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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Denis Richard, post: 4564895, member: 112673&quot;]Lots of good advice above.&nbsp; As a professional coin photographer, I appreciate the journey and challenges to getting great coin images- to help, here&#039;s a short summary of the tips and techniques for raw coin photography that I&#039;ve developed to take images like these;</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1130330[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1130332[/ATTACH]</p><p>&nbsp;[ATTACH=full]1130336[/ATTACH]</p><p>&nbsp;[ATTACH=full]1130337[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>First, I recommend you use axial lighting with a studio strobe. You can easily shoot at f14, which for my lens is a nice depth of field spot, and the lowest native ISO, which for Nikon is 200, and use&nbsp; the maximum sync shutter speed your camera allows. My camera is 1/200 shutter speed. This lets you to ignore all the ambient light in the room and direct only the studio light for maximum quality depth of field and many other light control benefits. High shutter speeds mean sharper images.</p><p><br /></p><p>Your 60mm lens is ok, but a 105-macro lens is better as it allows you to be farther away from the coin but still pull a 1:1 image. Farther away is also better because you can get more light to the face of the coin- your 60mm means your closer to it, leaving less room for light control when focusing at your minimum focus distance. I read somewhere above that your lens&#039;s min. focus distance was only about 7 inches? My lens has a min. focus distance of 12&quot;. </p><p><br /></p><p>I suggest using a full frame camera, (the D90 has a cropped sensor) but that&#039;s a much bigger investment. It depends on what you want to do with the final images.</p><p><br /></p><p>**Very important** Make sure the camera’s film plane and the coin face are parallel!&nbsp; Depth of field is tiny as it is in macro so don’t waste a millimeter of it. </p><p>Don’t focus at the highest point of the coin; you’re wasting focus As a general rule, focus about 1/3 of the way into the area you want in sharp focus. </p><p>With thicker coins beyond the single image depth of field range, use focus stacking and combine the images. I use that often enough to include it here. </p><p><br /></p><p>Keep the coin off the background. Place the coin on a pedestal. I use a clear plastic cap from one of my wife&#039;s pump hairspray bottles. </p><p><br /></p><p>Use a rock-solid copy stand- much easier to work with than a tripod and doesn’t get in the way.</p><p><br /></p><p>Use a camera remote trigger or cable release. Even with a fast shutter speed, you don&#039;t want camera motion during capture. </p><p><br /></p><p>SHOOT IN RAW - is in all caps because I can’t stress enough how important that is for quality and editing the image. For me, image editing in ACR &amp; Photoshop should take only 3 to 10 minutes a coin, depending on several factors. I edit hundreds of coin images every week and I have created a set of Photoshop Actions to keep my workflow focused, minimal and consistent.</p><p><br /></p><p>Make sure you White Balance is set to your light source. If you don’t know the color temperature of your light source, all the more reason to shoot in raw- you can adjust it there.</p><p><br /></p><p>Use color correction tools and software during capture and editing- I like the x-rite color checker passport.</p><p><br /></p><p>Tether your camera to your computer- shoot through Lightroom at minimum, so you can preview your images as soon as they are shot. I use “Control my Nikon” so I can use live view for precise focusing, when necessary, and a host of other valuable features.</p><p><br /></p><p>This is not an in-depth guide, but an overview, so if you have any questions, please let me know. I&#039;d be happy to help. </p><p><br /></p><p>This shot below was not axial lighting, but a diffused lighting technique I use for certified slabbed coins, shot through the plastic case, of course.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1130360[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>For a lot more coin image examples, check out my Instagram page at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/hipshotphotography/?hl=en" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.instagram.com/hipshotphotography/?hl=en" rel="nofollow">https://www.instagram.com/hipshotphotography/?hl=en</a>&nbsp; or my web page at <a href="http://www.hipshotphotography.com" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.hipshotphotography.com" rel="nofollow">www.hipshotphotography.com</a>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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