Here’s another batch, with a different background and dialed back lighting… These are now ensconced in a type set I’m working on.

Trying to do better at true color for copper. 1851/81 N-3, you can really see the overdate.

Hello. New to the group. My set up Sony oriented hardware and software. Then I use Lightroom Classic

Forward on... New pics and old pics.. this is direct point lighting from 2 sides. Next week I want to try some axial lighting.

Just updated my photos with LED panel axial lighting. Very happy with the detail from the 180mm macro, but struggling a bit with the highlights being too hot. I was able to tame them a bit in post. Almost there. Here are a few of my faves:

New (used) lens day!

Picked up an EF 180mm f/3.5L Macro… It’s lauded as one of, if not the, sharpest lens that Canon makes. Good price too. Perfect for coins AND insects, flowers, etc.

Guess I have a photo project this weekend.

I will be picking up a Canon EOS T7. 18-55, 75-300, Telephoto hi def 2x lens, RGM vid light. Any lenses I should be on the lookout for? Is this a good camera?

Just picked up a couple of desktop LED panels, and a horizontal mount for my Canon and got some decent results. Axial lighting with an amber and a white panel.

I don’t have a proper macro lens, but my 24-105 f/4L worked okay. Not using as much of my sensor as I’d like. Thinking about the rf 80 f/2. Might be a good inexpensive lens for this application. A proper 100mm f/2.8 would cut into the budget too much.

Probably need to lower light output and under expose to tame the highlights, but I like the detail. It’s a decent representation of the coins.

The only editing was a blanket .3 stop reduction in exposure. White balance was auto. All shot at 1/40”, f/5.6, and 800 ISO. Canon R6mkii

Just goofing around playing with light placement and distances...

Stumbled across these today, a good example of axial vs. normal light.

What's everyone think of the photography over at GreatCollections? I've been playing the Guess the Grade game and am pretty impressed. At first I thought the photos all had the same lighting setup for each coin series, but then I noticed some of had axial lighting, which is pretty neat because they're photographing through the slab. Post your fav below.

So, when I take photos of coins I have it turned 90° counterclockwise so the lights I use are on the left and right of it which creates the 1st two photos. But recently I've considered having the coin face the camera and not turning it 90° so the lights point at the bottom and top of it which creates the 3rd and 4th photos. All I did in post was increase the exposure.
Thanks for any input

Macro lens question…
Do the dedicated macro lenses have a finer adjustment for manual focus than standard zooms?
I am just getting in to the coin shooting, mainly to document my collections. I’ve done tons of astro shooting and most of my lenses were picked for the infinity side of ranges and little light lol.

For the coin setup, I’ve got a low end Nikon D3400, mounted on a swing arm. Built an axial light box (45degree glass setup) to really try out some lighting. Still tweaking on lighting and color, but focusing is my issue right now.

The lenses I have available that can focus in the 12-24” range all have very very sensitive focus rings. A tiny move one way or another blows past the focus point. Even getting dialed in just ok and then flipping the coin will end up slightly different focus. :-/

Tried different f stop as well to get a deeper focus range but that is still iffy. Looking at a used Nikkor 108 micro AF-S (d3400 is limited on lens comparability). But wonder if the investment will make a big diff. Less temperamental focusing would be diff enough for me lol

The tungsten effect.
Light source LED but the white balance was set to tungsten.