A Phone, A Light, Some Books, And A Bottle Cap For Good Coin Pictures

Play with the simple set up!

I will share a shot I did on the new acquisitions thread here. This was done with Earle42's basic shot and I did not even use the LED ring, but some LED light off to the side, following the rest of his instructions.

Some side comments and notes: The coin is in a capsule. I did not remove it. One thing I learned to do is to use an air bulb to blow off the surface to keep tiny debris and threads out of the photo as much as possible. Then take the photos of the obverse and reverse in identical settings as much as possible.

My post processing is to use PhotoShop to rotate and crop to the coin edge and then use the elliptical marquee tool, holding down shift (on my Mac) to make it circular, and draw from one corner of the cropped image to select just the coin. That takes some practice, but needs little position adjustment. Then I copy and paste each image to a new blank file consisting of a white background, moving the two cropped images side to side. Crop for a small margin and save. It can be tedious post processing a lot of coins, so, being lazy, I have evolved to minimize the key strokes involved for the past couple of months (I started by using scans, originally). Most often you can get good results without getting too extreme. The image itself is not enhanced at all.

Earle42's thread here is an immensely valuable contribution and much thanks to him.

@mestephil

Wow - very nice picture of the toonie! Stunning IMO!

I also want to say thank you for trying to take all this to the next level. I just do not have the time to devote to it I would like to. For quite some time now I have been thinking of building a simple block of wood for the phone to be held with. Nothing fancy at all. I am just thinking of using two 2X4s at 90 degrees with a slot in the one to hold the phone. While 3D printing would be a great way to go for this, I don't have a printer, and the time and effort to learn all about it is just too much right now for me to put into it and make yet another project for myself to be involved with!

You mention you have used other lights to the side. I agree this is likely going to be one of the best ways to go. Sometimes I have used sunlight coming in the window and not used the ring light. At present though I am just after the quickest and easiest setup I can do.

I do not know if you went back to see Darth Morgan's original post that inspired this setup I use, but his photos were taken with a lesser iphone than what I now have (I only use mine as a camera - its a 7) b/c it was long ago. However, he got some simply amazing shots! He also shows his LED light setup as well.

Oh...as to cropping elliptically: Again, I do nothing fancy. I just use preview (for non-Mac users, that is the name of the default Mac graphics program). It's the quickest way I know of. As soon as I transfer the pic to my computer (wi-fi photo transfer - another cool and quick freebie app!), I double click to open them and elliptical cropping is just two more clicks away.

The simplicity of the equipment and general setup is just the start as you say. It took awhile to come up with even the approach I posted. patience is always what is needed when trying to develop something!

My goals wen I started was I knew there had to be a way to get good pictures without needing an expensive setup. I was experimenting when Darth came up with his idea. As time went on it became more simple as technology evolved.

A long time ago I was also experimenting with taking the lens out of a laser pointer and using it to take macro pics. It was crude, but the results of how large it could an image was amazing:
http://goccf.com/t/243488

This thread is exactly what I was looking for. Not sure my Samsung S21 will be good enough but I'll give it a try it. Many of you appear to be Iphone guys and the results are excellent.

Patience pays off. Taken with some daylight still in the room and an LED lamp up and off to the side. No diffusion used, and fiddled with the light to minimize glare, or at least make it a feature. Used my iphone X from top of a box. Got this on the third attempt.

Hi Ham - The setup is incredibly simple and even a subset of the instructions given by Earle42 at the start of this thread. I just set it up low on a foot stool in front of me. I use a coin box for proof sets as it gives me the right height for the size of coins and focus. I included the bluetooth remote I use for handfree. I use surfaces in black for less reflection. The second photo is the LED light. It is elevated up to the right and higher higher about 3 feet away. I can swivel, raise and lower, and adjust the LED level as needed. I have temporarily abandoned the ring LED as too close and too bright for my use. Just takes a minute or so to get what I want and varies by the particular coin type due to surface reflection. And a pic of the of the squeeze blower I use to gently blow off any dust particles of the subject coin. I had that for dusting off old photos I scan.

Hi Earle42 - Not far off. I bought it in 2017 on Amazon for nearly half of today's price of $17.99! It is called a "Giottos AA1900 Rocket Air Blaster Large - Black".

I am using my old iphone X for this as it can focus for close up while my iphone 13 cannot. Evidently, only the Pro versions of newer iphones can focus close up, so you are better off with the older iphone.

I like the idea of a diffuser on the lamp. I have seen them for the types of lamps you showed, but not for the LED lamp like I have. I'll have to search again as softer light might help but I just don't have the right material here. I was not happy with a sheet of bond paper when I tried.