How to Photograph Coins
While the world seem to be in the middle of a Gold Rush Silver has been steadily growing in value .
Although Silver is still growing in value it will probably never reach the dizzy heights of gold.
One investor tried to corner the market in silver but was eventually foiled .
How to Photograph Coins
One of the problems when you want to sell coins is how to photograph them and show them accurately.
All too often when we browse the coin ads on eBay we see a rather fuzzy and distant picture of the coin which is really not good enough to see its condition and the only purpose seems to be to show that the coin actually exists !
Always use cotton Gloves when handling uncirculated or proof coins to avoid fingerprints or other marks.
What you want to be able to see is detail on the coin.
I always photograph both sides of each coin I sell as almost always a buyer will ask to see both sides if you do not !
I merge the two pictures together side by side and upload them as a single picture.Try to use a unique name for each coin to check if other people are using your picture.
There are two basic setups when photographing coins.
In both cases you need a digital SLR camera with a 1:1 macro lens
A lens with a focal length of 90mm to 100mm is best.
1:1 is the ratio of the picture to the coin size - it means you can photograph small coins.
Trying to photograph coins with a film camera is very frustrating.It is possible but you will get a high percentage of failures and you have to wait to get your pictures back from being processed.
A copy stand will be useful for photographing many coins (for just a few you can hand hold the camera)
The other thing you might need is a Ringflash.
Very few cameras accept a ringflash
(Canon does have a ringflash for digital cameras)
Do NOT try to fit a ringflash for a film camera to a digital camera or the high voltages used in the
Film ringflash will cause irreparable damage to your digital camera.
If you have many coins to photograph get a ringflash and make your life easier. A ringflash gives a shadowless light and attaches around your lens.Its easy to use and always gives the same exposure . it is fairly expensive though (around $300 to $500)
For best result use a tripod or you may get some unsharp pictures.
I use both the Nikon d40 or the Fuji S2 to photograph coins.
Both are good digital slr cameras but neither of them come with a macro lens as standard.
A Macro lens is specifically made for closeup photography and is popular in medical and dental photography.
A zoom lens is ok with a macro but does not give such a sharp result as a prime lens. (A prime lens is a fixed focal length)
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This is the ideal setup.
It is possible also to use extension bellows or closeup lenses but with closeup lenses you will definitely get a distorted result (coins will not look round) and sharpness will be critical.
A good background is plain white paper.
(If you use a Blck Background you will have to adjust your exposue manually as the camera may get confused by the black background.)
Set your camera to Manual and use the smallest aperture (this will help with getting all the coin in focus)
I set the camera to 100 ASA White Balance and the auto exposure settings
If you use a setting over 200 asa then you may get unwanted pixels in your pictures.
I do not use RAW as this takes up too much room for each picture on the computer. Most coins and small objects on eBay are often saved as .jpg (jpegs) at about 300 pixels high.
The first is outdoors on an overcast day.
This is the easiest way and gets evenly lit results - but may have a slight blue cast to the pictures.
I normally use a thick piece of dowel narrower than the diameter of the coin and about 1/2 an inch long and put the coin on that on top of the white paper.
By raising the coin a litle you avoid a hard shadow on the background (you will need to test this for best results)
DO NOT use plasticine,play-Dough or sellotape to hold the coin steady
This may severely devalue your coin.
You will have to adjust the height of the camera to get the image properly set up and in focus.
Use a phone book or other books if you need to get a wider higher base .
The second method is indoors.
You will need a seperate flashgun and a remote control trigger (about $8)
Set up as above but this time switch on your flashgun
Plug the remote control sensor (it looks like a plastic cube with a socket to plug your flashgun into)
switch on your flashgun and point it at the coin from about 5 feet away at an angle of 45 degrees from the coin.
Try a test picture. If the flash is too strong then attach a clean white handkerchief over the flashgun with a rubber band.
For a softer light simply point the external flashgun through a plastic mixing bowl from a supermarket.
If the flash from your internal flashgun interferes with the picture just tape some baking foil belwo it so that the light bounces up to the ceiling - this will still be strong enough to trigger the remote flash.
This surprisingly works quite well with non slr cameras too !
a non -slr camera with macro ability can produce good results but you will get many more failed /unsharp pictures.
You can further improve your picures by using Adobe Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro.
I find the quickest way is to use the Levels section and adjust the sliders until the coin looks its best.
Hint :use the white background as your white source in the levels part of Photoshop.
Avoid oversharpening or sharpen edges filters as these may give a misleading pictures and make the coin look better than it actually is !
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Filed under Coin Photography by on Apr 17th, 2010. 
