Help me with my coin photography.

Hello! I was wondering if any of you could help me with my coin photography. The pictures that I am taking are coming out good, but the problem is that they look like they have a gray film overtop, in reality the coin is a great deep chocolate brown. Any suggestions are welcome!

 

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The photos look pretty good. But I see what you are saying. Are you reflecting light onto the specimen using a 45°?

 

Try using a lighter background.

 

I like your photo.
I agree with a lighter background. I use several depending on the coin.
same camara, same light, same coin, same day, different background.

 

It always boils down to the amount of light.

 

Backing is important as you probably know. Lighter for darker specimens, darker for lighter specimens.

 

Oh yeah? How many days until Xmas smarty pants!

 

I think that is true for the presentation of the coin, but not of the capture of the coin. Why would you change the colour of the background?

 

To get a better photograph.

 

You might also want to try adjusting your white balance if possible. Depending on what you are using to get the pictures you should be able to find instructions online to adjust it.

 

294 since you asked.

 

@Coins4Eli If you can track down a copy of this book I also highly recommend it. It looks like it may take some searching, but it is well worth the effort.

 

I dont see a picture attached. Does the book in question happen to be Numismatic Photography by Mark Goodman?

 

It is.... I meant to stick a link to amazon in there so you could see it. Life with a two year old meant that I forgot to do that.... lol

 

I am not normally one to throw out $200 for a book, but I have heard that this one is very useful. If I dont end up purchasing a copy I could always check it out from the ANA library.

 

Probably the best book there is to help get someone on the right path to great images. For years, Mark was teaching folks on one of the forums. Great guy. He used to have a website with some of the basics.

The OP image could be helped some by playing with the contrast but that requires an editing program for images.

 

And I would crop them in more to bring it in closer.

 

I had the same problem with the grey on coin faces, especially darker tokens, but four or five years ago I started changing the direction of my light with my axial lighting set up. I rotate the glass panel 5-10 degress on the same axis as the lens of the camera and the grey disappears. I did that for all of the token images below, and I have a hundred more examples. Naturally, the angle change will reduce the amount of light falling on the coin but just increase the exposure a bit to compensate. And shoot it on a white background- it's better for the coin edges.

 

ok.. I get it. I guess since I cut my coins out, the background in the raw file doesn't matter, so I rarely give it a thought when I'm capturing the coin. Backgrounds are never properly exposed anyway. I just concentrate on the best image of the coin and add an appropriate background later, based on the presentation need.

 

As I thumb through my copy of Mark Goodman's book, I was just wonering if everyone is aware that is written almost exclusivly for photographing encapsulated coins? While the techniques presented solve the problems of encapsulation, and will work on raw coins as well, they are not necessarily the best methods for bringing out the most in raw coins.