What am I doing wrong in photographing my coins?

I often think about the quality of my photos but I’ve never really had a way to see photos of my coins taken by someone who knows what they are doing until recently with my 1889 Morgan Dollar.

Here are my photos:



Here are MUCH better photos:





I can’t believe it’s the same coin! O_O


Now anyone with eyes can obviously see that my coins look MUCH worse in the photos I took compared to the photos someone else took of the exact same coin.

So my question is what am I doing wrong with my photos? What can I do to make them look like the second set of photos? It’s incredible how much better a coin looks when the photo is taken properly.

 

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Hey @Gam3rBlake !! I use either one of Two Programs: LunaPic or PhotoScape. Both Free and Excellent editing programs that can do just about anything especially LunaPic .I use the crop,re-size,change lighting and use some of the fancy options that they have.

 

Thanks Sal

What do you use to take the actual photos? A camera or a phone?

 

Cellphone like this:

 

You also can adjust the lighting. it makes a big difference.

 

Good advise from @SensibleSal66

 

I don't think there is anything wrong with your photos. If you want to see truely crappy photos look at state of the art coin photos in coin publications from the 70's.

Took ^ that with a Samsung A12 with 16mp camera.

 

I'll try that thanks!

 

Imaging coins in slabs especially, is difficult. The slab is nearest the lens so the focusing is prioritized on the nearest point. Lighting is most important, so experiment with brightness and distances and try to eliminate all other ambient lighting. With a smartphone supported correctly and distanced so the coin fills the viewing screen without using the zoom, images should be much clearer. With raw coins the subject should be raised from the background allowing all the focusing to be on the coin and not on the background. Setting the timer to 2 seconds takes away the problem of camera shake at the crucial moment. Experiment also with different background colors for different coin compositions. Solid white, gray or black for example. When saved then crop all un-necessary background leaving only the coin. A standard image of the slab for label info is sufficient.
As always, experimentation is the key.
Processing software becomes almost redundant if you get the white balance and focusing correct

 

I'm heavy into early copper and am finding my images are not as good as they used to be.
Lighting seems to be my current problem.
Getting coin details on VF copper is not working well.
The lack of significant relief differentials on VF coins is part of the problem.
My lighting seems to be washing out what details the coins have.

Since all my material is slabbed I have to deal with that.
I've got a good camera (Nikon D90) and a good lens (Nikkor 60mm Macro).
I use manual focus to eliminate the problem of the camera focusing on the slab rather than the coin.

Another part of my problem is that I'm not very savvy about ISO settings combined with shutter speed.
I need suggestions about this.

 

It's really all about the lighting. Try using three lamps positioned at 2, 6 and 10 o'clock. Move them around to get the best lighting that brings out your coin. If the lighting is too harsh you can use a coffee filter or some other material such as a tissue over the lamp to soften the light. It's a trial and error journey and let's face it we are not professional photographers so it won't be perfect no matter what you use but you can get it close.

 

Right away I could tell you're using too much light for that coin. Darker coins like copper need a lot of light to bring out the details, but Morgans naturally reflect light and just don't need as much. I've learned to use less light on them myself for more pleasing effect.
There's a good book called Numismatic photography that can teach you a lot. It's discontinued and will run you about $60 but it's worth it. You can tell in your photo that the coin has a "washed out" look to it. It's just too much light. You just barely want shadows around the raised devices.
Its obvious when you don't have enough light because patches of the coin will be dark. You want just enough direct over head light and a quality lens that you can view the focus remotely with a remote shutter.

And you didn't crop it down to eliminate all the noise from the slab around it.

 

ISO and shutter speed are inversely related. Double your ISO, and halve your shutter speed and you get the same exposure. So let's say you're shooting at ISO 400 and 1/2 second shutter. You could shoot at ISO 200 and 1 second, and get the same exposure. Or ISO 100 and 2 seconds. Assuming you've got the camera on a tripod, shutter speed shouldn't be an issue, so I'd shoot at the optimum ISO for your camera, typically 100, and then whatever shutter speed made the exposure right.

 

Hj

Can I do all that on an iPhone 13? xD

 

The newer and especially the newest iphone has a better camera than most of the set ups without putting a ton of money into them. Just keep adjusting and snapping a bunch of different pics if youre using an iphone and youll find a good set up for your house pretty fast

 

Shoot the lowest ISO setting you can. Lighting and focus are the 2 variables that matter the most.

 

Following

 

I was wondering what cropping would do to your photo...

 

Angle the coins at about 30 degrees to the camera. Avoids glare.

 

Yeah my photo still looks bad in comparison even cropped xD

I think this is the problem. Lightning. I’m just using a regular bedside nightstand lamp. I need to get some sort of setup for good lighting.