Still need a lot of photography practice, but I think I'm slightly heading in the right direction. Before: After: Neither photo has had any filters or Photoshop applied to it. Both taken with the same cheap cell phone. The difference, a box, white background, phone stand, coin not obstructed by plastic, and soft white light evenly distributed.
Thank you very much. I like it too. Bought it for my bullion stack at melt plus 2% a couple of months back.
Thanks for the tip. I will keep it in mind in the next day or two when I try to photograph other coins, and maybe one day I'll revisit this one and do a better image. I'm trying to improve little by little. I don't expect to ever have results in the level of what expert coin photographers achieve, but maybe if I work hard at it I can get 60% or 70% of the way there and at least have decent photos of all my coins that do them justice.
I was able to tone it down somewhat by messing with the basic lighting/contrast settings on my laptop. Definitely a coin I'll rephotograph in the future, but for now I think this is "acceptable".
I prefer the first picture. The second picture is very flatly lit and doesn't show luster of the coin. This is especially noticeable on the portrait and the eagle's feathers. The white balance is different between the two. I can't tell which is correct without the coin in hand, but the first picture seems to have better color.
I prefer the first set of photos as I think it shows the coin as it probably looks in hand, even allowing for the focus issues. The second set looks almost washed out, maybe a bit over exposed. However, taken together, both sets give me a better idea of the actual surface condition. More information is always better!