Kodak Z612

The minimum focusing distance is not an issue for you - 10cm is too close to get good light on to the coin, anyways - you're going to want to be a minimum of 6" from the coin, preferably more, to get it lit properly. OK, here's what to concentrate on right now, and you can tweak stuff later once you get the focus right:

1) Make sure the coin and the lens are absolutely square to each other. That's Job #1, and nothing else will be right until you get this right.

2) Use the delayed shutter to snap the pic - your hand should be nowhere near the camera when the shutter snaps. These first two items are imperative - you'll never get what the camera is capable of giving you without them.

3) Use as much manual control over the shot as you possibly can. I say this because the difference between a good shot and a great shot might be as little as one step of adjustment of one single parameter.

On the bad side, your camera isn't the best on the market when it comes to White Balance adjustment. On the good side, it's pretty good with automatic white balance right out of the box, and that's the easiest thing to twiddle after the pic is taken anyways. So leave the White Balance at Automatic for your first efforts, and don't worry about the color for the moment. Set the shot up as I described above, making sure the camera is square to the coin and let's start at about 10-12" away. The easiest way to do it is with a tripod and the edge of a table - I learned to shoot coins in exactly that way - with the camera pointing straight down at the coin. Use a solid-color background for the coin, either white or black - using Auto white balance you'll probably get the best results with a sheet of printer paper as a background.

A little gooseneck desk lamp, or just plain sunlight, is the best place to start for lighting. Remember, we're just wanting to get a sharp pic right now, and we'll worry about color and luster later. You'll want plenty of light, although in this case a single 60-75w buld qualifies as "plenty." With the camera and light set up properly, use these as your starting settings: ISO 400, f/5.6, exposure at about 1/125 if under a lamp and 1/200 if under sunlight. Depending on what your first shot looks like, vary the exposure faster or shorter to get the best result. Change it by one step (1/125 to 1/160 or 1/80) with each shot, until you get the best possible pic.

It's going to take a few tries, unless you're very lucky. For each pic, view it full size on your monitor (I know it'll be bigger than your screen), so you can see if the focus varies over the face of the coin. If the focus varies top to bottom or side to side, you'll know you aren't square to the camera. If it varies from the center to the outside, you're going to want to use a narrower (higher numerically) aperture, because that will increase the depth of field and get the whole depth of the coin into focus at once. I believe that f/5.6 with your camera will focus the whole coin, though.

So, go play. Take pictures. Worry about the color later.

Glad to be of help. Please do post pics - you're over 50 posts, and you're eligible for hosting here at CCF, if you don't have it already. That will let you post stuff up to 800px wide right from Coin Community. Email Bobby or post in the Coin Community Support forum, and he'll set you up. Just remember what time of year it is, and don't expect a reaction in minutes.

Just remember, all we want is sharp pics right now. It doesn't matter if they're green, or dark, or only 300px wide. We can tweak that later.

I have to socialize today, so I probably won't be around if you post anything further. However, tomorrow it's business as usual and back to regular habits.

Well now this is funny. I searched for my old thread for when I was trying out taking pics, almost exactly a year ago :) Anyways, here's round 2 of giving this a shot. I think I have found a decent setup to take raw coins, I have alot of work to do I'm sure, but what do you think so far? I think its a good improvement :D Oh, and the coin is nothing great obviously, just one I can finger up and toss around for testing :)

I had the camera setup on auto with macro and here are the settings this one produced. f/3.2, 1/320, ISO 80. One 60watt CFL bulb. I have this sitting on a toddler plugin plastic protector lol! Suggestions please :) I'm actually happy with these results so far, I thought my camera wouldnt take pics for me!



Image Insert:

Thanks! Its amazing what different light will do. I did use a pure white piece of paper, but I'm struggling to find the settings for white balance, which I dont think my camera is very good at. I'll keep plugging away, thanks for the confidence boost :)

I must have been bored last new years weekend too lol!

Good. Photoshop (in my opinion) is the better tool for adjusting color than the Gimp; I use the Gimp myself and prefer it for sharpening.

Do not be afraid to make use of Photoshop for final sharpening and color. You want an accurate image of the coin, and the camera doesn't have to do 100% of that.

That and, as I've mentioned, sometimes levels and contrast. My current living situation does not lend itself to dedicating a lot of space and effort into perfecting my lighting, and I'm sometimes forced to compensate.

So, in one year, you've gone from "I cannot get a good shot" to sharply focused, color-consistent, gradable images without changing anything except your level of knowledge. I hope you don't mind if I use your work in the future as an example of what I'm talking about when I say, "It's the photographer, not the equipment."