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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;red_spork, post: 3331192, member: 74282&quot;]Here&#039;s a picture and some details on my current photography setup. It has changed over time, but this is what I&#039;ve currently landed on:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]882665[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>The camera is a Nikon D3200 with the 18-55mm &quot;kit lens&quot;. The copy stand is a cheap one from Amazon that will probably be replaced soon, but it&#039;s worked well enough for the last couple of years. The platform I use for the coins is a piece of craft foam with a small dowel rod stuck into it and covered in black velvet. I surround the dowel rod with a sort of tunnel made of thin, dark foam rolled into a tube that helps create a nice dark background that makes it easy to get the black background I like to use for my photos. The lights are some cheap lamps I found at my local department store with daylight LED bulbs and the ceiling light in my office has daylight LED bulbs as well. Often for bronzes, especially those with irregular patinas I have the best results by lighting up the wall as best as possible and avoiding any direct light hitting the coin:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]882666[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>For silver, on the other hand, sometimes I use the lamps but occasionally for heavily toned silver I will actually use the camera flash. Most of the time(90% or so) it&#039;s far too harsh and I have to find another option but I always try it because sometimes it produces the best results:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]882667[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>If there&#039;s anything I&#039;ve learned since I started taking coin photos it&#039;s that no two coins are the same and I often have to experiment with multiple techniques before I arrive at a photo that I like for a given coin. I have a handful of techniques I will commonly try but occasionally I&#039;ve had to try something completely new like sticking one of the lamps on top of the bookshelves you see at either side of my camera setup or using the flashlight feature on my cell phone to get light coming from a third direction. And sometimes, even with this equipment I simply don&#039;t get a picture that I like for a coin and have to share the dealer&#039;s photo. That&#039;s happening less and less lately, but still occasionally happens.</p><p><br /></p><p>As far as things I plan to change about my setup, the copy stand is high up on my list. It&#039;s become less and less stable over the years and seems to have been irreversibly damaged during my recent move. It shakes enough from the shutter movement that even when using a time delay or remote trigger, around one-third to one-half of my photos are ruined from the vibration and it seems to get worse after every photo session. Additionally, I&#039;m looking into finding some white material to line the sides of my bookshelves with and some material to diffuse the light in cases where I need some direct light. I&#039;m also planning to pick up some of the extension tubes that Doug has mentioned to experiment with.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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