I recently had my third afternoon ; shooting one or two coins
I started simple and got increasingly more complex
1° Try to fix the camera completely paralel with the coin or the coin will not be round but oval and details may suffer
( my coindealing friend used to put his camera in hand on the side of a filling cabinet to get a reference height and steady hand )
I got a 40 year old full size camera tripod in aluminium which I took out on the third shoot . This also allows remote shooting
without vibration .
2° Try to get a difuse light next to the camera and shining down on the coin .This gives no shadows . On my third trial I went to
full spectrum energy saving lights at 6000 Kelvin (not spots) These lights have no glare since they shine like an old fashened tube light and I just
put 6000 K in the camera and forget about the white balance . Otherwise you have to set the white balance first.
However if you use this type of non spotlight you need a lot of wattage
3° If you have enough light set the opening to 9-11 or better ( aperture stops) . Little mistakes in (auto)focus will be forgiven since the field of dephts will be rather deep. Like somebody on another forum said ; every lense has a sweet spot between 9 and 16 aperture. Oh before I forget I put the sensitivity at 400 ASA and got
times of 1/80 th or better even at 9 opening
I finished my shoot with three 100 watt equivalent lights and the conclusion that the thing that matters most is glarefree light one high one low and one free to be used at the best angle all at 6000 Kelvin
If I had to choose 3 preferences it would be light and light and light
I have a camera that can be coupled to the laptop and all settings put in on the laptop screen and you click on the camera icon and the shot is taken
I am relatively happy with the end result since I never saw a better pic with the coin still in the capsule .
It is the 2001 Monnaie de Paris last French Franc ( they also did a last franc version by Starck but that is the ondulating version and since I shorcircuited one fixture by moving it all around I need to buy a deskstand this time with a long pliable swanneck to serve as third light )
The coin depicts the rising sun sending its rays over the earth and the French girl sowing grain
A poet wrote a capture to this design " I will sow in all winds" je sème à tout vent
