera , lighting , and angle of coin etc. !!

 

Illini420, could I also get a link to that template. Thanks, I would love to use that on some of my Morgans. Awesome photos!!!!

 

Thanks

http://forums.collectors.com/message...hreadid=705846

The link to the tutorial and downloads in the the 5th or 6th post in that thread. BECOKA over there is the same as CrustyCoins here and he's the one that wrote up the tutorial, so be sure to thank him if you find the tutorial helpful. Hope that helps, let me know if you have trouble finding the download.