I cannot afford $300+ for a macro lens, so I read online about reversing the lens. I liked the idea and examples so much, I ordered a $10 adapter. In the mean time, I did it by hand and got some good results. Turning the lens around in a camera makes it work in reverse, allowing extreme close ups without extreme prices, the only downside is the depth of field is crappy. However if your an error collector, its a great way to get a close up of doubling. 2009 dime. 1915 Canada quarter.
You can get a little thing that hooks up to a smartphone camera. I got one for like $6 from Hong Kong on eBay. Takes better pictures than you got here and with a larger field of view.
I have pretty much given up on ever being a decent coin photographer. I think its very much needed today to be able to show off your coins and sell them. I just cant seem to capture the 'feel' of photography though. I was not blessed with very many creative/artistic genes. I cant do anything technical with music (cant read it, cant write it, cant play any instrument with any skill beyond a toddler), I cant write fancy, cool poetry, or in depth stories, and I cant even begin to draw anything that would resemble 'art'. Im stuck in a world of ZERO artistry and I think it enveloped photography in that group as well.
Don't be upset. I am the same way. And I have even taken music lessons on multiple instruments. Can't play a single note, chord, etc. Can't draw, paint, etc. But I make really cool spreadsheets for my coins.
I enjoy my coin spreadsheets too. I finally have a system that works for me, and I get a ton of enjoyment out of updating them and printing them off for ease of use at home or away from my computer. The only thing I can do well with music is listen to it. I absolutely LOVE music, and appreciate it quite a bit, I just cant DO anything with it.
I'm going to take a crack at photographing my coins in 2015. I'll need to purchase a new camera as the only one I own is a water resistant one for photographing fish and some underwater shots.
I am the same as well. I can be creative with numbers, and am creative in solving problems, but not in any hands on type of creative field. I envy those who are, but have always been more of an analytical mind.
@Detecto You're going to get "crappy" depth of field from a true macro lens as well. They're designed to be stopped way down (very small f-stop) in order to increase the DOF, and even then a true macro lens will not have anywhere near the depth that a normal lens is, it's simply part of the physics as to how the optics work. I like your example images, nice work.
I came to say what @drathbun posted. The shallow depth-of-field is really hard to avoid in macrophotography. The only ways I know of to avoid it: 1) Stop down your lens, like @drathbun said. You'll get more depth of field, but you'll need to use longer exposures or more light, and you'll lose resolution if you stop down too far (because diffraction effects will blur the fine details). 2) Use a camera with a smaller sensor. I never have managed to get my head around this enough to give a clear explanation, but a smaller sensor will give you greater depth of field. That's why smartphones sometimes work better than DSLRs for close-up imaging. 3) Use "image stacking", where you take a series of photos with the focus set differently for each one, then merge them together, keeping the sharpest parts of each photo. This requires a good bit of technical skill, and it's easier with special software.
I'm in the same boat. Like @medoraman, I'm the analytic type. I've got pretty good technical chops at this point for photography. I can set up my focus point and depth of field to isolate parts of a scene. I know what lenses work best for particular subjects and ranges. I know how to set exposures and speeds to capture images under all sorts of conditions, and all the tradeoffs between ISO, lens speed, exposure length, sensor size and type, the works. But telling an interesting story with a photo? Making one that grabs your eye? Making one that flatters its subject (or, conversely, insults it)? About all I can do is take lots of shots, and then let someone else select from them. Not only can't I plan and grab the right shot on purpose; I can't even reliably identify that shot when it's placed in front of me, one good shot in a set of bad ones. I took up photography around the time that digital cameras became widely available -- at that point, I didn't have to feel like I was wasting film by taking all those trashy shots. I thought that, given time and practice, I could develop a good photographic eye. But it didn't really work out that way. I went further with my technique than I'd ever expected to go, but the artistic eye just hasn't come. At this point, I've mostly lost interest as a result. But coin photography feels different. When my subject is just a coin on a plain background, I don't feel compelled to compose the image artistically, or convey emotions, or find a background that complements my subject. I just need to find the combination of lens, lighting, and exposure that captures the coin's appearance faithfully and sharply, or that highlights a feature I want to emphasize. There's a lot of technical work to make that happen, but technique I can manage. I haven't gotten very far, particularly with the lighting aspect -- but it feels like something that I can hope to master, even if I'm artistically impaired. Sorry for the threadjack, but this is something I've thought a lot about over the years, and it's interesting to hear from others who feel the same way.
The biggest thing about photography and taking decent coin photos is light. How much light, where it's positioned, and the spectrum of it. That being said, here is a photo I took with my old non-dslr.
I can paint and draw and do pretty much anything with wood but photography and anything tech related is beyond me as to writing I suck and then there's music. I have less then zero talent. A drunk monkey could do better playing an instrument and there is nothing that can make my voice sound good yet I have a ton of knowledge about the type of music i listen to and pretty much have the stereo on all day everyday
