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Tonight I tried my hand at photographing a few (nothing special) toned coins and realized I could probably use a few pointers from the experts here to perfect the technique. I'd appreciate any tips you could give me on getting better results.

Here's a few examples:

The reverse of your half showed up great. But the photo's look a little bland. Try with a bright white background and I think you'll be.. in the money.

Sorry for the bad pun.

First: Taking digital photos is FREE so keep trying that's #1

Second: Lighting is the BIGGEST factor. Moving the lights in and out, changing the angles on the lights and the camera to the coin, etc. will yield different results.

Thanks for the advice on the lighting. I took them under a daylight spectrum bulb, but wasn't paying attention to the big light in the room with warm bulbs. That's probably what made them look so yellow.

I like the reverse of the kennedy half. I don't know about the obverse, and that might be due to the coin itself more than your technique.

I think the background could be improved also.

It would help if you detailed as much as possible to see where there's room for improvement.

What type of camera?
Tripod or securely mounted?
Push button or timer?
Flash or no flash?
White balance?
What type of lighting from what angles and distance?
etcetera
etcetera

Lighting is very important but some things come first, like getting your in-camera settings down and making sure the camera is solidly mounted.


http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsm ... 011ez.html
http://www.coincommunity.com/forum/foru ... ORUM_ID=81

wheatie_fan wrote:http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/coinphoto2011ez.html
http://www.coincommunity.com/forum/foru ... ORUM_ID=81

Awesome links! Thanks.

For now I'm using a relatively cheap camera (a Sanyo Xacti), and a cheap flexible leg tripod (I need a better one). The lighting certainly wasn't ideal, so that will be my next step. In the past I've had good results photographing metal by building a 3-sided box out of white cloth, and then reflecting daylight spectrum CFLs off of the cloth to avoid issues with bright spots. The toned coins are a new challenge because you have to get just the right camera angle to see the colors.

These shots were just a quick setup putting the coin on a cutting board over the kitchen sink with an undercounter tube florescent as the main source of light, but I also had a lot of warm tones coming in from the ceiling light.

I haven't adjusted white balance
No flash
Using single point focus
No timer

No flash is good.

Using a timer is recommended as it decreases motion as you press the button. The other option is tethering to a computer and clicking your mouse to take a picture, which usually isn't available with cheap cameras.

White balance you might have preset settings like 'daylight' 'tungsten' etc, or you may be able to do custom. With custom you set the balance with something white like a coffee filter and then the camera adjusts based on that. Whatever the case I'd pick the most flattering white balance given your lights and stick with it.

It sounds like you know what you're doing with the lighting. Another method is to shine the light through a milkjug or kleenex to diffuse the light. Usually two lights are sufficient but some use three.

The hard part is experimenting trying to only change one factor each time and keeping track of it all.