Great Coin Photos! How do you take them?

I cheat - I use Todd Pollock at www.bluccphotos.com! He is very reasonable, extremely nice and honest. And his photos are absolutely amazing, crisp, colorful, and very detailed. I've been posting several coins photographed by Todd in the past few days, but here are a couple to give you an example of his most excellent work:

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

" Great Coin Photos! How do you take them?"

I can't say it any better than these two guys:

 

WoW\ I was trying to think of how to say that.

We used to call it RTFM. (The 1st "R" means READ & the last "M" stood for Manual). :bigeyes:

 

Wow, illini just amazing phots, mine are ok, but your fantastic. I would love it you shared your template any any info on what you did in photoshop.
Thank,
Jim

 

See post #20 for the link to the info you are seeking

Thanks for the comments on the pics too :thumb:

 

Thanks so much for all the wonderful replies!! Unfortunatly I forgot my password to this site and just remembered it, so I was delighted to see so many of you had replied to my question. I will try my best to remember my pw and come back here more often! lol now I am going to have to practice my picture taking! I only have a Kodak Easy Share at this time, but, could always upgrade if I get good enough at it. Thanks again everyone! NumisPam

 

thanks for all the info, since i am now in the search for a camera and good photo editing software thats easy to manage and beautiful coins and pics

 

Wow, you guys take some awesome photos of coins. Cudos to you all!!!

 

Reviving an old thread... I've been trying to figure this out, and by far, my greatest photography challenge is finding the best angle for the light to refract off the coin's surface to make it look like it does in-person. A direct head on shot doesn't really work too well for me, as the image gets either too dark or too bright on half/most of the coin.

Someone mentioned that the photo should be taken from afar so that lighting doesn't get obstructed from the camera and you blocking the light. Then will creating a makeshift setup where my humble point & shoot aims directly atop the coin, enclosing the coin within a cylindrical shaped tube with the lens on top and coin on bottom, and somehow shine direct light onto the coin? Not sure that I want to try that before asking, in case that won't work too well. I can test this MacGyver-style setup with a cardboard toilet paper tube, flashlight, and camera on a solid white/black color backdrop - has this worked for anyone?

I did see another setup (diagram below) from the internet, from someone on this forum I believe, but a simpler setup is preferred if that's possible to achieve some of the amazing photos I've seen on this thread and forum.

And, I know that I can simply upgrade my camera... but I'm not there yet, skill-wise. I'm working on the setup first. I already have macro enabled, too, so I got that part down.

Thanks in advance!

 

There used to be a member here who took some very nice pictures with a 1 meg camera. (and I do not mean a 10 meg camera!)

IMO, 75% or more of the art is lighting. I normally use 2 lights pointed at the coin and a third bouncing off the wall. However, any one is optional depending on the coin. Unlike most everyone else, I only use a straight camera without a diffuser, without a tube, and without any other device. One trick I have learned is to use a slightly angled base that can be tweaked to show color better. Don't laugh, it works.