Long time lurker, first time poster.
A couple years back my mom gave me a free camera, a Canon PowerShot SX30. I bought a sturdy copy stand and three Jansjo lights and started taking photos of my coins and didn't like what I saw. I gave up on the coins and eventually got into wildlife, landscape and architecture photos. This spring I upgraded to a Nikon D7000 with a couple of nice lenses.
I generally like to hibernate during the winter up here in Minnesota, so I thought I would try my hand with the coin photos again. A month ago I bought a Tokina 100mm 2.8f macro lens. I thought this would solve all my problems, but I found out that it was more the photographer and not the original camera set up. I thought taking coin photos was going to be easier than the wildlife and landscape photos, but this is way harder than all of you guys make it look. I am hoping for some advice to elevate my game.
I have been taking photos for much of my free time now for about a week. I have posted a few examples below. I am finding it far easier to shoot copper coins than silver and gold. Proofs are way beyond me at this point. Everything below is shot with 1-3 Janjos at 2,10 and 12 o'clock. All photos are shot at 100 ISO in Aperture priority. I have been using a milk carton as a diffuser, but have not liked how most of those have come out.
The GoodUndated Gateshead Boundary token from Great Britain, using 2 lights, f8, 1/50, -1 exposure compensation.
1970 Austria Innsbruck 50 Schilling Commemorative, using 3 lights, f8, 1/125, no exposure compensation.
The Bad1917 Type 1 US
Standing Liberty quarter, using 3 lights, f13, 1/250, -1 exposure compensation. I tilted the coin upward from the bottom to try and create an axial lighting situation. Try as I might this photo ends up looking a little too surreal. I tried everything on this one and it still looks more like a painting than a coin photo to me.
1872 German Prussia 20 Mark Gold, using 2 lights, f8, 1/125, no exposure compensation. I tried a number of gold coins and they all come out looking flat. I also found it difficult to get a good level of detail on the reverse of this coin. I tried shooting with a milk jug over the coin to diffuse the light and of course that came out looking even flatter.
The Ugly1982 France Pantheon 100 Francs, using 2 lights, f8, 1/125. This coin looks good in hand, but hideous in all of the photos. I tried diffusion with a milk jug, tilting the coin to try and create axial lighting, but there is just too much noise in these photos.
1965 Canada proof like Dollar, using 2 lights indirect, f8, 2 seconds, -1 exposure compensation. I got two of these in a batch of ten AUs ordered from
APMEX. They look very nice in hand, but once again the photos are hideous. I also tried this one with direct light and diffusion and ended up just pointing the lights away from the coin and shooting a long exposure.
Any comments or ideas are greatly appreciated. Thanks.
You take better pictures than me, they look great.
Posted 12/23/2013 11:25 pm
You're way beyond my level
