What am I doing wrong in photographing my coins?

I don’t think I can change the ISO on my IPhone can I?

I know I could on my Canon Rebel T1i but I don’t have that anymore

 

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LED light, including one of those green-shade banker lamps, should be fine.

 

You dont have to do anything with iphones, they do all the adjustments they're just point and shoot. All you have to do is keep it steady

 

You may not be able to adjust the ISO on a phone camera. Check if it has a macro setting. If it does turn it on for coin shots. If not focus and lighting. Many phones have auto focus, hence the need to lift it off the background surface. I use an old CD holder with a felt dot placed on the top of a spindle and black sunglasses cloth with a slit (like a poncho).

 

Others have given some very good advice.
The best advice I received was to start with a blank slate and experiment...try different light sources at different angles, adjust the temperature settings on the camera, try different background colors. Do these experiments for each metal; gold, silver/nickel and copper. Take notes and determine what works best for you and your camera. I use a Canon with a good macro lens.
For me, photographing gold is the easiest. For silver coins, I put my coin/slab on a grey backround, and use three lights. Copper coins still give me fits, I'm working on the solution for them.
You really need to put the time into experimenting, there's no one solution that will work for all situations.

 

I always thought the camera should be at 90 degrees to the coin...

 

Maybe he meant to angle the lights 30 degrees?

 

maybe

 

If the coin is standing on edge that is 90 degrees...if lying flat it is at 0 degrees...so 30 degrees is about 1/3rd of the way to vertical.

 

Let's try it like this...the coin should be perpendicular to the camera.

 

Good advice from @SensibleSal66, I enjoyed the lesson also! Great question, thanks for posting it.

 

Yeah but that's what I've been doing and my photos never come out looking really good. Maybe because I'm using a nightstand lamp as my only lighting. I plan on buying some studio lights and hopefully that will help.

 

This is my basic set up. You can pick up a table top tripod that hold a phone as well.
Use the self portrait timer on the camera/phone on a tripod or book stack to snap the picture so you have no movement of the camera.

 

You're over thinking it for the iphone. Get good background like a grey photo card and just have decent lighting, you could just do it outside during the day and itll be better than most setups

 

Very helpful illustration for me!!! Thanks for this post.

 

My opinion, focus is what it is and something that is trial and error to figure out how to get a clear and stable image. Lighting is huge though, and something that also takes trial and error to figure out, either one light source overhead or lots of light sources so it's diffused, versus a beam of light coming in from an angle is always best but depends on how it's reflecting.
I've posted these before but this is a good example of Kelvin, the lights color alone, playing a big factor also. All shot on an old galaxy S5 phone camera, nothing special at all. background is white copy paper, 92 brightness.

"Cool White"


"Warm white"


"daylight"


even daylight isn't capturing the color of the paper quite right, I think due to the lights CRI, but the paper isn't quite as white in the picture as it is to the eye, meaning something is still off a bit for lighting, daylight lighting is by far the best image that is the closest to "to the eye" on how the coin actually looks.

in focus or blurry, reflections or shadows, if the pictures aren't coming across "true to eye" as far as color, in my opinion lighting is what needs looking at.
Just my 2 cents, or 1 cent actually.

 

I've been trying to figure this out for the past two years and I finally figured it out. Raise the coin up off the table a bit and use a light from the side that is about the same height as the coin. That way you won't get the glare from the light shining down on the coin. Also, it would help to diffuse the light by shining it through something like a piece of white fabric. I would show you what I mean, but I'm at work right now.

 

Great photo examples to show how adjusting the Kelvin value on one's camera affects the outcome!

 

Basic? LOL Come on, most folks out there aren't going to go to set ups like that. Most have "point and shoot" or phone cameras.
Lighting seems to be important to show details, so fooling around with light sources to see what you get is helpful.

 

Just wanting to follow this thread and have nothing to contribute. Thanks for the topic.