Coin Photography

Many coin collectors have experimented with coin photography. The advent of affordable digital cameras has greatly expanded the popularity of coin photography. It has also made it much easier for the amateur photographer to get excellent results. This page describes the technique I use.

Equipment

Many inexpensive digital cameras can be used to photograph coins with good results if you have enough patience for experimentation. But with the right equipment, you can get consistently good results with a minimum of frustration.

Forget the cheap "point & shoot" cameras. Get a decent single lens reflex (SLR) camera--this will eliminate most of the problems that so many photographers experience. When looking through the viewfinder of an SLR camera, what you see is what you get. Alignment of your subject is simple. And most any SLR will have the features and functions you need to take quality photographs. I use the Canon Digital Rebel 35 mm SLR.

Next, you'll need a decent macro lens. A macro lens allows your camera to focus on a coin with the lens close to the coin, allowing you to easily fill the frame with the coin image. Focusing is automatic. I use a Tamron 90 mm macro lens.

Other items you need are a simple tripod (one that allows your camera to tilt down 90 degrees), a bubble level, a remote control (to allow you to snap the picture without shaking the camera, thus maintaining sharp focus), an 18% grey card (available at any camera shop), and one or two standard adjustable desk lamps, each with a standard 40 watt incandescent bulb.

Set-up

Many set-ups have been tried. The one I use is simple and trouble free. You'll need a few scraps of wood, four wooden dowels, and a piece of plate glass (available at any hardware store). Mount the four dowels (each about 4-6" long) upright, arranged in a square or rectangle, and affix them to a base. The four dowels will hold up the glass plate (about 8" square, or 8" x 10" to match the dowels).

Place the coin on the glass, with the camera pointing down from above. Place the bubble-level on the back of the camera to ensure that the camera is level (this avoids distortion in your photo). The desk lamps flood the coin with light. The 40-watt bulbs provide enough light, without adding unwanted glare. Any shadows will be thrown down below the coin and off to the sides, out of range of the camera. I use an f-stop of 8, which provides enough depth-of-field to keep the entire coin in focus (both the high points of relief and the coin's fields), yet keeps the background completely out of focus. This give the effect of your coin floating in space, rather than resting directly on a background.

Other Tips

Use your camera's custom white balance feature to set the white balance using the grey card and the desk lamps. This will result in accurate color. This step is essential.

Choose a background (I use colored construction paper) to compliment your coins.

Adjust the height of the tripod until the coin's image fills the viewfinder and is in focus. Use the camera's autofocus feature for final focus.

Snap your photos. Take several shots of both obverse and reverse with different lighting angles. Use a shallow angle on lower-relief coins, and a steeper angle on higher-relief coins.

Transfer the images to your computer (either have your camera connected to the computer or plug the camera's memory card into your computer's input).

Open the photos with your photo editing software. Select the best ones of each coin.

Merge obverse and reverse images so they are side-by-side.

Crop to the dimensions you want.

If you'll use the photos on a website or for printing small photos, you'll want to maintain a smaller file size. Use your software to resize the photo. But keep a copy of the original high-resolution file. You may want this for larger prints or to zoom into a detail on your coin.