Coin Photography

Hi guys, I want to know what equipment do you use to photograph your coins.
I personally use a home-made lightbox and my cell phone.

Here I leave you some examples of photos I took with my cell phone and my lightbox:

I usually put the coins on a white card board, and use my DSLR camera or my phone. If I don't have the white card board handy, I take the picture from a distance, then use Picasa to crop out the sides.

Light is a tricky factor.

My art teacher used to insist on us photographing our subjects in natural light (e.g. by a window), as that works the best in terms of shadows and contrast; it's good advice for and works for photographing coins too, in my experience.

I set them in my scanner, and they will be all great. To maximize clearness, I will put a gradient with <25% opacity to make it look shiny with PS.

Quote: "SquareRootLolly"​I set them in my scanner, and they will be all great. To maximize clearness, I will put a gradient with <25% opacity to make it look shiny with PS.

​Could you show us an example of how your photos look?

Quote: "CassTaylor"​Light is a tricky factor.
​
​My art teacher used to insist on us photographing our subjects in natural light (e.g. by a window), as that works the best in terms of shadows and contrast; it's good advice for and works for photographing coins too, in my experience.

Especially at sunset))


For swaps I take photos used my phone with auto upload to Google photos, then create a shared album and send a link to the swap-partner. It is very quick.

If I need better photos I use tripod and my old Canon 50D with Tokina 100mm lens. Sometime I make a pedestal for the coin to create a blur background (don't like to delete it).

Max_505, can you describe or show the photo of lightbox?

Quote: "Grinya"​Max_505, can you describe or show the photo of lightbox?
​

Here you have some Examples of how to build a Lightbox:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyxzC5kqbyw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBxo6rbHtBM

So here's mine:
(its made out of 12 wood sticks, baking paper and cardboard)




To place the coin in the light-box I use a little piece of glass and a paperclip:





And finally some photos I took with my Light-box:




​

I use something that 's functionally equivalent to the "$400 setup" described in an epic thread over at Coin Community Forums, in the Photography subforum.

This consists of:

- a Canon T6s DSLR that supports USB-tethered shooting with magnified live on the computer monitor (critically important for optimal focusing)

- a DIY copy stand made up of leftover parts from my old astroimaging setup (plus some new parts). This is basically a vertical optical bench that allows various "modules" to be attached.

- (usually) one module is an old Pentax M-42 mount bellows -- The DSLR and lens (usually a Rodenstock 75mm f/4 APO Rodagon-D 1X) are attached to the ends of the bellows.

- in place of the bellows, I can substitute a finite-corrected or infinite-corrected microscope objective for extreme closeups, or a plain macro lens attachment for larger shots (like PCGS/NGC whole slabs).

- ( almost always) another module is an old a microscope focusing unit from a Zeiss Ultraphot microscope. This has a polarizing ( xxxx-57) stage, meaning it can rotate as well as shift in the X, Y, and Z directions. The coin sits on this stage. The microscope stage fine focus knob allows for focus stacking when using the microscope objectives.

- most of the time I use one or two Jansjo LED lights shining through a large conical diffuser (made of Canson Opalux paper) attached to the front of the lens. Over at CCF this is known as a "smile director" follow-on. This allows great lighting flexibility by varying the diffusion and light position(s), as required for each coin.

- certain "problem" coins instead require axial lighting (more or less diffuse), and I have an additional axial module that can be attached between the bellows unit and the focusing stage (after removing the large conical diffuser). Alternatively, you can use a pseudo-axial technique involving a tilt/shift bellows (Nikon PB-4 in my case) and bounce well-diffused light off the coin.

As for sample results, you can see many images in the "How far back can we go?" thread here at Numista (or also over at CCF -- ID = pepactonius).

Quote: "Max_505"​

Quote: "Grinya"​Max_505, can you describe or show the photo of lightbox?
​​

​Here you have some Examples of how to build a Lightbox:
​
​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyxzC5kqbyw
​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBxo6rbHtBM
​
​So here's mine:
​(its made out of 12 wood sticks, baking paper and cardboard)
​
​
​
​
​To place the coin in the light-box I use a little piece of glass and a paperclip:
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​
​And finally some photos I took with my Light-box:
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​​

​Now that is fancy!

Great Thread. I'll upload tonight but this month I've transitioned from my Samsung S6 this month so I'm still setting things up.

Quote: "CassTaylor"​​Now that is fancy!

​Thanks!

This is what i use,



I have a camera mounted on a Tripod, A white cardboard box, 2 lamps on both ends (one of them is behind the camera). I put a coin (or a couple at a time) on a glass frame inside the box and take picture with a wire shutter release. This ensures that the camera stays still and the pictures are not blurry.

And here are the of some of the coin photos i have taken (after cropping and little editing in Adobe Photoshop).

Quote: "sujit_kumar"​And here are the of some of the coin photos i have taken (after cropping and little editing in Adobe Photoshop).
​
​

Now I know why I have to use a shutter, Thanks.
​How do you crop them in Adobe Photoshop? And, what kind of editing do you do?

I generally use the "magic wand tool" to crop. And editing wise it's mostly adjusting Brightness, Contrast, Levels etc. Nothing too fancy.

What shutter speeds and apertures are you guys using?

Quote: "sujit_kumar"​I generally use the "magic wand tool" to crop. And editing wise it's mostly adjusting Brightness, Contrast, Levels etc. Nothing too fancy.

​I just use Picasa. Can't get any simpler than that

Quote: "oggy"​

​Wow, that's a great set up.
Can you describe it, please?

A heavy duty copy stand that I picked up on ebay.
Nikon D3400
Sigma 105mm Macro lens
A cheap ringlight
And I have a monitor and remote control to monitor/set things off

The lens is the only really expensive part, but there's not really another comparable one around. The copy stand would have been expensive new too, but cost £50 on ebay.

Quote: "oggy"​A heavy duty copy stand that I picked up on ebay.
​Nikon D3400
​Sigma 105mm Macro lens
​A cheap ringlight
​And I have a monitor and remote control to monitor/set things off
​
​The lens is the only really expensive part, but there's not really another comparable one around. The copy stand would have been expensive new too, but cost £50 on ebay.

​That's a great set up, congratulations!

Quote: "oggy"​What shutter speeds and apertures are you guys using?

​Here is what i use,

Aperture: ƒ/32.0
Exposure Time (Shutter speed): 1/4 second
ISO Speed - 100
Exposure Bias - +2/3 EV
Exposure Mode - Auto
White Balance - Manual

Quote: "oggy"​What shutter speeds and apertures are you guys using?

Aperture depends on the coin:

- f/8 -- for normal-sized coins (compromise between diffraction blur and geometric (depth-of-field) blur

- f/5.6 -- for whole slab shots and large coins (too big for the bellows + 75mm APO Rodagon-D 1X

- f/4 (approx) -- for small coins that require focus stacking to get around depth-of-field problems (F/4 is usually around the best aperture for macro lenses.)

ISO is set to 100, since there's plenty of light.

Exposure varies, but short enough to avoid burned-out highlights, even if the overall coin comes out dark.

Thanks Photocus (slight name alteration as you're great at photography!) and Sujit.

I've finally managed to play around a little with my setup, and the results are astounding compared to using it handheld.

Only a few coins so far. (F4, 1/250, ISO100) - Not learned about exposure bias or modes yet.

I'm finding the ringlight is a great solution for unslabbed coins, but that there's too much reflection for slabbed ones.



One thing I don't quite get is the obverse of my 5 shillings - This was my photo before (ISO200, F4, 1/160, handheld)



And this is the photo now: (ISO100, F4, 1/250, mounted)



The first one is a much clearer representation - The cleaning is visible to the naked eye if you look closely, and the ugly toning spots aren't so ugly.

Quote: "oggy"​Thanks Photocus (slight name alteration as you're great at photography!) and Sujit.
​
​I've finally managed to play around a little with my setup, and the results are astounding compared to using it handheld.
​
​Only a few coins so far. (F4, 1/250, ISO100) - Not learned about exposure bias or modes yet.
​
​I'm finding the ringlight is a great solution for unslabbed coins, but that there's too much reflection for slabbed ones.
​
​
​
​One thing I don't quite get is the obverse of my 5 shillings - This was my photo before (ISO200, F4, 1/160, handheld)
​
​
​
​And this is the photo now: (ISO100, F4, 1/250, mounted)
​
​
​
​The first one is a much clearer representation - The cleaning is visible to the naked eye if you look closely, and the ugly toning spots aren't so ugly.
​

​Great photos!
Ps: I loved that Half Dolar

Max_505, thank you, very interesting report)

sujit_kumar, you don't need the ƒ/32.0, it leads to diffraction effects which significantly reduces the quality of the photo.

phfoticus, interesting approach to the choice of aperture. Do you have any special lens with the low depth of field which is not enough for the large coins at e.g. ƒ/4?

I use 5,6 which is the best for my lens according to photozone.de.

Quote: "Grinya"​Max_505, thank you, very interesting report)

​You're welcome

Quote: "Grinya"​sujit_kumar, you don't need the ƒ/32.0, it leads to diffraction effects which significantly reduces the quality of the photo.
​

​
I generally photograph more than 1 coin at once, many times upto 5/6. That is the reason of keeping a high aperture. Besides diffraction is minimal as long as your coins are in focus.

Here is a great article about coin photography
http://www.sigma-2.com/camerajim/cjgcoins.htm

I use this setup to photograph my coins
(this is not my photo)


And here are the photos this setup produce
(my photos)

more on Instagram @mnesiccoins

Note that I use my iPhone 5s camera for photographing.

Quote: "MihajloNesic"​Here is a great article about coin photography
​http://www.sigma-2.com/camerajim/cjgcoins.htm
​
​I use this setup to photograph my coins
​(this is not my photo)
​
​
​And here are the photos this setup produce
​(my photos)
​
​more on Instagram @mnesiccoins
​
​Note that I use my iPhone 5s camera for photographing.
​

​Wow, great set up!
how do you crop the photos?

Quote: "..."​phfoticus, interesting approach to the choice of aperture. Do you have any special lens with the low depth of field which is not enough for the large coins at e.g. ƒ/4?
​
​I use 5,6 which is the best for my lens according to photozone.de.

​With the sensor in my camera, f/5.6 is the "diffraction limited aperture" (DLA), based on the pixel size. Taking into account the anti-aliasing filter, the effective DLA is probably around f/8-f/10. This means that using an effective aperture less than about f/8 gives diminishing returns when it comes to improving resolution as recorded by the sensor. For a large coin, if the magnification on the sensor is 0.33X, the effective aperture is about f/7.5 when the indicated aperture on the lens ring is f/5.6. I don't think you'd get much improvement (in resolution) by going to an indicated aperture of f/4, for large coins.

For small coins, if the magnification is 1.00X , an indicated aperture of f/4 becomes effective f/8 (and 5.6 becomes f/11) . If you're focus stacking, depth-of-field and field curvature are not problems, so you might as well shoot at f/4, as long as the lens works well at that aperture.

Quote: "Max_505"​how do you crop the photos?

​When I photograph a coin, I try to fit the coin in the frame as big as possible.

See my post on this thread:
https://en.numista.com/forum/topic65095.html

Aaron

I'm starting to vary my aperture now depending on the 'shinyness' of the coins - My average for a old silver one is around 6.3, up to 13+ for shiny proofs, and down to 4 or less for dark copper.

Not sure if that's a good thing but it works

Quote: "oggy"​I'm starting to vary my aperture now depending on the 'shinyness' of the coins - My average for a old silver one is around 6.3, up to 13+ for shiny proofs, and down to 4 or less for dark copper.
​
​Not sure if that's a good thing but it works

​Assuming the shutter speed remains the same, the bigger aperture (lower readings) apparently gives brighter result. But excessive big aperture may also cause loss of details as the focus point (in photographic term, depth-of-field) is narrow, so better have a fixed aperture like F/8, then adjust brightness through shutter speed.

Quote: "LCW1991"​

Quote: "oggy"​I'm starting to vary my aperture now depending on the 'shinyness' of the coins - My average for a old silver one is around 6.3, up to 13+ for shiny proofs, and down to 4 or less for dark copper.
​​
​​Not sure if that's a good thing but it works

​​Assuming the shutter speed remains the same, the bigger aperture (lower readings) apparently gives brighter result. But excessive big aperture may also cause loss of details as the focus point (in photographic term, depth-of-field) is narrow, so better have a fixed aperture like F/8, then adjust brightness through shutter speed.

​
Thanks! I'll go back and play with that. I think my shutter speed is set on 1/200, so plenty of room to lower it.

Back again!

So I have a couple of coins here, with photos from the auction house and my own. Why do they look so different?

​Auction house photos:




My photos:

Quote: "oggy"​Back again!
​
​So I have a couple of coins here, with photos from the auction house and my own. Why do they look so different?

​Probably, it is because of the lighting and camera configuration with which they took the photo.

It looks like the auction photos were taken with fairly diffuse light, coming in from the top (mostly), and not at a high angle.

Yours almost look like they were taken with axial lighting, or something close to it, like high-angle lighting with a ringlight or lens-attached diffuser.

Yep I'm using a ringlight currently.

The colour seems better on mine on the toning spots; they are a truer representation, HOWEVER all those surface hairlines in the fields have become way less prominent in my photos, and the actual surface/detail colours are more accurately represented in the auction houses photos. Annoying that I can't see the imperfections.

Not sure why the cleaning vanished, but the details remained clear as day? (The hairlines are definitely there, you can see them with a loupe just fine).

Also if you look in the first picture of the 1829 Rouble, mine seems to have way better details as I think they got the light reflection/glare wrong, but again the hairlines are less prominent? (you can see them fine if you open in new tab and make the image full size, but on the auction houses you can see from a tiny image).