I spent some time on Doug Smith's site trying to improve my pathetic coin photographs. http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/ Some of the camera rigs on display were impressive. My goal was to find improvement at a total investment of $0 (it's how I roll).. I was mostly using my iPhone previously and sometimes a webcam type device. Perhaps others can get great photos with phones but no matter what I tried the quality wasn't consistently acceptable. So I found a small digital camera in a drawer that hadn't been used since circa 2011. (found some fun photos of the kids still on it - added bonus!).. As all good Canadian's do I cut a hockey stick and rigged this up...haha. I know these are far from perfect but from what I was producing previously this is an incredible improvement. These are exactly the type of coins that caused me the most trouble - mostly dark patina with rough surfaces and some hard to grab detail.. Any other pointers are greatly appreciated (as long as we stick to the budget!) Also - Doug - thank you for creating such an informative website!
I LOVE the setup! And IMO the photos turned out great!! I really like that beautiful green patina as well. Well played sir, well played.
I think I can get some better (darker) material for the base and play a bit more with lighting... but I am happy with the start.
That's what I was thinking too, but I agree with @Ryro that they the pics look great! Very crisp, clear, and detailed which is exactly what you're after. Nice work!
See if you can find some black velvet for the background, and just some dark construction paper taped into a tube will work to keep the background dark.
Nice @Clavdivs ! I've tried to improve my photography without much (any) money invested as well. Everything is in nice clear focus for you, so that's a win! Maybe just post-process the backgrounds black? There are pros and cons with that. cons: if you "paint" you can miss spots ( I did it all the time, not I cut and paste on to a pitch black background), time consuming either way. pros: looks good, actually black. painted: see my missed spots? Open in the image in a new tab and they weill be plain as day. Dang it! This coin I cut and paste on to a pitch black background, there shouldn't be any missed spots.