Calling good photographers: What is needed for a good setup

All,

There are quite a few people on here that take stunning pictures of coins... If someone would be so kind to break out a purchase list (models and links would be great) to acheive the same quality (or 75% as good) photos. That would be lovely as photos are the best way to increase prices on coins. Lighting seems to be my crux and I have been looking into tents and illuminated panels.

I have seen a few kits out there on the web. I am not looking for professional but bang for your buck professional. Say under $1,000 setup.

Thank you.

 

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I can share a trick I learned. I call it the floating coin effect. Place something underneath the coin to make the background a bit blurry. 1 inch height is good to do the effect. Could be a stack of Cents or a small bottle. Here is my coin example -

 

Sometimes a DSLR can be more trouble than its worth if you aren't used to it. You can get a DSLR camera and then you may have to look at micro lens which adds to the cost drastically. I do own one and have experimented with it - just hated how cumbersome the process is.

A compact camera can surprisingly do a decent job as long as it has a macro zoom. The camera that I have is a Pentax W90 which includes a 1cm macro zoom. I've been using it for probably about 4-5 years. I probably snapped about 7000 photos on it. Another 10000+ photos on the DSLR. Once you practice taking that many photos, you'll get a hang of it. I'm certain newer compact models can take better photos than mine. As for lighting, I just use a standard table lamp. Try experimenting with various light bulbs as they have different color temperature. So far this is good for most coins except UNC and proof coins.

 

I'm talking this good. Perfect lighting, excellent detail, just an outstanding picture.



photo credits stldanceartist

 

Here's the setup I use:

• Beseler CS-14 Copy Stand Kit (includes 2 lamps and adjustable arms)
• 2x Promaster 1712 30 Watt 5500K Fluorescent Bulbs
• Nikon D90 DSLR w/ USB tether cable and EH-5 AC Power Adapter (this is the oldest model that supports tethering with live view)
• Micro-Nikkor 105mm Macro Lens
• ControlMyNikon software (for tethering)

I got everything used except for the bulbs and I ended up at just over $1100 for the setup. I also highly suggest you pick up Numismatic Photography, 2nd Edition (the coin photography bible) if you haven't already.

 

Perfect. Any examples of your work? I assume your avatar is your own work.

Also, what is the level of skill needed to capture these photos? As in, I don't want to be adjusting a thousand different levers.

 

Sure here's the last silver and gold I photographed from my Hungarian type set:

 

Beautiful work.... How hard would it be for a novice to do this with the equipment?

 

Thanks. Well I had been photographing coins with a cheaper setup for the better part of a year, but I quickly hit a plateau due to the limitations of the equipment I was using. After I got the above setup it only took a couple months to get some great shots. About a week to figure out the best camera settings, get everything calibrated, and figure out the tethering software. The rest of the time is all learning about lighting and how it relates to the surfaces. Basically the color (or lack thereof), contrast, and type of surfaces will dictate how you need to light the coin. The book helped immensely.

 

What I do when I take a shot is position the height of the camera, focus, then take a test shot to check the lighting, and make lighting adjustments. The rest is post processing to adjust contrast/brightness and crop.

When I started out I was photographing tons of coins and grouping them by size so I would minimize having to adjust the height of the camera. I had an aha moment when I realized that it's easier to group coins by the type of lighting you'll need. Adjusting camera height and focus takes 30 seconds. Adjusting the lighting can take a few minutes.

 

My problem consistently has been getting the up close focus to work properly. I tried 3 different cameras, trying to stick to a budget of $100 or so. I now have a Nikon 6800 and it is the best so far, but it refuses to let me manually focus (or I haven't figured it out yet). I zoom in and get a stunning shot - for a second and then it auto-focuses itself and goes fuzzy and I have to zoom out to the point that I start to lose the details.

Any tips or ideas? What am I doing wrong? Or is this just a limitation of the camera itself?

 

Complete novice here, but I will tell you to get a camera stand, two CFL bulb using lamps with goosenecks (put at the 10 and 2 o'clock position) take photos in a dark room when there's no natural light ruining the shot. Use a macro lens if you have one; I spent about $25 to get a macro lens and adapter for my camera. Make sure the coin and camera are at the exact same angle. Make sure whatever the coin is on isn't reflecting light. The rest is playing with angles, light filters, and camera settings. Here are some of my shots.

 

*edit* Sorry for double posting, my computer is running a little slow!

 

You should be able to turn off auto focus. What also helps is not holding the camera at all. Also, check how close/far your camera is from the coin. The autofocus might change based on distance. When I'm doing it properly, I use a timer so I push the button and it refocuses after I jolt it. Some people use a remote to snap the photo; I assume that's much easier.

 

I'll try what the manual says about using the focus lock. It's been frustrating. I have the lights, the tripod, I went cheap on the camera. Maybe I should have looked at something better. I'll keep trying. I always setup for 2 second delay because I know my hands aren't that steady.

What distance do y'all shoot coins at?

 

The D90 is an old camera that was replaced by the Nikon D7000 series. The newest version is D7200, I think.

 

Yup. Cheap too. I originally tried a D80 but it doesn't support video and you can't do a live preview. The D90 can. I'm not sure how much of a difference a newer camera body would make considering it's bolted to a copy stand.

 

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