How to take a photo of a coin without spending a FORTUNE?

Wish all your pics looked this good!!

 

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My setup is as simple as it gets.
1. LG G2 phone camera. I currently am looking to upgrade to a Nokia Lumia 1020, though!

2. "Lights of America" Sun Light Lamp. I have no idea where this is from, I've just had it on my desk for years now. The light bulb is that typical flourescent 4-tube bulb that is found in many other lamps.



3. If the light is too harsh, I use a piece of paper to diffuse it.

4. I usually angle the coin a bit by placing one end of it on top of another coin. This is because when shooting from directly above, the shadow of the camera or other device often gets in the way.


There are inexpensive camera or phone rigs that have built-in lights that I am probably going to get at some point. But for now, a decent phone camera does the trick!

 

For camera settings, I just leave it on auto. The phone usually does a pretty good job.
As for software, I don't use anything other than the crop feature native to the phone.
I've experimented with altering sharpness and color a bit on a free photo editor like Photoscape, but I only do that when the picture is significantly different from the actual item. Otherwise, I leave everything as is.

Here's another photo:

As you can see, the top half is significantly brighter than the bottom. This is a result of angling the coin a little too much. Angling is always the hardest part for me, and takes several tries to get it right.

Final note: the megapixel count and sensor quality of a phone camera lead to nice looking pictures but zoom in any and quality starts to deteriorate real fast. For this reason, a higher MP/better sensor is necessary if you want to blow the image up real big.

For small details like errors and mintmarks, you would probably do well with a cheapo magnifying glass of some kind. I purchased a 20x loupe from eBay for $5 Granted, it came with a "this product contains chemicals known to cause cancer" warning, but it was cheap so...
Actually, it's currently on sale!
http://www.ebay.com/itm/20X-CHROME-...247261?hash=item2118b21edd:g:TxwAAOSwwpdW5zuB

 

My problem with the ebay lens is that although they happily tell us the body is made of metal, they do not say if the lens is a molded plastic ( most likely for the price) or a ground corrected optical glass lens.

 

It's really not good quality at all, but it seems to work fine when I'm trying to discern a D from an S. You definitely get what you pay for here...

 

All things considered, you do a very nice job overall! Another light, to better cover the coin, would help some, but with the one you're using is easier said than done, unfortunately (I tried one similar some years ago and can relate).

Two things if I may... I realize you qualified your statement with "better sensor", but it's still worth adding that the number of megapixels alone does not automatically equate to better photos. Instead of trying to get into this myself and rambling worse than I already do, here is a link that, iirc, should help to better explain (I'm going on memory here)...

https://photographylife.com/camera-resolution-explained

As for the loupe, it's certainly a fine suggestion in a pinch. However, it's worth noting that some of these cheap Chinese models are not of the claimed magnification (they simply print whatever X on the same models in order to sell) and more often than not contain optics of low to very low quality. I cannot say if this is the case with yours, but one would be wise not to have overly high expectations.

 

Thanks for the kind words!

That's a very good point with the MP issue. I personally had better results with the 13MP of the phone camera than with the 16MP of my P&S.

The loupe is definitely pretty crummy. I'm pretty sure it doesn't do a full 20x, as I've often run into some mintmarks that I could not ID very well; a high quality one likely would have done the trick. But, on a starving artist budget...

 

I suppose the best answer depends on your definition of "a fortune," and how close you want to come to the best images on this site. My setup is similar to Stork's (you're going to see those specs repeated often among those who shoot the better coin images). Cheap dSLR camera (mine cost me $84 used from Adorama), bellows, duplicating lens. A stand to throw it on, and this is the result:



That's half-size, by the way.

You can bring as much magnification to bear as any USB microscope, or shoot images including the slab. All from mouse and keyboard, without ever touching the camera after the initial setup. You can use it for roll-searching without eyestrain, because you're looking at the image in real time on your computer's monitor, not the camera's viewfinder.

If $200+ is beyond the budget, as has been mentioned there are a number of smartphones capable of creating images plenty good enough for grading purposes. Almost any iPhone is that good, as are a number of Android phones. They don't create images as large as dSLR efforts, nor can they accomplish the same magnification, but for posting images online they're excellent.

Same goes for more than a few point-and-shoot cameras.

Just be warned, though: If you want to duplicate the efforts of the best photographers here, you're going to have to learn photography. I can make (relatively) cheap equipment produce images like that IHC because I understand the relationships between aperture, exposure and ISO intimately, and where and how to apply lighting to best effect for any given coin. It didn't come without a ton of work. There are people here who can and will teach you, saving a bunch of that work (I'm one of them), but there's still a steep learning curve required. You get from it what you put into it.

 

That's one of those things that would take a lot of study and a lot of trial! I'm decent at fiddling with aperture and exposure to create unreal landscapes, but coins are a whole 'nother animal

 

No, because with that knowledge, all I have to tell you is this: Find the narrowest aperture that keeps you from diffraction (it's math, not trial and error, basically f/8 and Aperture Priority), use the lowest ISO number you can get away with under the light you have, and vary only exposure 'til you get a shot you like.

There, now you know how to shoot pro-level images. Just add equipment.

 

I use a Canon SX20IS point and shoot put it on the "P" setting and macro setting. I place the coin on a white cardboard. Then I use photoscape to crop it.
I just did this.

 

Let me start this reply by saying at least Three words. For the powers to be. (Coin photography forum). It seems the powers to be wants everybody to go to their search and look through hundreds of threads to find information on coin photography. Just like the main man said, you're all guest on this site. So we drag on. Now to answer your question. This set up works quite well for my needs. As far as software goes I am running Windows 10, it has camera software within it. I also use amcap software that came with the camera. Here are some of my photos of my set up.I also find this set up very helpful when it comes to identifying DD's. I put the DD in question. Under my USB camera, then I bring up a true doubled die and compare them side-by-side. It seems to work quite well for me. Camera and software under 20 bucks on eBay.PS. The rechargeable book light is extra. But I find it extremely helpful in situations.Also I'd like to say you cannot beat the ease of this the set up. How hard is it to plug your USB camera into your computer click on the software and take a photo. And if you want to take the time to Photoshop your coin to get the best pic you can, then that's your choice. I don't know I like it because it's basically a no-brainer no big expense, very easy to set up. No lenses no filters no stands to set up. But like every photographer getting the lighting right is a problem. But I'm working on that in my spare time. To devise a special lighting platform for this type of camera.

 

Hey Dave do they have an app for that.LOL

 

Once into the realm of P&S, cell phones, etc, sensor size is a foreign language to me other than knowing they're generally very, very small. I remember the first time I actually saw one, in context, and couldn't help thinking the horrid old "disk" film from the 80's seemed large in comparison.

Anyway, to further the point with sensor size, here's a diagram showing the more common sizes up to full frame (not inc MF, etc), and I do believe they, if memory serves me correctly, come smaller than this as well. Still it helps make the point that not all are equal.

 

I'm very new to it and just taking the baby steps to learning 'real photography'. There is a book by Mark Goodman that is coin specific and I'm trying to read up on close up and macrophotography.

Of course 'spending a fortune' means different things to different people, at different times in their lives. I was a bit spendier as I went bigger and had help doing it.

Given that I am a novice, and impatient, and learn by doing more than just reading, I bought a 'system' that has an appropriate camera (used Canon Rebel XS, ~10 Megapixels), a used lens, bellows and a stand that was custom modified from a piece of lab equipment. I also have the Jansjo lights (using 1,2 or 3 depending on what I'm doing) as shown and the software is the Canon stuff downloaded from the manufacturer's site (had to do in steps to get up to speed from an old camera to a newer Mac OS). For editing I use PicMonkey which I call 'photo-editing for dummies'. It's functional and easy and has a free version.

A dedicated person could figure out how to do this all less expensively than I did and there are a lot of coin photography threads here and on other forums (google is your friend). It all basically boiled down to some variations of the above set up. Decent camera, better lens, a way to steady it, tether to a computer to make the shots, and excellent lighting. I found PicMonkey on my own and it so far works for me. Given my too-much-data-inertia it was worth it TO ME to buy the set up.

My interests are coins ranging from very small (and the occasional variety shot) up to medals over 10 cm. It is not easy for a one stop set up and I turned to a much more skilled person than me to get me a set up. It lets me get very small details and with a bit of maneuvering up to about 75mm medals.

My cell phone would NOT get a good picture of anything much smaller than a dime (and that dime size was iffy and usually involved me outside). (My phone being an iPhone 6s). If I wasn't outside I used various lights and even a small lightbox and rested my phone on an upturned cup to steady it (it's not plugged in, but there is a light in there, about $40 from eBay)



This is what I've graduated to:

Purchase picture (that is my set up in the actual photo...and I am EXTREMELY happy with Ray who did this...highly recommended!!)




vs. the Real Life set up (I have the stage removed as I was shooting a medal):






and the lights ($9.99 from Ikea in black, even with shipping was cheaper than Amazon with free shipping).