Thinking of new camera for coin pictures

Please excuse this modification of a post I made in another thread - I am seeking all the help I can get (if you answered in the other thread, thank you and please ignore this post).

What is the best way to change the white background of a coin photo to black using an iPad app? Up to the present I have been simply re-taking photos on a black background, but now I am old, sick and lazy and I do not want to re-take a whole bunch of pics. I installed the “photo background remover” App on my iPad but I am not smart enough to use it - or it doesn’t work very well.

 

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@jamesicus, I'm using Paint Shop Pro 2019 on my Windows PC. I imagine there is some photo editing software that will work on the iPad.

 

Rats! - duplicate post, sorry!

 

Thank you @alde. I can download Gimp as a free IPad App but I am not sure if it will work for this purpose.

 

I'm getting better. I decided to pull out my DLSR, a Nikon a330 with 30mm macro lens and a 5000k LED. I elevated the coin on a plastic box with a medium grey background (I simply turned over a notepad and used that). This was handheld, no tripod or stand and with quite improper lighting (I just wanted to see if I could get a better result than my phone, which I think it is!):

 

That looks great, especially for hand held. On a copy stand it would be about perfect. The color looks really nice to my eye.

 

I'm still working on it! Its been years since I worked with my camera, so its like learning all over again. Light is the biggest issue. I'm having to re-learn getting proper focus, distance, etc. I am anxious to try the lamp in this thread, which will be delivered tomorrow:

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/my-new-favourite-coin-pic.332099/

Here is another shot a few minutes ago:



It's pretty darned close to in hand appearance. I've been lamenting the ill-advised disposal of my previous copy stand. When looking around now most are average $300 and up. On a whim I went to my local camera shop (and it is surprising one still exists in my small town). After a few minutes of talk and him telling me he could special order one (OK, I can do the same on Amazon), he went into the back room and came out with the monstrosity pictured below. It was covered in dust and cobwebs and smells like a combination of cigarette smoke and thrift shop. It is likely older than I am and certainly had been sitting neglected for decades. However, with a couple of parts I was able to make it work with a total investment of $58.99. The only thing is I cant get the lights to work correctly with the camera, it comes out too harsh/bright and the color isn't right. The above photo was shot with a single lamp directed from 12 o'clock.

 

I'm no expert @Ken Dorney but it sure looks good to me.

I just got my new lens in the mail today. It's a Canon f 2.8 100mm macro lens with 1.1 capability. Here are my first shots with no post processing.

 

Great photo, Ken! The lights on your copy stand were put there for copying flat documents not coins. I suggest removing them and using 21st century lights with daylight balance and a lot less heat. I guess I need to practice on non-black backgrounds but your system looks good. I had been shooting white backgrounds on glass but that gives glare when using a ring light which I often do on high relief Greek coins.


Albert:
Looks good to me. Whether you postprocess or not, there are settings that will add or subtract sharpening, change the amount of color saturation and adjust color balance. There is no such thing as an unprocessed image. There was not in film days and there is not now. We can accept the defaults as set by the camera manufacturer who has no idea what an ancient coin is or should be or we can fine tune things to make them what we want, better or worse.

 

I bought one of these and was impressed at how well it worked. Unfortunately for me my camera has a proprietary flash mount and I cant use it. Anyone want one? I'd sell it if interested. PM me.

 

Darn, that's a pity - I was wondering how you got on with it.

ATB,
Aidan

 

Well, it would work well with my old 35mm film camera. I tried messing around with it hand held and also using one of those cheap GoPro tripods. It would work, but its easier for me to use a desk lamp. I like the multi-level brightness. Its a pretty cool tool, but wont work with my camera.

 

@Ken Dorney, that's too bad. I was going to order one but decided to try one of those ring flashes that fits on the end of the lens. It's meant for macro work but from what I've read it may be too harsh for nice looking nature macro photography. I'm hoping it will work well for coins. @dougsmit says he has one and uses it for high relief coins. It's something else to play with. I'm also finding the desk lamps work pretty well and are versatile.

 

I do not recommend ring flashes (I do have one I have not used for quite a while and never for coins). I have and do recommend LED ring lights that have a large number of lights clustered around in a donut shape. They need to be daylight balance and large enough to encircle your lens. Continuous led lights allow dimming and blending with other lights while flashes are usually harsh, hard to control and harder to envision before the image is taken.

 

@dougsmit, the dimmable LED like you describe is what I ordered. I'm hoping to have it by end of week. It is daylight balanced. I'll try it for coin's and see how it does. Otherwise it might be useful for macro insect photos or something. As @Ken Dorney said the lamps seem to be most versatile. They allow for enough variation to try different setups.

 

There are some coins that really benefit from the ring and others that look awful using it. Many look best to me with most light being directional and adding a little fill from the ring. I usually start with the directional light and then add ring if I don't like what I see. There is no single light that looks best on all subjects. The hard part is deciding what to do that will help and not cause more problems.

Several years ago I did a series of coins each shot three ways (top to bottom: ring, artificial, window). None of these have mixed sources. Each could be changed by moving the light or tilting the coin. Play with lights.

,

 

@alde do you happen to have a link to that lense?

 

https://shop.usa.canon.com/shop/Com...9xoCmjAQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds&fromPage=compare

Canon has made several different 100mm f/2.8 macro lenses over years. The one I have is older than any they sell now but is still a good lens. For coins using sturdy support, the Image Stabilization feature is not important but it makes a world of difference for insects you chase shooting handheld. This thread has made me want to start over and build the support from scratch. It will be more stable than any I had before. Time to go to the design phase.

 

@dougsmit linked to the correct lens. It's the one without IS and is a great lens. I got mine used for almost half the price of a new one and it's like new. It's seems about perfect for coins using a copy stand. I have not tried it hand help yet. I'm waiting for better weather which looks like it's here now.

 

wow..nice set ups..you all are super high tech compared to me...but i reckon it's the ends and not the means... ^^