New Photography

I'm far from an expert on photography, but from what I can see, your pictures show an honest portrayal of the coins... Which is very nice, as they seem like you could have it in-hand, and it look the exact same...

Those are a good start. The critical steps in getting a good coin photo are:

1. Focus. You're doing OK here, though the quarter reverse shows some issues. I see a general worsening of focus at the top of the photos, so you may need to work on getting your camera flatter versus the coin.

2. Composition. Again, doing OK, though all your shots are tilted slightly CCW, except the quarter obverse, which is slightly CW. You've managed to nearly fill the sensor with the Halves, but the quarter is a bit small and could use some additional magnification. I like the background. Is it foam?

3. Exposure. Seems OK, though your white balance may be a bit off. I strive for having the background on all shots published at a given time show up with the same color tone and brightness if possible. Color tone is accomplished with white balance setting, while uniform brightness is usually accomplished with postprocessing. You are showing quite a few areas with "blown out" hotspots, especially on the quarter and the Franklin, and on all shots to some extent. Reduce your exposure a bit to keep this from happening and you'll recover the missing details from those areas. Use the histogram to judge when you are blowing out too much detail. You may need to adjust gamma to bring up the shadows. You can also adjust contrast in the camera to see if you can reduce the hotspots while keeping the shadows from going black.

Looks like you're using a single light, at a medium angle, around 12:00. Two lights is often better at minimizing hotspots since two lights double the total illumination intensity, so exposure is decreased and contribution from each light is reduced. Adding a bit of diffusion over the light (try a tissue to test the effect) can often help this but at the expense of showing luster.

The rest is all artistic choice. I prefer lights to be very high such that the coin devices are lit from above and shadows form around the devices rather than having highlights around the devices as you are showing. Often this is extremely hard to do, especially if the working distance between coin and lens is short, or the lens is large in diameter, etc. These things limit how high you can make the lights before the lens shadows the coin.

What camera are you using? Lens? Lights? Working distance?

Ray

Thanks, Ray.

Camera? Nikon D300

Lens? AF-S Micro-NIKKOR 60mm f/2.8G ED I sometimes use AF-S VR Micro-NIKKOR 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED, with little difference in images.

Lights (qty, type, clock placements, heights, angle to horizontal, diffusion)? Various, usually involving one or two Ott-Lites. These images were taken using my axial lighting device.

Copy Stand or Tripod? I use a Manfrotto tripod with ball head.
Any special techniques? I use a variety of diffusers/reflectors that I use.

I place a level on the leaf of my desk and verify that it is level. Then I place the bubble level on the back of my camera, on the plastic guard for the monitor. This ensures that camera and leaf of desk are parallel. I shoot straight down at the coin or token for most images.

Don't get me wrong -- once a camera is squarely set on a copy stand, it's hard to beat. But my situation is compact, and tripod legs can go beneath the leaf of my desk, whereas they cannot go under the desk itself.

I use a remote trigger, but a self-timer is also good. I can see Live View on my computer if I wish and control camera's focus and exposure, and most settings, from the computer. I usually don't bother with that anymore but it was informative to use it when learning how. If I did this professionally, I'd use the computer more in the shooting process. (Camera must be within USB cord distance to access camera on the computer.)



Blue circle represents light source placed directly ahead of my homemade axial lighting device. Earlier model were simply two inexpensive 5x7 picture frames. My wife scored ten of them at a garage sale for 25¢ each. The model you see has a 3/4" curly maple base.

Small 'baton' will keep upper frame at any angle I choose. The gooey stuff on the ends of the dowel rod is DAP or LocTite Mounting Putty, made by Henley. (Same stuff.) I set the angle of the glass while looking through the lens to see changes in lighting in real time. Looking from near the camera will not give the same view.


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Nice to have you here, La Legende. It's always a pleasure to welcome another serious student of the photography game, especially one like yourself who is so willing to share his knowledge.

Allow me to explain how to dispense with your levels, a technique Ray taught us: Place a small mirror on the coin's resting surface. Adjust the camera so that you see the center of the lens in the center of the frame. The camera and surface will then be precisely parallel, regardless of whether the surface is perfectly flat/level or not.

It's a pretty effective technique, especially if you're on a tripod having to reset for every session. I've gone to a bellows setup these days, so it's less-important for me, but anyone who's using that 1/4" thread on the bottom of the camera will benefit.

very clean, I am assuming there is glass within this
angled picture frame setup yes?

Welcome piyakhan. I know nothing about Pakistani coins so am hoping to see some nice pics of some. Or do you do ancients, US, or ?