Coin Photography

[Ducksoup]

Just wondering if anyone's done any photography of coins. I've played with it briefly but haven't been able to come up with a way to get the luster and color of some coins to show up. Thanks in advance for your help.

[oldwolf]

Clean the coins and light them with something.

If you want to see the texture of the coins then light it from the side a little. That should also bring out the shine a bit more. You'll need to tinker with your settings to figure out how long the shutter needs to be open to get the effect you want though.

[BCWalker]

Not my best but a valiant effort. I put a piece of computer paper on a desk with the coins on it (cleaned with windex) and put wax paper over a desk lamp as a diffuser, lit to the side. Little to no post processing work done on this more than a little white balance tweak.

[BCWalker]

After seeing this thread, I wanted to retry my coin photoshoot and got some interesting results, including this one:

[davidjcusick]

Originally Posted by oldwolf

Clean the coins and light them with something.

Clean the coins only if you do not care about them!!!!!!! Cleaning a coin is a BIG NO NO in the numismatic world!!! If you own a coin that could be valuable & you clean it just to make it "pretty", it could seriously decrease the coins value. Some of the most beautiful coin photos are those taken of silver coins with nice toning. Best of luck...

[oldwolf]

Originally Posted by davidjcusick

Clean the coins only if you do not care about them!!!!!!! Cleaning a coin is a BIG NO NO in the numismatic world!!! If you own a coin that could be valuable & you clean it just to make it "pretty", it could seriously decrease the coins value. Some of the most beautiful coin photos are those taken of silver coins with nice toning. Best of luck...

Am I to assume that wiping off finger prints and dust is not cleaning? If he/she is going to take pictures of the coins then they'll have to handle them some how. Gloves are best but you're still going to get dust on them.

[spanky7829]

Here are some i took.

[Heavy Surf Advisory]

nice shots!
BCW, i'm intrigued by the "standing up" effect goin on.
spanky, i am enjoying the freeze-fall a lot!

here is just an old liberty dollar coin, USD.


and...

Penny & Match Macro by Heavy Surf Advisory, on Flickr

[EagleEyeView]

change by osakalindo, on Flickr
Hope that code worked....
Make sure to have plenty of light. I shot mine in the door handle of my car midday(was waiting for a train to pass) I think it turned out alright.

[EagleEyeView]

change by osakalindo, on Flickr
Hope that code worked....
Make sure to have plenty of light. I shot mine in the door handle of my car midday(was waiting for a train to pass) I think it turned out alright. Used the kit lens on my Nikon D5000