The 6th time is a charm.

About a month ago I bought a little point and shoot camera with macro photography capabilities (a macro setting). More importantly, I purchased a fairly nice copy stand that's about 18" x 24" and has a telescoping camera mount that can shoot from distances of about 10" through 24". The camera and the copy stand cost me about $200 combined. The camera is a 12 Megapixel super compact little thing...I can't believe how tiny these things keep getting. I found it on sale at Best Buy for $130. The copy stand was an eBay purchase for $58 and free shipping. I purchased some very economical flex-neck LED lights from IKEA (great little guys for only $9.99 each), and I have a couple normal flex-neck desk lamps that you can get almost at any department store.

I have to give a lot of credit for these purchases to Lehigh96 (a fellow NGC journal regular) and subsequently to Mark Goodman's great book called "Numismatic Photography, 2nd Ed.". I won't repeat too much here, because there are lots of threads on several coin sites that detail basics of coin photography.

I will note also that I am an amateur photographer, and I shoot weddings, senior photos, and portrait sessions for a professional photographer friend when she needs a 2nd shooter. SO, I do have a Canon 50D camera, and a bag full of pricey lenses. BUT, given what you can do with these little point-and-shoot cameras and a good copy stand, I have avoided that route. The main problem with big professional cameras is that the big clunky lenses get in the way of the lighting. Lighting the coin is really the key for taking a detailed and beautiful picture.

So now, an example of one of my obsessive undertakings. About a month ago I picked up a nice 1912 MS64 Liberty Nickel for my 20th Century Type Set. The coin has some unique toning, streaking, and an overall golden hue. I wanted the picture I took to be true to what the coin looks like in hand. So, on 6 different occasions, I have set up my lighting, photographed the coin, edited and cropped the coin in Photoshop, and updated my NGC coin photos. Yes, I am obsessive. BUT, you can see below how different lighting (direct vs. diffuse; LED vs. Incandescent) really changes the look of the coin.

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Photos 1-6 progress chronologically through my changes.

Photo 1 is really disgusting. It was one of the first pictures I took, and it has terrible red-shift, is out of focus, and the lighting is quite bad. I am not proud of this one.

I actually like photo 2 quite a bit but the shadows are harsh around the devices.

Photos 3 and 4 are my experiments with diffuse lighting. While maintaining nice detail, you really loose the hint of luster and the beautiful golden tone present on the entire coin.

Photo 5 lasted the longest in the set so far (I left it alone for 3 weeks) and it is a combination of diffuse lighting and direct lighting. I was still not happy with the loss of the beautiful golden toning.

Photo 6 really is what the coin looks like in hand. I have figured out how to dampen the red-shift problems, and the gold hue and orange toning is an accurate reflection of the coin.

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I hope everyone has a great weekend! Until next time, happy collecting!

Cheers...

http://coins.www.collectors-society.com/registry/coins/CoinDetail.aspx?PeopleCoinID=719181

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