Taking Pictures of Coins

For any of you that have seen some of my post you will notice that the pictures of my coins are, well... potatoes.

Could someone please offer some tips or advice on how to properly take and edit these photos? From my trials I can tell that lighting is key, but so is editing. Are there any good, easy to learn apps or programs that are specifically successful for editing pictures of coins?

I have an amazing coin collection that I would love to properly digitize, but just don’t know how to do it.

 

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I couldn't agree more. I suffer a similar problem. My photos are terrible. I wouldn't have bought my coins based on my photos!

I don't want to splash any money on expensive cameras. I use my smartphone to take coin photos. The most common problem is that the phone camera cannot focus properly if I get too close to the coin. If I take it from a distance, I have to crop/enlarge the photo but that causes blurring. And don't get me started on the lighting. How do you solve all these problems?

 

I use my smartphone 60% of the time, but the other 40% I use a $20 USB microscope camera I purchased from eBay. I feel it does a good job, but it lacks lighting. I was thinking of making a 5 sided black felt box that the coin could sit in, this would absorb most of the reflecting light, then if I had a photographer type white ambient light from above this, this may potentially work. Unfortunately I am very time poor, I have the plan but I don’t have the time to execute!

 

I'm in the exact same boat! I struggle so hard to get good photos with my phone, and its a pretty good/expensive one. In terms of lighting I'm thinking of buying a cheap LED ring light off ebay and trying that out (those ones that people who make videos use to light up their face and background, often creates halos in their eyes).

 

Smartphone cameras will not get one very far I'm afraid. In my experience even a simple point and shoot camera will do better.

 

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Iphone 10, noname USB microscope from eBay.

first four photos on using microscope, last four using smartphone. I know how to rotate and crop, I am wanting to achieve near auction house photos.

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The first thing you need to do is chill. You asked a question and a member is trying to help. The second thing you need to do is search through the many articles written on this subject and read, read, read. Many excellent posts give advice on this subject. In the final analysis, nothing beats a camera, tripod and correct lighting. You say you are time limited, so hire someone to create a setup for you, or have them photographed by a professional.

 

I agree. After all, 'auction house photos' are professionally shot, so that's the way to achieve that. They will use expensive cameras (great to get clear detail in focus), special lights and tripods.

Otherwise, Photoshop works wonders on whatever you have managed to achieve with a camera. But you have to take time to learn the functions and see what they do (not hard, but takes time). Just sharpening the image, cropping out the background, changing the brightness/contrast and adding a little colour saturation can make all the difference. Sometimes it works so well you have to be careful you're just rectifying shortcomings in your photo and not misrepresenting the coin.

 

You might benefit from this thread:
https://www.cointalk.com/threads/macro-lens-for-iphone-coin-photography.353462/

 

FYI, you just dissed the advice of one of the best coin photographers in the whole forum.

 

Honestly I am as chill as they come.

This reminds me of the first time I went to a coin dealers shop when I was a child. My Dad and grandparents gave me a few old circulation ‘junk silver’ coins which got me started. We lived on a farm in a rural area, three hours to the next major city, it was a big deal when we went to the ‘city’. I was about 10 or 12 years old, I had my first coins, and my Dad bought me a coin value book, and we were the making our annual trip to the city! I was looking forward to this for the year, I would finally get to go to a coin shop. I wanted a 1967 Canadian Silver Dollar (super rare ). Finally I arrived at that coin shop found the dollar that I wanted, was so happy. When I was was talking to the shop owner before I left, an old customer walked in. I asked the dealer about Canadian nickels, the old customer rudely barked that it’s not called nickel but a 5 cent piece. I then asked about quarters, and he barked that it’s a 25 cent piece not a quarter (Keeping in mind that the general public used this nomenclature). Then the old guy muffled why doesn’t he just read a book about it.

Looking back now, I know he was right, he had 50+ years more experience on me. Way more knowledgeable, and probably was a very regular customer there, and if I was at his level probably a nice guy. He was educating me. But his manner made me stop my interest in coin collecting for over 15 years, not until my now wife heard about my past interest and kicked it into gear in my mid 20s which has continued to this day.

I guess the moral of the story is that if you have experience share it but try not to belittle those that don’t, approach is key.

To this day when I‘m at my local dealer and a young collector walks in, I will always give them first priority to the displays, and unknowingly to them pay for 25% of their coin which they think they made as a deal. Let’s be honest, young people aren’t rushing into coin collecting.

I’m sure some will miss the parallel.

 

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Great advice! I have always been unsure about photoshop because of the possibility of misrepresenting the coin. To clarify I have no knowledge of how photoshop works.

What I’m really after is an easy and readily available way to take an unedited picture, a picture that you can take of any coin from a fish scale (some collectors will know what I am referring to) to an 8 real. With perfect light, suspension, focus. However, this may not exist.

I’m an engineer by trade so maybe I need to get this idea into gear!

I guess I’ll throw it out there, if anyone would like to work on this project with me let me know.

 

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I think you need to meet @Gavin Richardson

 

Thanks Gavin,

Perfect pictures. I’ll look into the lens in more detail.

Did you only take pictures during the day to get the ambient light? Or did the led work?

 

Please let me know how the light works.

 

I try to take photographs outside during the day or at a brightly lit window. In my experience natural light is best. I don’t really use LEDs. Other guys do to good effect. I have difficulty with harshness and glare. I wish I were more systematic. Sometimes it’s just dumb luck. Sometimes when I’m photographing outside at noon I have problems with shadows from the spindle or my own body messing up the shot. Especially when I’m trying to do a pure white background. Sometimes a late afternoon sun is better because it softens the shadows. But it’s really hit or miss. I’m not really a photographer. I suspect like most people you’ll have to experiment with some of these techniques and find something that works for you.

 

I agree with the harshness and glare of LEDs. I also find natural light the best, but when I try to reduce the effect I’ll sometimes get glare from the object that I’m shading the light with. Also, natural light is so dependent on the time of day and year.

I would like to try find a solution that is independent of all external variables. Let me know your opinion, I’m thinking of a cube lined with black velvet to reduce the glare, using a readily available USB microscope as it has the high res camera and focus control. But light is the issue. The cube almost needs the top side to consist of a mini rather photographer type ambient white light. Below is a rather large example of the type of light that I’m thinking of.

 

You still don't get it.

He doesn't get it.