New Coin Photo Template ideas, help me decide

I just stumbled across this thread, and it was an interesting read. I think the background should complement the coin, which will change with every coin, but if you want consistency in your presentation, grey is the colour of choice. Grey is often described as the colour of invisible. It's ambiguous and impartial and can be easily overlooked. It’s calm and dispassionate and doesn't influence the colours around it, but too much, particularly if it’s a dark gray–can be depressing. Gray is the perfect neutral, as it can moderate brighter hues and pull out colours.

Here are some examples of my images of various coin colours and their representation on a medium/light grey background.

 

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Just came across this thread, and it is VERY timely for me! I just started playing with background templates, myself!

I'm glad you started this a little ahead of me - maybe it will reduce MY work!
As for your templates. I'm liking the black for silver coins, for sure. Maybe a little less in the height of the black and a little smaller in the label. For silver, I'm leaning toward the solid black, also. Was also thinking of trying a gradient (black to grey fade).

Personally, I'm not a big fan of the bright blue, or red that I see quite a bit of. I'm leaning toward a maybe a light grey for my darker coins. Or, a cream? I haven't gotten there, yet. I kinda want the background to mostly disappear, but also to kinda hide the clips, not make them pop. If you're stuck on the blue, I'd say that would maybe work for darker (brown) coins, but not so much for silver.

Just my two cents......can't wait to read more opinions, and see how your work progresses! I was planning on doing the same kind of post - with my background choices and to show my photography progress, but you beat me to the punch! Good luck and have fun with this!!!

 

I know, everyone has their favorites, and that's fine. It's our collection, so we have to do what makes us happy! Unless you're selling - then you have to do what makes the market happy.

I'll try to play around with different options in the next couple days (not tomorrow - it's a family day). I'll try to post here when I have something to share. Pics will be old ones, as I don't currently have my area set up to take new ones.

 

Happy New Year, everyone!

Now, back to coin presentations. For individual coins, I often pull colours from the coin itself for the background. I can't go wrong with that approach. It always matches. I usually sample a colour in the toning or a less prominent part of the coin but always something opposite the coin's dominant colour for contrast. Here are a few examples.












You can use this is side by side examples too.

 

Yeah this is the best one. Good choice.

 

I may have bit off a bit more than I can chew in just a couple days. With other things going on right now, I had limited time to play. Also, I'm trying to figure out how to use some new photo editing programs (more on that in a bit). Learning to crop, resize, create a template background, remove backgrounds, insert coin onto background template, etc., is a challenge. But, I've cobbled together a few quick options to look at. I tried black, grey red, and cream, with a brown copper and toned silver, for now. Please don't knock my photography or composition - I quickly grabbed some old pics and am just throwing this together quickly to see what happens.

@geekpryde - for me, I'm leaning toward either a light grey or black background for everything, at this point. I still have some work to do, testing other colors. And, I think I do like the watermark idea as well. Though, I do like what @Denis Richard is doing by pulling a color out of the coin and using that. Not sure yet what that means for blast white silver, or brown-brown copper or proofs, but I'm sure there's something that can be pulled, if that's the route you want to go.

OTOH, customizing the background for every individual coin is, for me, a lot of work. I think I'm going to lean toward a side-by-side similar to what are shown here, but with a watermark. I'll still play with different colored backgrounds, adding a watermark, and using a variety of different coin types/colors (blast white silver, red copper, grey nickel, proofs).

@geekpryde - have you come up with any additional options? Would love to see them!


As for the photo editing software - what do you use, @geekpryde? Or, @Denis Richard? Or others??? I am currently testing Paint.net, PhotoScape X and LunaPic. I also read and heard good things about GIMP, Photopea, Krita, Photo Pos Pro, Sumo Paint, iPiccy, Pixlr, Darktable, and Movavi. I am looking for a great FREE program that can handle all of my coin photo editing needs.

 

I think @Denis Richard might be right for side-by-side pics: use a light grey with a watermark for a little visual stimulation. I just crudely threw together these two, using the same two coins, and think maybe the grey is even better than the black. Your thoughts, @geekpryde? Do you have any other examples that you can show?

Also, any comment on the photo-editing software questions I had, above?

 

Or, what about a gradient grey???

 

I'm not a big fan of the gradient. To me, it overpowers the coins. When I use a gradient, I make the tonal change less dramatic—perhaps from light grey to darker grey. Also, foregrounds tend to be lighter, so I'd put the darker shade at the top. Try a drop shadow on the coins. You might like it. I find it adds realism to the coin.

About your software question, Photoshop has been my primary photo editing software for 30 years. I don't use anything else because everything else is just trying to be Photoshop. I realize it's another monthly expense, but I photograph coins for a living, so it's a cost of doing business. I also use Topaz in my workflow.

If I may make another suggestion about your other background, the one with text, I think it needs more lines of text. Fill the background and make a texture rather than the current striped pattern. I find the lines take your eye away from the coins. Remember, it's not a watermark; it's a branded background that must complement the coins. One final opinion: your text is blue on grey. I suggest the text should be a slightly darker shade of the same colour as the background, whatever colour you choose.

 

I have used Pixlr to edit modern banknote images that Photoshop won't let me. Photoshop includes a counterfeit deterrence system (CDS) that prevents the illegal duplicate use of current banknotes. CDS prevents users from opening detailed images of banknotes. With Canadian banknotes, anything over 30 years old will open. I haven't tried it with American banknotes.

I found Pixlr clunky but effective for cut and paste and basic operations. However, the fact that it is not prevented from editing modern banknotes indicates the limit of its editing capability.

 

Thanks for the suggestions! Love to hear from people with more experience than me (especially from professionals!) - always a learning moment! I agree that Photoshop probably the gold standard, but I will not be doing this for a living, so I just want something free that will do the job that I need (however crude it ends up being). I'd rather spend my $$ on other things.

I agree with your opinions on my background with the text. That was just a quickie shot, to see what it might look like. I really like the ones you showed above. It looks like you did a gradient grey background - from left to right - grey to white to grey. Then, you added the text in two different formats, and a little shadow around the coin to make it pop.

By the way, I LOVE your photography and compositions, with the side-by-sides and especially the stand-alones! Very, very nice!

 

For objectivity, I think I like black, but I think a different background color makes it more pleasing and attentive to view.

 

I usually like a solid black background as it shows nothing but the coin, and that's usually what I want to see. I've had customers that have wanted other colors, usually white, because of the context in which the coins are presented online in which white is a proxy for transparent. I did shoot some big copper for someone and they wanted something different for the background, so I suggested "Penny Whimsy sage" and "Dansco tan". They liked the sage color. I think better would have been to also use the texture of the binding, as a subtle texture can soften a solid background.

My calendar pages always use a darkened, blown-up section of the coin with a dark outer glow on the coin pictures. Tags and stickers are always absent, as they're distracting.

I use Photoshop for editing and Imagemagick for compositing. Imagemagick allows me to have compositing be identical every time, being strictly a scripted tool that I run in a bash shell. I need to spend more time with it sometime see if it's any faster if I use a Python or C++ API.

 

John, thanks for chiming in. I still like the black background, also. But, Denis Richard has shown there's some merit to the light grey background with text(ure) behind the coin and a slight shadow to provide some depth. Also, I love his angled, almost 3-D images that he showed, above. But, for me, that would be too much effort. I want to get it down to a system: shoot both sides of the coin (maybe 2-4 shots each side), quick post-processing to make it look like the coin in hand, plop both sides of the coin and the label on a standard template background (so all coins are presented the same), and move onto the next.

I've seen some of your coin shots over the years, even back in RCC days (early 2000s). I even own a few of your Morgans that I bought in 2004! And, I know your photography is exceptional! BTW - where can I view your calendars?

Unfortunately, I'm not going to be working with Photoshop or Imagemagick. I'm looking at free software. I have a bunch that I'm testing, and will probably keep only a few programs, if one can't do everything I want. And, I know NOTHING about Python, C++ API, nor any coding - that's my wife's and older daughter's expertise!

 

They're on the "for sale" board. Order your 2025 Calendars! | Coin Talk

 

I didn't know about the for sale board. I have a calendar too, featuring ancient coins from private collections I've photographed. I think I'll post a link there as well. If anyone is interested, this is a short cut to it at www.coinphotographystudio.com