Photography Backdrop

Hello all! I am nearly done with my photography setup, and I have a question for my fellow numismatic photographers. What do you use as a backdrop for the shots - what does the coin sit on in your rig? Thanks in advance

 

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I much prefer, and argue in favor of, monochromatic backgrounds. Black, white or grey. Some coins present themselves better on one or the other. But either way, they represent the only way to shoot a coin without extraneous color information being reflected back into the sensor by the background, making color management a much more difficult process for both camera and user. This is exacerbated if you're using a Custom White Balance setting (as you ought, every session), because any color reflected back into the lens alters the White Balance.

Even if you're going to crop the coin to a circle afterwards and present it on a background of your making, shoot it on a monochromatic background.

I like old t-shirts.

 

The coin sits on a sheet of white paper on my copy stand. If you want to introduce color, do it in post-processing.

 

Here is what I use. It allows a nearly completely black background without any of the texture in focus. The different sizes are for different sized coins. They work great from dimes to slabs.



This is what I end up with.



It's then easy to remove and add any background.

 

Love this! Was this homemade or did you get it somewhere?

 

Looks like a coin / jewelry tray and some black rubber corks.

 

People have done similar things all along; jtlee321 just did the obvious and engineered it right from top to bottom. 100% Win.

 

I grab a small square of black felt from the wifes' sewing room............

 

Here is a pic of one camera configuration I use sometimes. Other times I use a Macro lens. The "stage" that the coin rests on is a white plastic. The background fills the frame and white balance is set each photo session before the coin is added. Also I will note that the room lights are turned off so the coin is lit only by the Jansjo LED lights to avoid extraneous light from affecting the final image exposure.

As noted above I add the final border color during post processing.



An example of a final image after post processing.

 

It's a small velvet display box I picked up at a coin show. It's small enough that I can easily turn the box to make adjustments to the coin to get the alignment perfect.

The black things are just black rubber stoppers I bought from a local hardware store. I wan't to say they were less than a dollar each. I bought two of each size, just in case one turns up missing (I have younger kids in the house). But paired up they work great on slabs.

I also use a copy stand with bellows using a Nikon D800E and a Rodenstock APO Rodagon 75mm reproduction lens. I use the simple Jansjo LED lamps from Ikea for lighting.

 

Thanks for the info! I have a pretty sweet copy stand I bumbled into owning. Just looking for the rest of the pieces.

 

I use a similar setup - dSLR, bellows, any one of a vast number of lenses. Enormously versatile, fantastic quality, cheap, really complex to learn if you don't already know photography. More fun than drinking.

 

Here is a photo of comparative physical sizes of three lenses.
Starting on the left is a 180mm macro lens, next is a 100mm macro lens. These are attached directly to the DSLR. The third and smallest is the Rodenstock APO Rodagon 75mm reproduction lens Justin mentioned. This is attached to the lower end of the bellows. The lens may be dinky compared to the giants to its left, but the results are equal if not better.

 

Pour a glass of your favorite adult beverage and open your VAM book to Chapter 18.

 

Not to mention, your wallet will more than likely thank you for choosing the Rodenstock as well. The image quality from that little guy is amazing.

 

Not to piggyback my own thread but... I'm ready to pull the trigger on a new camera... I'm stuck between a point and shoot (Nikon L840) and taking the plunge on a DSLR (Nikon D3300). I would use the camera almost exclusively for coins, but in order to buy one the missus would have to be allowed to use it for general photography. Any thoughts? I know the end game is that the DSLR is a better choice but I don't know if I'm ready to spend all the money on lenses, etc. Thoughts?

 

I'm not sure how much good the L840 would be for coins. There appears to be little manual control possible, so you'll be at the mercy of what the camera thinks is a "good" coin shot. Perhaps it will be good at it, perhaps not. A zoom lens is a compromise on all counts, and this one has a huge zoom lens. None of which will do you any good with coins, by the way. You need to use it zoomed all the way out for macro shooting, and place the camera close enough to get a coin shot large enough to use.

 

John (Messydesk) has had good luck with point and shoot. He would be one to talk to. I'm not sure which model he has used. I haven't had any experience with them.

 

You guys know the more I spend on a camera, the less I spend on coins, right?

Quit talking me into a DSLR... [emoji6]

 

You can get a used DSLR very cheap.