Techniques for photographing coins

[Mona Lisa]

Since I asked Marc to add this board, I thought I would start a thread about photographing coins. I hope you photographers out there will put your two cents in.

Here's a link from one of my favorite detecting sites on macro-photography of coins.

http://metaldetectingworld.com/coin_photography.shtml

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

How to Research for Treasure Hunting and Metal Detecting From Lead Generation to Vetting - Grab it through Amazon!

[Real de Tayopa Tropical Tramp]

Duh, I inherited an old AOL Digi - too cheap to dump it - loaded a program, (Photo shop) but I cannot connect to the computer ??

It uses an USB cable to connect to the computer. Cable is fine , cross checked it.

Someone mentioned that the AOL digital camera has a special USB cable??

Ideas??

snifff

Tropical Tramp

 

[Michelle]

Duh, I inherited an old AOL Digi - too cheap to dump it - loaded a program, (Photo shop) but I cannot connect to the computer ??

It uses an USB cable to connect to the computer. Cable is fine , cross checked it.

Someone mentioned that the AOL digital camera has a special USB cable??

Ideas??

snifff

Tropical Tramp

DUMP AOL..........haha

 

[stoney56]

Here's a little device I found at a flea market for $1. It uses 2 "C" cells and has a 5X magnifying lens on the end. I put the coin on the table and the camera lens right against the magnifier, no guessing whether it's in focus or not. The built in light takes care of the flash problem and by the camera touching the magnifier, there's no chance of blurred images.

 

[colmn]

Hello All !!!

This is my first post here. I was waiting to join the forums but couldn't resist a photography thread.

A lil background about myself . . . I'm a Minnesotan that loves to rock collect, metal detect & pan for them yeller rocks. I take my kids to SD for collecting / prospecting fun. Been to Alaska "without kids" with friends and done some panning there as well. Background in photography . . . I have a part time biz as a photographer and use pretty high end canon digital slr's. Have had a-couple articles published on digital photography.

Photos . . . In reading the above listed posts, there is talk about AOL cam's and concerns with connecting. I do agree with Michelle, dump the AOL cam. Chances are that it is not connecting as it may not be XP compatible. I ran across a similar problem when I got my kids a new pc. Went to load the software for their webcam and it was not compatible.

Macrophotography. . . Unless your willing to spend around $1700 on a quality camerita and another $1200+ on a lens, macrophotography will make you pull your hair out by the roots. Even at that price range, lens choice will make or break ya. However, there are some tricks that can help you obtain quality photos. Firstly, cam choice. Most end users will chose a pretty basic point and shoot digi cam having a cost of between 150 - 200. My best suggestion would be a canon or fuji. My 8 y/o uses a fuji fine pix and takes some great photos with it. Canon has adapted it's I/S "image stabilization" into their lower end models which will help allot on the contrast of the subject matter "other models have an image shake feature but it does not compare with canons tech. Always use a tripod ! To further avoid cam shake while taking a photo, set it to take a timer photo. Lighting. . . many will shoot a subject with allot of light so they are sure to see the subject. When mac-ing a small object "any object for that matter", improper lighting will create a glare. With photoing rocks and such "thinking home end user in mind", put a brighter light bulb at a further distance "10ft", then use 2 softer bulbs closer "3-6ft". Set your lighting up so shadows fall AWAY from the cam position but do not put them directly behind the cam as you don't want the cam shadow across the subject. Contrast the background against the item being photoed. ex. . if you have a brown rock or penny, you wouldn't want to place it on a wood floor to photo. Keep you cam at a 30 - 45 degree from the subject, it'll help take away glare, flash back, and will also help contrast. Here's a kicker that many don't think of . . . wet the subject down and take the photo while it's still wet "not standing water wet". A few in the rock collecting world do that as it sometimes helps see patterns in agates that are under the surface. Apart from that, for some reason the wetness will make small features in the subject have more contrast. I think it may be due to a small magnification that the water property holds.

You are more then willing to give me a shout if you may have other questions.

Have a great 1 !

The Col.

 

[bk]

I've had good luck just using a digital camera (4 megapixel) and a tripod. I found that the best pics turn out using a fluorecent light. If the color is a little too orange, you can adjust the color using the computer. My camera was only a couple hundred dollars. (Best investment I ever made...almost)
I used to have a very expensive 35mm camera with all the filters and macro zoom lenses, and never could get a decent picture. Lighting is very important, and I don't claim to be an expert, but I think some of my coin pics are okay. I have not really tried to make them professional grade. Maybe this winter I'll do a little experimenting.
Good topic Lisa.

 

[colmn]

sounds like a good set-up bk. Gotta watch those fluorecent lights as their color spectrum can shift subject color "due to gas in the light" "that may be why your getting the orange color shift". I seen a post in another topic where a guy is using work/flood lights.
Another thought on lighting . . . I seen on ritz camera website, they have really neat home user type lighting tree set-ups for around $100 & up complete with barndoors. They also have a ton of smaller lighting items for creative uses in the 20 buck range. Good investment for the avid photohound.

 

[bk]

I think sunlight works best but you need to difuse it so you don't get shadows, and it seems like the sun never shines around here.

 

[bk]

Okay here are just a couple pics that I took using a Fuji camera, tripod, and fluorecent lighting. I prefer to use a light background (I just use white paper) especially on darker coins such as cents or corroded nickels. As you can see there are some shadows due to the lighting I used, but most of the detail is there. I typically use 0.3 M resolution in order to post the pics on Tnet due to the 128Kb max per post. That way I don't have to re-size the pics to fit. For my own use, I use a resolution of 1.0 M which allows me to blow up the pic and not loose the detail. I know there are ways to make these better, and I might try to play around a little bit later on. Let me know what you think. Like I said, I don't consider to be a pro at this, but it serves me well.
Last year I photographed all the better keeper coins I found in over 30 years of detecting. I arranged them so there are 36 coins on a page. Each pic is approximately 1"X1" on the paper. I put them in a sleeve protector and it's like having the actual coins without the risk keeping them in the house.

 

[bk]

Here is a coin using a black velvet background.

 

[Mona Lisa]

Beautiful photos, BK.

 

[Mona Lisa]

Beautiful coins, BK.