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Coin Photography – Some Final Tweaks


There are eleven pages about photographing coins:

Black BackgroundWhite BackgroundPhotographing the EdgesUsing Extension TubesChoosing the Best ISO SettingChoosing the Best ApertureChoosing the Best ExposureEditing the BackgroundKeeping Detail in the HighlightsProcessing Your Image — Some Final Tweaks (this page)


A Julian II coin photo being processed in Photoshop.

Suppose you have adjusted the levels on your picture and it looks OK. Not bad. Doesn't need desaturating, doesn't look washed out. (Notice that I have a separate levels layer for each side of the coin here. Different sides often have different tones and don't come out quite the same, so they need different adjustments.)

Yes, it's OK. It's a fair representation of the coin in hand. But could it be better? What if you want to make it into a great representation? Could it look even nicer? Well, yes it could, and here's a way to do it. Open up a curves level and make just a tiny wiggle in the line, as shown here.

A Julian II coin photo with curves adjustment in Photoshop.

This has better contrast, and the whole thing seems more emphatic somehow. I'll need to desaturate it a bit now; the colours have lightened, and this coin is actually much darker-toned. Also, I think I'll reduce the highlights a bit (as shown on this page), give it just a touch of unsharp mask, and ...

A Julian II coin photo a little bit over-processed.

Doesn't that look nice? I think it's a distinct improvement over the image at the top of the page. You can even use "curves" to improve the contrast of a photo on which details you can see in the hand are hard to make out – use this tool in preference to anything labelled "contrast," which will be far too crude an effect. Or you can use it instead of levels, like the example here, which hasn't even been bucketed – the background has been lightened pleasantly by the curves tool. This example has only had curves and desaturation applied.

A Kashmir Smast coin processed using curves and desaturation.

But take care. If you overdo this, you will end up with something that looks completely unnatural. I didn't process this Kashmir Smast coin quite this far for my own use, as you'll see if you click on the example. And not every image is improved by using the curves tool. In fact, I have only used it on a few of mine. If you compare your image with the coin (use a strong light) and it looks like what's on your screen, then you have done a good thing and brought out the best of the coin from your original photograph. If it doesn't, then be careful in what circumstances you use your image. It would not be ethical to provide an unrealistic image if you were offering a coin for sale.

That is the last page about photographing coins. May you enjoy success! Have fun! Why not look round the rest of my site?


There are eleven pages about photographing coins:

Black BackgroundWhite BackgroundPhotographing the EdgesUsing Extension TubesChoosing the Best ISO SettingChoosing the Best ApertureChoosing the Best ExposureEditing the BackgroundKeeping Detail in the HighlightsProcessing Your Image — Some Final Tweaks (this page)


The content of this page was last updated on 27 January 2011

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