Coin Photography

Equipment

Canon S50 Digital Camera - 5 megapixels, 3X optical zoom, with USB connection to PC

Copy stand (see Setup1 photo, below) with tripod screw to hold camera in place above the coin.

Small lamp fixture with compact flourescent bulb (see Setup1 photo, below)

Translucent plastic cylinder to set up the coin above the copy stand base (see Setup2 and Setup3 photos, below). The cylinder is the cut-off bottom of a peanut container from the grocery store. It is nicely translucent and is the key to allowing light in from below the coin to reduce shadows. The cylinder is about 2" tall.

Round pieces of foam about 1/8" inch thick.

Pieces of white paper as backgrounds and light diffuser for the flourescent lamp.

CDROM as a reflector.

Setup

1. The copy stand has a 'photo neutral gray' base so I put a CDROM (blank or used or ...) as a reflector onto the base and a white piece of paper over it. These serve as light reflectors that will provide light from beneath the coin. The compact flourescent lamp is place to aim light toward the 12 o'clock position of the coin at a glancing angle to reveal the surface texture and relief of the coin's surface. You can see the tripod mounting screw that holds the camera above the coin near the center/top of this photo along with my compact flourescent light fixture, white paper and CDROM reflector, and some pieces of foam and tools (at right).
2. I place the translucent plastic cylinder on the light reflectors to create a stand for the coin that can allow light in from below.
3. The top of the cylinder has a depression so I put a circular piece of thin foam in the depression to 'flatten' it so the coin doesn't 'dip' into the depression.
4. I place the coin's photographic background, a white sheet of paper, atop the cylindrical stand. Now another small piece of foam (smaller than the coin) is placed atop the white background sheet as a little bit of additional 'lift' to place the coin slightly (about 1/8") above the background paper. This serves to put any shadow a little 'out of focus behind the coin'.
5. Place the coin onto the top small piece of foam and a sheet of paper as a light diffuser between the compact flourescent lamp and the coin on its stand.
6. Illuminate the lamp and you're ready to 'shoot'.

Digital Photography

For taking the actual photos I use a software program that came with my Canon S50 camera. I connect the camera's USB port to one on the PC, run the software, and I can pretty much control all the camera's features from the software interface. I've found I need to set a few parameters (spot exposure, optical zoom, 'macro' option to allow maximum zoom from close-up, picture file size, ASA Speed, and white balance) to get a pretty good exposure and coloring. At the start of a session I place a 'focus target' object (something with sharp details) where the coins will go and get that object into a very sharp focus and then I turn the auto-focus system *OFF* and leave the focus 'fixed' to perfection. Then each coin has the same sharp focus as the 'focus target'. My focus target is a little Compact Flash chip - it's about as thick as a coin and has very sharp details I can use to be sure the focus is perfect before I start 'shooting' coins. When the software program 'snaps' a photo it is automatically transferred to the PC's hard drive into a folder that keeps all the photo session results handy in one place.

I tried many variations of the setup before I discovered that letting some light in from below was the key to virtually eliminating shadows caused by the 'surface texture' light. Credit goes to Arthur Houghton to suggesting the little 'lift foam' to place the coin a bit above its background to further diffuse any remaining shadow but putting it a bit out of focus.

For photo processing and cropping I use a great little program called PolyView that I've sworn by for years. PolyView does what most any photo processing program can do (contrast, brightness, gamma, adjustments, cropping, re-sizing, etc.) and can save the photos in about any file format I like (I prefer PNG). You can get a free download of PolyView at www.polybytes.com. After I see the photos I often do a bit of contrast and gamma adjustment to get a good-looking photo. Coin photos that look nice on a PC don't always look exactly like the coin 'in hand' but that's the way it is - I want the photo to show the coin details and surface clearly and a photo that has the true 'dark' color of a coin may not be the best way to do it.

You should be able to take the basic ideas presented here and get good results. I've found that letting light in from below the coin is one of the keys to getting results that are close to professional with little additional preparation.

Thank you for visiting the PtolemAE Project Coin Photography Page.