There has been a lot of talk lately on the board about photographing coins and it would be interesting to see a selection of photos of one coin and underneath a description of how those photos were taken full sunlight outside, angle the coin was set at and then we could appraise them. It may of course be down to a matter of taste but I am sure it would be very worthwhile project and I do hope that Paddy will get involved as he seems to have a handle on this at the moment.
I would not go so far as to say that I have a
handle on it. I have been practising a lot, though. For me personally, it is a matter of making the most of the equipment I already have and not have to buy new camera, new lighting or whatever else.
Some observations that I've made that could be helpful to fellow novice coin photographers:
1) Understand that
ancient coins are much more difficult to take photos of than modern coins
2) Most coins look much different when magnified, in many cases the phrase "look better in hand" is very appropriate. Even when
buying coins at very reputable
auctions, I have noticed that the coins look better in hand than in the pictures. Unless one plans to buy absolutely flawless coins - coins that most likely will be too expensive - you soon come to the realisation that the coins might not look how you wish they would.
3) Like everything else, practice is crucial. Try as many angles and different kinds of lights possible. You might have to take hundreds and hundreds of pictures before you get a
good result.
4) It's better to have half decent pictures and posting them to an
album than not. Can't expect to get as
good as pictures as somebody who has taken tens of thousands of pictures. It's important to get a starting point and then go from there. Having a few pics in the
album fully attributed and with the best
quality you are capable at the moment is a
good feeling. Can always change photos later on.
After trying lots of different things, I have found that with my mobile phone camera outside daylight works best. Lighting is very important and it's crucial to get the coin to fill as much of the frame as possible in the shot. You need
plenty of light. When I first started to take pictures, I didn't have enough light and so the focus on the cam would
max out not allowing me to get a really
good close up. Subsequently when I cropped the picture, the coin would be blurred. Get lots of light and get the coin to fill as much of the frame as possible. This is probably the one most important factor, and getting that light and close up focus of the coin really made my pictures much, much better.
Some of the advice above has already been mentioned in other threads, but it's what I've experienced myself while taking hundred of pictures.
Now, the text above is from a novice to another. I am sure there are some people that will look at my pictures and rightly conclude that they are not that
good. However, it's a
good starting point I think and at this point I am happy with most of the pictures that I have taken myself. I do use seller's pictures if they are
good enough, but I know enough now not to have to rely on sellers' pictures to get the coin into an
album.