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Welcome to my first Journal Entry! I've been wanting to do this for a long time now but didn't know what to put. I know that's what journals are for in the first place is just to write, a way to get stuff off that wet pink ball of noodles in your head. Maybe I should've been here way earlier? Either way, here we are now let's get to the meat and potatoes of why we are here now! So I may tend to hyper fixate onto new things every now and then. I have always been an artist, as a young kid I was very good at drawing but I'm not sure where that has since gone. But this year I found beautiful photos of coins showcasing their extraordinary characteristics. I'm talking about colors I never knew possible to be on coins! The Blues, The Reds, The Purples, Greens, Yellows, Golds, and everything in-between and above and below! I thought to myself, "WOW! How silly.. There's no way that a coin can actually look like that, that's the saturation turned WAAAY up to get those effects." Well I sure was wrong. I found myself stumbling into a world of coin's I'd never ventured into. I did not know just how amazing some coin's could really tone. Then I went down into a rabbit hole of how to store coins for certain types of toning effects and etc. But I didn't care too much for those over the edge, overly fake looking tones. Nonetheless I wanted to be able to capture images of those types of coins for myself! Now did I have any coins in the first place that were as miraculous some of the pictures I had seen? No.. But! I do search lots of bank rolls, mainly quarters and some Lincoln cents. So I have the ability to run into some pretty coins! Now this whole wanting to become a coin photographer idea literally just bloomed out of one of my journeys on the internet. It didn't really fall into place until I seen a camera and accessory kit on Wal-Marts website. My budget also tells me this is not possible and just let it become a fantasy. Well who knew my wife's credit could qualify us for Affirm which is a get now pay later financing program that Wal-Mart and tons of other places use! So... I got it.. Wow I'm sorry my whole ADHD way of telling stories is or just thought process is all over the place. Ah! Yes! So we got it! "It" is a Canon EOS Rebel T7 with a whole kit and caboodle. Just tons of stuff this kit came with which was a plus. Now I have only ever taken photos with my cell phone or a normal digital camera, NOTHING like this. So I'm still learning and playing with it I think I've owned it for a little over a month now. It's great I absolutely love it and love learning new things so it's been a great journey. Well now I got the camera, do I have those beautifully toned coins to take these amazing photos of? Negative. Or what about the know how or the setup to even do it? Erm, yeah no we don't.. But there we went back into the interwebs! Also we got some really great info from a user known by the name of Robec, he may be here but I met him on Coin Talk's Chat Boards. This is where I fell into another problem. The setups that some of these people had to get these amazing over the top photos costed a small fortune! I mean some of these Copy-Stands themselves can run upwards of THOUSANDS of dollars! *There's the main topic of this journal entry!* Then not just the stands but the lights, the editing software, the macro lenses, the objective lenses, the focusing bellows holy cow I was in over my head! BUT! You can get some really great photos using what you got and I tell you what, if there's something I'm really good at its working with what you got you know what I mean guys? *Hehehe* So I just went back to the basics and started with the stand. You need a stand to get your camera held in the right position, held steady, and a number of other factors. So I began brainstorming and came up with what is now my new Copy-Stand. I was going to say it's not the prettiest but honestly I really like the look of it. So its a 3/4", 16"x 12" particle board. A 3/4" Pipe Flange, 12" 3/4" Pipe topped with a End Cap. I then gave it the 'Ole Rattle-Can Special in Flat Black. I looks really great! Now I needed something to hold my camera into place! I found a photography company called, "SmallRig". SmallRig - DIY Camera Rigs, Stabilizers and Other Camera Accessories What I ended up buying is a smart clamp, I also got it off Amazon too. I was really happy when I got it in the mail today and unboxed it to find the quality of the product is outstanding. Its made of sturdy metal, when all setup and the cameras attached and its fitted onto the pipe its snug as a bug. The next thing to work on is getting lights either mounted or just around because I'm sure I'll need to move them around a ton. Here's what it looks like all said and done: Thanks if you made it this far in reading my all over the place story telling. It's how my brain works. Feel free to show what contraptions you all have created. Any advice given is always great. Until my next Ramble! Happy Hunting ~ TheColoradoNumismatist
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A few days ago, I was contacted by a friend concerning a medal that he had photographed by someone other than me! 😊. To be exact, he didn’t like what he got and wanted to know my thoughts on the photography. Now, if a person asks me questions about photography, they will always get more from me than they asked! The pictures my friend sent lacked details. The devices were hazy and had a strange blue hue. The fields on the medal were basically flat. Because the medal had a reverse proof finish, I photographed a 2013-W reverse proof SAE from my collection to make a few lighting comparisons. First, I photographed my SAE using a 45-degree axial reflector. This transparent reflector directly underneath the lens reflects about half the light from a perpendicular lighting source to the lens. The remaining light passes through the glass and is absorbed by the black surface inside its holder. From my picture, notice that I fashioned my reflector from a CD case lid. An obstacle that I always have to deal with using this method is too little or too much light. If a coin is in a plastic holder, it compounds the obstacle. Getting just the right light is difficult because the light is often hazy, and the focus is not consistent over the entire surface of the coin. Usually, I have to use a diffuser on the lighting source, adding yet another variable into the mix. The picture I am posting of my SAE under this form of lighting is my third take. Despite the difficulty experienced, this is my favorite image of the SAE. Next, I photographed the SAE using my lens aperture LED ring light. Because this light is precisely perpendicular to the coin, the picture is much like the one using axial lighting. However, axial lighting is reflected, and this light is direct. You will notice the mirrored surface of the coin is much more reflective than the picture using axial lighting. This type of lighting is advantageous when photographing darkly-toned copper coins. In fact, I used this light to photograph the Conder Token pictured in my last ANA post. Standard lighting will always be at an angle other than 0-degrees because the camera is in the way. This method of lighting is perfect for capturing the luster of your coin. You will notice the luster present on the obverse field of my SAE in front of Lady Liberty. Because the lighting is at an angle, the highly reflective surfaces on the coin appear black. If this were a standard-proof coin, the fields would be black, and the devices would be silver because of the non or less reflective surface of the devices. Most often, I use two lamps to better light the surface of the coin and reduce the effect of shadows. Recently, I imaged a chocolate-brown, lightly toned Conder Token that I had difficulty capturing the fine details. In the end, I used one standard light in front of the token to finally get the results I was looking for. Basically, I use whatever form of light that will give me the result I want, and it often takes a lot of shots to get it right. I hope you have enjoyed my post and my pictures. I am also posting a non-silver Ronald Reagan reverse proof dollar using axial photography. Which is your favorite SAE picture? If I ever photograph your coins, I might ask you this question. You can be sure that my friend didn’t have a choice. Love it, or hate it, he had to take what he got ☹
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I originally posted this topic in April 2013, but the photos have since been mucked up by Photobucket. I am reposting the general content with some updates/modifications in hopes that some may find it helpful. Preface: I have been photographing my coins for nearly 12 years and I'd say 9.5 of those years I have been happy with those photos. At the beginning of 2011 I was fed up, and wanted to figure out how to get “professional quality” coin images, but I did not want to purchase a $1500 macro lens. After a lot of reading and mentorship (especially from @rmpsrpms) on a coin forum with its own “Coin Photography” sub-forum, I purchased a bellows and a couple enlarger lenses (about $90 and $40, respectively) and 3 little lamps from IKEA for $9.99 each (Jansjo lamps). I was seeing big strides in quality, and within 4 months of having this new set-up I was finally at a stage where I was happy with the images I was taking. One of the most frustrating and difficult components of coin photography for me (and I think for others) is lighting. In my many years of experimentation, I had been doing a lot of things that seemed “intuitive” but were actually the opposite of what I should have been doing. While there is no “magical” advice I can give, and there is no replacement for trial and error (i.e., thousands and thousands of practice coin shots), I hope this little bit of advice is at least helpful to a few. Before going further, I want to talk about diffusion (full diffusion) of light sources. When I say diffusion here, I mean fully diffused set-ups like milk jugs, light tents, or light boxes. Fully diffuse lighting destroys the positioning components of your lights (angle, clock position, and distance/size described below) - and makes your coin images look very flat and lifeless. Stay away from light tents, milk jugs, and light boxes. Some diffusion of individual light sources (i.e., making each light source look larger than it really is) can be quite useful for some small-footprint lights. That concept is related to the "distance/size" component discussed below. ------------------------------------------- Methods: The unique position of a light in space as compared to your coin can be uniquely defined using three ideas. The angle of the light(s) as compared to horizontal above your coin. The clock positions of the light(s) around your coin circumference. The perceived size of your light (a combination of distance of your light(s) above the coin and the actual size of your light(s)). FIRST, let's talk about the angle of your light sources. In the following schematic, I have defined the “angle of the lamp” with the pink arc on the left - it is defined as the angle from horizontal (90 degrees would be pointing straight down on a coin from above). One of the keys to decent coin images is to keep this angle of your light source as high as possible (as close to 90 degrees, and as close to your lens as you can get without throwing reflection on the slab or coin). As the angle of your light source decreases, the lower contrast your light appears on the coin surface. You can see in the following set of images how the angle changes the look of the coin photos. I have shown the left light source, right light source, and both together. This shows how the two light sources at the standard 10-2 positions work together to light the coin’s surface. Photographically, a lower angle of light source manifests as a decrease in contrast between high points and low points on the coin, and the overall image appears “flat” and somewhat lifeless. In terms of the levels histogram (pictured below), you can see that as the angle of the light source decreases, the histogram becomes more compact (lower contrast). In other words, the range between the lightest part of your image and the darkest part of your image (called contrast in photography) decreases. As the angle of your light source increases, the range of lightest and darkest part of the image is much wider. Also note that you can generally tell how a coin was lit (with regard to angle of lighting source) by the corresponding halo around the devices (low angle) versus the shadow around the devices (high angle). Summary: Lights at low angles make coins look flat and lifeless (low contrast) - high angles make coins look lustrous and the devices stand out (high contrast). SECOND, I want to touch on the number of light sources. In all of the images above, I have used lights at the “standard” positions of 10 and 2 (this notation refers to the “clock positions” and is typical among photographers). Two light sources may not always be sufficient to fully light the coin’s surface. The coin I have depicted is about the size of a USA half dollar. You will note that there is a bit of a dark area at the bottom of the coin. In reality, when I am photographing coins larger than about the size of a USA quarter dollar, I use three light sources at positions 9-12-3 or some other modified positions. Some modification of these lighting positions may be necessary for coins with particularly high relief or with designs with devices that may look best if lit from behind or below. Light positions is a somewhat subjective. You can use any positions for the lights that illuminate the coin's surfaces fully. Use common sense for things like lighting the face on a coin - lighting from below the chin simply looks odd. There is no magical positioning of lights that will fit all cases. Positions of 10-2 and 9-12-3 are only where I start, and I am constantly moving the light positions around to light a particular coin appropriately (I can see real-time what the lighting changes look like through the Live-View screen on the camera). Below I show a schematic of the 10-2 and 9-12-13 lighting positions for the same coin lit from a high angle with only 2 lights versus 3 lights. LASTLY, I want to briefly touch on the ideas of light distance and light size and their role in the perceived size of the light. This component is newly described here after comments of @rmpsrpms in my original post 7.5 years ago. In particular, he writes: A given source (eg Jansjo LED) will look "smaller" the farther you move the source away from the coin. At large distances, it will eventually look like a pinpoint source. This increases contrast and thus luster presentation. Moving a source closer to the coin makes it look "bigger" compared with the coin, and this spreads the light out more across the coin, reducing contrast. This is also what happens when you diffuse the source. This is indeed a very important idea. Because I use very small footprint Jansjo lights, I do use some diffusion of these lights at the source. The little diffusers I use are a modification of those described by @rmpsrpms on another coin forum. I construct them by rolling a piece of translucent plastic, and then crimping it and taping it on one end. This cone-like tube is then lined with black construction paper above and bright white paper below on the top side. This accomplishes the goal of creating a larger perceived size light source, but maintains separate light sources so it does not flatten the coin images. The take-away here is that the perceived size of the lights needs to be sufficient to properly light the coins surface. Too small of a light source will create hot spots or overly conspicuous luster bands (while leaving other parts of the coin in shadow). This diffusion is very different from what I called fully diffuse lighting like milk jugs or light tents. I hope these illustrations have helped describe how the lighting angle, number of lights, and the size/distance of your lights can affect the final image quality. I will just emphasize again, there is no substitute for practice. Over the past 12 years, I have taken tens of thousands of coin images, and variables like the metal content (silver, gold, brass, copper, etc.), the surface texture (matte, satin, lustrous, mirrored proof), and toning all modify the way I light a coin. Practice, practice, and practice some more. Happy collecting (and photographing)! -Brandon
