Ideas For Photographing Coins/Medals.

These are a few things I have learned. I would welcome more advice from any experts out there.

I always use a plain background of a color that will compliment the medal, usually a pretty blue.

For focussing, I experimented with using no macro, macro and super-macro. I found that generally the latter produced the best results though it excludes the option to use built-in flash. Camera shake can also be aproblem if not using a tripod. Obviously to photograph any edge marks, signatures etc., there is no real alternative to a high calibre macro.

For lighting, I experimented with ambient light, spotlights, flash and angled flash. In generall, the ambient light produced the best results though the phrase "ambient light" can, of course, mean a whole range of conditions. I do not have a flash unit separate from the camera. Direct camera flash was hopeless (too much reflection) and angled flash distorts the circular nature of the medal.

Interestingly, the flash results seemed to produce a more faithful result as far as the colour was concerned. Both the ambient light and the spotlight versions made the bronze of the medal very yellow and Photoshop did not improve it much. Next time I shall try making sure that the "ambient light" is primarily sunlight/daylight rather than electric light.

Any comments?