Can You Help Out A Beginner Please?

The Canon 20D is a mighty fine camera. That 100mm lens should do the trick. You should be able to put the lens about 6 inches from a Quarter and get quality focus.
Experiment with the lens setting until you get focus. Forget the flash, its easier to use continuous lighting like a table lamp.

You need a tripod. Can be a cheap one, it can be a little one. Set the camera on the tri-pod so it is looking directly down on the coin sitting on a table. The tripod will make sure you don't shake the camera. In macro photography the slightest camera movement translates to blur.

Ideally you have two lights on either side of the coin. Two table lamps will do. If you use incandescent lights you will need to color balance your shot or it will look orange. The camera manual will explain that. If you get daylight balanced fluorescent lights it will save you that step.

Thats a start.

johnstac - have you tried searching CCF for copy stand ideas?

there are a bunch of great ideas right here on the forum that won't cost you an arm and a leg

i hope this helps !

http://www.coincommunity.com/numism...36&%23545716

Your 20D, in combination with (in my personal opinion) the finest Macro lens on the market, should allow you to create images of a quality equaling anybody's.

Your approach to professional-quality coin pictures needs to be two-forked. First, acquiring good images. Second, processing them for optimal use online.

The cardinal rules of acquiring good images:

1) Solid, secure camera mount. Tripod, copystand, either way you do not shoot handheld.

2) Exact parallel orientation between camera and coin. That's easiest-done with the camera pointing straight down, and the coin on a flat surface. This cannot be overemphasized - macro depth of field is very tiny, and any out-of-parallel will leave parts of the coin out of focus.

3) Delayed/remote shutter. Very few of us (I ain't one of them) can finger-activate a shutter without introducing shake into the shot. Canon's Zoom Browser/EOS Capture software is superb - I don't leave home without it - allowing you to control every aspect of the shot from keyboard/mouse. As near as I can tell, it works well with your 20D.

4) Manual control. Like it or not, you're going to have to learn manual camera settings to maximize your shots. With your kit, you'll get better shots on Auto than 99% of coin photographers can at their best, but you'll have not even touched the quality it's capable of.

5) Appropriate lighting. A lens of the quality of yours is less-sensitive to specific lighting than more-compromised glass, but there are certain truths about lighting coins which should be followed to maximize results.

The cardinal rules of posting good images:

1) Good post-processing software. I use the Gimp. It's free, enormously capable and has a pretty steep learning curve. Not for the computer/graphics faint of heart, but the small portion of its' capabilities you will use can be taught to even the computer-illiterate.

2) Good photo hosting. I use Photobucket. I can save images there of enough size and quality to satisfy pretty much everyone:



3) A basic knowledge of filesize and Quality settings, allowing you to post big, pretty images. This, too, can be taught.


I own, use and swear by the same Macro lens you own. I've shot thousands of coin images with it, and I have its' needs pretty well figured out. Have a look at my Gallery, here:

http://www.coincommunity.org/galler...hp?cat=10003

Just about every coin image was shot with a 100mm f/2.8 Macro. You should expect equal quality to these, at the very least. I will be happy to help you get there. To begin, if you aren't already comfortable with the terms, Google and learn the basics of Aperture, Exposure and ISO. Then we'll talk.

The Gimp is an open-source equivalent to Photoshop - yeah, that's its' actual name. If you already have Photoshop, you're all set. The only features you'll really need are color correction, cropping, levels, sharpening and saving at reduced Quality - that's the key to getting images which will post online. I save the images I plan to post at 80% Quality - the pic I posted is 1000 pixels in diameter but only 343kb, small enough for just about any photo hosting site.

I place less importance on bulb type than is usually seen around here. Custom White Balance settings mean you really don't have to care about color temperature. The size, shape and placement of the lighting is more important. For me, it's MR16 halogens - their small size lets me get them very close to vertical above the coin, right next to the lens - on track-light gooseneck fixtures. The ability to change the location of the lighting is important, so I'd strongly advise not buying a rig which includes the lights, unless they're very manipulable. A cheap tripod will do fine, honestly. I have a copystand, but I rarely use it these days as I lack the space to leave it permanently set up where I live. The pic above was taken from a tripod.

"Tungsten" bulbs are the "standard" light bulb like you'd buy for your lamps.

The software lets you tether the camera to your computer via USB cable. You then do everything from the keyboard/mouse - all camera settings and triggering the shutter. When I go to shoot coins, I only touch the camera at the very beginning, to set it up and get it parallel to the shooting surface. That's the only time I touch it - the rest is done from the computer.

Just for the record, here's my postprocessing workflow: I open the original image, crop it to just the coin and immediately save it under a new filename. That way, I always have the original, untouched pic for archiving. If I need to correct color, that's the next step. Next is levels if necessary - sometimes the image I like best is a little over- or under-exposed, and changing Levels by 10% or so brings it more in line with "pretty." I then Sharpen if necessary, and contrast adjustment is last. I Save after every step, a habit I formed years ago working in the graphics industry. Finally, I resize the image to posting dimensions, and save it under yet another filename.

If you're comfortable with postprocessing technique, a lot of the pressure to get the shot "perfect" is relieved.

"Figure on needing about 12" between lens and a Morgan Dollar-sized subject. Minimum focus distance is about 6", at which point you'll think you're using a microscope"

Wow, thanks for that insight. I would have hated to buy something to short.

SuperDave, great info as usual. I will start looking for a cable compatible to the camera on one side and USB on the other. The postprocessing info is great. I will get to use a little of my website development knowledge where the images on the site also need to be saved to the smallest file size possible without sacrificing how it looks.

I have a habit of overkill when it comes to equipment. But in this case, I am going to try and relax my wallet and just see what I can get by on. My wife has a tripod from years ago. I will get it out and see if I can hang a camera from it upside down. I will have to buy the lights and other small things.

Dave, if you get a chance, I would love to see a picture of your setup.

Thanks everyone.

$200 would seem a little excessive for a tripod.

My $30 from ritz camera does fine for me.
My camera is nowhere near as hi spec as yours and I don't have a dedicated macro lens.

My tripod, $20. Craigslist purchase and I love it.

Wow, I guess I was way off my estimate. I read a lot of info and many people out there indicate that the tripod needed to be very sturdy etc. Actually the $200 I mentioned was much less than some of the ones I saw for sale. Anyways, I bought the one that Richard mentioned. I can't go wrong for $15! lol