Working On My Coin Photography

So, I have been trying to get better at taking coin photos. I am using a pair of LED desk lights, typically at 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock relative to the coin. The coin is kept in it's slab/air tite but a raw coin is placed under one of the edges to give it a very slight angle so light reflects off it better. I'm also using a piece of white paper at 6 o'clock to help reflect the light back at the coin so it doesn't appear overly illuminated in one direction.

The camera I am using is a Canon EOS R with a 100mm Macro lens. I have been taking photos at f/6.3 with a iso of 100. I adjust the shutter speed to ensure I get a proper exposure. The camera is on a heavy duty tripod about a foot off the coin and pointed downwards at 90 degrees. I use a 10 second timer when I take the photo to ensure that no movement occurs when the images is taken.

Here are some examples. Up first is the same coin twice taken in different ways. The first photo I took a couple weeks ago and the second I took today. The second photo has increased angulation of the coin. I'm curious which you guys like better.

After that is a sampling of a few coins from my collection which I photographed today just to practice. I would love some critiques of these images to help me improve my photography. Thank you.

Oh, I even included a nickel for our friend @Lehigh96

 

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#2 is better than #1

The rest look better than I've been able to achieve...not a very high bar, but you get what you get at this time of night.

And 2 seconds is enough...not 10. Most vibrations have damped plenty after 2 seconds.

 

All the images look really nice. I get around the vibration problem by using the Canon remote software. You don't have to touch the camera, A click of the mouse takes the shot.
About the only time I mess with the angle of the lens is when the coin is not mounted in the slab flat. Sometimes just using a higher F stop will increase the depth of field enough to keep all of the coin in focus.

 

Nice shots Richie.......one thing I'll add (if this adjustment is available on your camera) is to bump back the exposure 1/3-2/3 and compensate for that (adjustment) in the post processing. This ensures you don't overexpose your pictures and is especially helpful on bright, shinney, lustrous, thingos.

 

I considered using the 2 second timer but I find I need a few seconds after I hit the shutter button to adjust the white sheet of paper I am holding at 6 o'clock to get the lighting just right.

Thank you for that. I have been tinkering with where I like the exposure and I am shooting in raw so I can easily make small tweaks in post processing.

 

Yeah, I'm having a hard time finding anything to criticize here. I'm a bit surprised that f/6.3 is narrow enough to get the whole perimeter of a tilted coin into sharpest focus; you must be absolutely nailing the center of the focal-depth range.

I second @ldhair's recommendation to try Canon's remote-control software. That would completely knock out the vibration-damping issue, I think. (I'd say something about enabling mirror lockup, but that's because my camera and I are old; no mirrors on the R series, of course.)

 

f/6.3 is the widest aperture I was able to use and get the focus I need. Being about a foot away from the coin also helps. If I was closer this would be an issue. I personally like using the timer setting simply because it gives me a few seconds to fidget with the paper I'm using to reflect the light. Because the EOS R is mirrorless, I can actually see my final exposure on the screen on the back of the camera so I adjust my paper until I like what I see and I hold until it takes the photo. That 10 seconds has worked well for that.

If I had a traditional DLSR camera with a mirror...it wouldn't work like that.

I also try and tilt the coin as little as possible so they don't look out of round.

 

I don't see it needing any improvement. The different settings will accentuate different features, and that's just a choice, depending on what you want to get across. You've a good command of it, your investment in the effort paid off.

 

Looks awesome!

 

Tones would be the next thing I would look at.
It is a lot harder with film. I think they are pretty good.

 

Definitely use the Canon Utility software and tether to your computer. With that you can adjust your lighting while you watch the affect live on your computer monitor. Don’t marry the idea of always having the the lights at 10 and 2. Play around with their position to see how it affects the look of the coin. You’d be surprised how different a coin will look with even the smallest position change.

You can also move the lighting at different angles and elevation to see different looks. All you read in books about lighting positions or coin orientation should be taken as a guide, but not the final word. Try taking some shots of a coin using the same light position, but rotate the coin an eighth of a turn after each shot. It is interesting how the lights highlight different areas with each change.

an example of what you see on your computer monitor by using the free Canon Utility software.

You can control many of the camera’s setting, plus you can see what is going on live while adjusting lights or coin position. The screen on the right shows a magnified look at the area inside the little white box in the screen on the left. This gives you better focus control, but focus manually not auto. The reason is that auto may focus in on a piece of dust on the slab instead of the coin.

 

Thank you for the lesson Bob. I have learned so much from you over the years. You are the best at bringing out the true color of the coin.

 

Thanks Larry. Hope I didn’t step on any toes.

 

How do I upload a picture of my coins I have questions on new to the site hi everyone hope you are doing well

 

Short answer.....click 'upload s file', choose file from your computer (jpeg's best), hit 'full image'.......simple as that.

 

Hey Idhair, good to see you on another Forum, as I'm new to this one and NGC's Chat Boards. I've been looking all around for coin photography topics and have seen you on many. I look forward to chatting and building a friendship with you along with some of the other's here!

Thank you for this information Bob! Like I mentioned to Larry I'm new to these chat boards, new to numismatics in general but have learned very fast. My newest ventures are photography. I knew nothing about cameras but I picked up what I think is a solid first camera. I bought the Canon EOS Rebel T7 with a pretty decent kit. It came with the 18-55mm with some attachable macro lenses and a bunch of other things. I have been reading into axial lighting but have learned thats just best for some aspects that you're trying to capture versus an all-round quality photo. But I'll make sure I'm following your posts as well seeing how knowledgable you're on the subject. But that Canon Utility will be my very next download.

 

Your Canon kit should have come with a CD which includes the Canon Utility, at least they used to include the software. CD’s are probably out of date now. But yes, do upload the utility. You will need to also find out if your computer and OS meets the requirements for compatibility. My older camera and computer are limited to Disk Utility 2.0. The newer cameras use 3.0. Another thing you might think about is getting an AC adapter for your camera. With this you will not need to worry about your cameras battery running out of juice.
From what I see your camera uses Utility 3.0. It can be connected either by Wi-Fi or USB cable. Mine can only be connected by cable. If Wi-Fi ever goes wonky cable works great. My Mac works great with the setup. I have no experience with how it works with Windows machines.

 

Tricky to critique some of them, because I don't know what the coin actually looks like. I'll start with the AGE. The coin looks too dark, with not enough luster. The brightest spots on the coin are the edges of the devices. Both of these point to the lights being at too low of an angle. The color is a little pale, too. Don't be afraid of correcting saturation where warranted. The same goes for the reverse cameo cent. There's no light reflecting from the devices because the lights are too low. The lower lights do work for the 55 proof cent, since they darken the fields so you can see the cameo appearance. I imagine the other coins would be improved with the lights at a higher angle.