MacGyvered Coin Photography

Tried a few experiments with natural sunlight, my crappy old camera, and some junk I could find around my house. My goal was to NOT have to "paint" in the black backgrounds in Gimp. So I grabbed the lens cover that had fallen off of my desk magnifier, a glue stick (coin stand), and my binoculars in their case (background "shader"). Here's the set up...

Here's the result...



Here's the original pics I took about 3 years ago...





Not bad.

Of course, there are problems working with the sunlight....like a canine eclipse.



Then I tried this serrate denarius, because I really didn't want to have to paint this background.




This SUCKED.

The sunlight was WAY to bright. Switched from glue stick to marker cap for coin stand if your asking yourself why something is in the pic.



So I grabbed my mom's old Willard Scott book and shaded the coin. Then I couldn't focus it. When I got it as close as I could after several pics, I had to use gimp to make the background the same color, because clouds stared rolling in...changing the lighting with every damned pic.

Here's the best I could do after MANY pics and editing.



Couldn't match the background (I've heard there are 50 shade of gray, but I didn't know there were 50 shades of black also) or the coin sides. This was a FAIL.

I think I'll use this for AE coins in the future, but not so much for silver stuff.

 

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Nice. Sun light works well with some coins. Despite canine eclipses


This was early morning light.

 

Very nice! My own experimentation has been halted, as my crappy point and click seems to have lost the ability to focus. I tried these this morning with my phone, but I can't keep still long enough (plus the resolution isn't quite as high... 8mp with the phone vs 14 with the camera)

 

Chris, I think your pics are outstanding. I'll take that dog so you won't have to endure any more canine eclipses. I've had a hard time with sunlight images, so I've given up on them. Maybe I should try again.

 

1+

 

First I would like to thank you for taking over the position as most creative photographer. I might have been a contender but I don't have a dog.

The bronze strikes me as perfect. I'd be proud to take a picture that good. The denarius obverse is overexposed and just needs to have the exposure cut by half or 3/4. It is beyond what could be corrected in postprocessing without introducing problems with the tones. This is a simple fix if the camera allows manual exposure and not if it only allows you to take what it gives. The reverse is not all that bad and might be darkened just a bit but would be better reshot with less light. For silver, you might get better results if you worked in less glaring sunlight.

For the record, there is only one shade of black. In 8 bit photography it is recorded as 00 red, 00 green and 00 blue. Those are hexadecimal numbers so there are 256 levels of each color until we get to ffffff which is what we call white. Most of us can't see numbers that are close to each extreme but when you can't match blacks it means that one of your blacks is not a full 000000.

Clouds rolling in and puppies walking by are good reasons for using artificial light. I have tried the idea but clouds are harder to train. The shots below were taken with a Samsung Galaxy 6 and sunlight coming in the window. I decided to try employing the assistance of a pet but I got no cooperation. He refused to turn the coin over so I could shoot the other side. Are puppies easier to train?

Will this picture be good enough to sell the coin on eBay or should I try again?

 

a picture's worth a 1000 words...and by the way, does anyone know what this coin is?

 

Crispus Caesar, eldest son of Constantine the Great. If you wanted more, you would have shown both sides.

 

Puppies are probably easier to train than cockroaches.

Maybe you should rinse that soup can before using it in coin photography



I'm hoping this was staged.

 

thanks for the comments everyone i'll keep experimenting a bit.

@dougsmit well, here's not easier to train...but i think max is a bit cuter than little roachie there. actually he's probably trained me more than i've trained him.

well, i actually got out my camera's manual and read it! wow!!!

yeah, couldn't do anything with those pics on gimp. i do have an "exposure compensation" i can adjust, from -2.0 to +2.0, at about 0.3 interverals, i'll mess with that as well. same thing pretty much?

 

Excellent photos Chris, this thread has been a treat to read

 

The OP bronze looks great. I am having real trouble getting accurate grrens. They turn out way too bright and look painted on while the brown on the same coin looks perfect.

 

thanx i had it in the crispus pile, but couldn't see his name in the legend till your id again

 

ewww!

 

"Buy the book before the coin" works for cameras sometimes. If it has manual exposure, that would be better. What model camera do you have?

 

That is a mess.
I don't think I could get away with leaving my desk like that, even in my cave nobody else ventures in. Besides my cat would have it scattered all over the place.

 

As far as the overexposed silver coins, I find its better to use less light or I guess exposure and lighten them up in post processing. You can not get detail from an overexposed picture. These were shot with a 470 lumen daylight LED pointed away from the coins and at a white wall.

 

ahahaha! i know it is

 

I've tried this but used a white board in place of the wall. For me it's ok with bronze but haven't had luck with silver, even doctored the color doesn't seem right.

 

it's a little point and shoot, kodak easyshare m530.