I Think I Found My Best Setup For Iphonography

I'm going to suggest one other improvement, which I didn't notice until your last huge image:

The bottom seems a bit lacking in focus by comparison to the top. I'm thinking you could slightly refine your alignment to the coin for a more perfect parallel - I can't believe I'm talking about this to a guy shooting with a cellphone - by shooting a small mirror. Your goal will be to put the image of the camera's lens as perfectly in the center of the resulting picture as you can, which results in the best-possible perpendicularity between camera and subject. Further, trying to create a rig which allows you to duplicate this setup easily should be a goal.

Beyond that, there's nothing about what you're doing here which does not impress.

OK, I was going to do this tomorrow, but I couldn't resist trying out your suggestion. I took new pictures of the 1902-O Morgan, centering the coin with the camera lens as you suggested. Here are the results, which I think turned out much better.

** The ONLY thing I did differently, other than centering, was placing my hand over the middle of the tube lamp to try and eliminate the hot spot. As a result, the luster really comes out and pops! I think it worked fairly well. What do you think? Anything else you can think of in terms of better quality?

Will do, SD. That is what I have planned. I'm really curious as to how it will shoot gold. I have a $50 gold buffalo, but it's in a safe at my dad's house right now. I'm going on vacation next week, but when I get back I'm going to shoot all kinds of coins in various conditions. Looking forward to it.

SsuperDdave- your "seal of approval" means a lot.

I had a little time tonight to shoot this circulated Morgan. With no luster to contend with, this one was a little easier to shoot. The hues and overall appearance of the coin are spot on.



I have a feeling that proofs are going to be a nightmare with the iPhone, though. I've got to figure out how to eliminate the phone's reflection in the fields. Any suggestions?

This is a raw shot using the 18% gray card. This is how my photos appear before any cropping is done. As you can see, the image is very "easy" on the eyes. There are no harsh shadows or hot spots. You are essentially seeing the coin as it really appears, and you can be confident of this due to the background. My next goal is to try and figure the best setup for shooting slabbed coins. The slab itself is the problem, due to its reflectivity. I may just have to settle for shooting at an angle. Let me know what you think.

SD- here is my first shot of a slabbed coin using my current setup. I think it turned out OK, or at least as well as I expected.



I was also practicing with a Peace dollar last night, and I came up with these two images for comparison. I think the brighter image on the right is more accurate, since the gray background is not "dimmed" to a near black. However, I like how the details show more in the image on the left. It is also much easier to look at. What do you think?

Yes- that's exactly what I was thinking. I'm going to try blocking the tube light and have a LED lamp directly on the coin to see how that works.

Here is a close-up shot of the Vermont quarter from a different photo I took earlier. I think the coin appears better here than in the slab photo.



Here is an angled shot I tried when using a black background:



A straight shot with black background:



Then a straight shot with a white background: the luster really shows in this photo-



These were test shots I made before I got the gray card.