I have seen a lot of great pics of coins here. :hail: Could members give some tips on how to get the best pics of coins ? What equipment is used ?
McBlzr I read forums and googled for three months before I came up with a great way to take good coin pics. I built a stand for my camera (see Pic.) There are a few settings that I had to adjust on my camera. First you have to have the camera in Micro setting. This is for close up pics of small objects. My camera I leave in Auto focus. Some will tell you you need to use in manual. Set your shutter speed, and white balance depending on your camera. With the stand I built you can move the camera up and down from 1" to 12" inches. I do not use but a very little zoom from camera. On some coins I will only use one light. On silver I use two high lights. You will have to play with the angle of light to achieve what view you want. I use the auto timer on camera so I am not touching anything when the picture is taken. you can see some examples at my web site at this link. Nothing for sale on my site. http://www.edstreasure.com/my_lincoln_wheat_cents.htm The stand was the trick for me more than the camera, as for as taken good coin pics. You can buy a copy stand at amazon are camera supply store online for about $150.00 to $250.00. The lights are not included and run about $80.00. I built my stand for less than $50.00 with lights I got from Home Depot for $9.99 each. Big Ed
Hello mcblzr, You can do a search here at CoinTalk for the word "photography" and you will find an incredible amount of information on the subject.
Lighting is essential to taking photos of anything not just coins. Proper lighting along with the right white balance setting on your camera will allow for the most accurate representation of the true color of the coin. I typically use a combination of three lamps with bendy necks so I can adjust the lighting according to how my camera takes the pictures. Some light bulbs work better than others, so you might have to experiment with quite a few different types before you find the right one for your camera. The rest of the set up can be characterized by a copy stand, or tri-pod. I personally have never used either, and while others use them and have had success with them to great degree, I've done very well without the purchase of either. I used to use an Exlim-Casio point and shoot camera, and while I had my problems with the camera, it did take nice photos for a point and shoot. After I had gone as far as I could go with that camera, I had to upgrade. I now use a Nikon D3100 camera, it takes great photos, but it definitely took some getting used to. As for editing, I use a program called, Photoscape. Many other users here use a program called GIMP, while others use Photoshop. Speaking for myself, GIMP, while it is free, is extremely difficult to use. Photoshop can get expensive. What I like about Photoscape is that it is also free like GIMP, but I find it more user friendly. A combination of both a good set up and a good camera, along with proper photo editing techniques will provide you with the great pictures you've been longing for. Here are two threads on the subject. One goes over the use of diffused lighting to bring out the true color of a coin. The other thread goes over how to edit your photo in photoshop. http://www.cointalk.com/t56246/ http://www.cointalk.com/t41839/
