Taking photos with an IPhone
Joey29
Posts: 458 ✭✭✭
Any suggestions from my fellow coin collectors on how to take good coin photos with an iPhone.
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Joey29
Posts: 458 ✭✭✭
Comments
I have a 12 Pro and it's as simple as,point,zoom, and click! It does a dang good job. What I find interesting is all the pics are actually a very short video the camera then still frames. Don't know if that"s actually the case but sure looks that way to me! That eliminates a shakey camera blurry picture! All the seated dollars I'm posting I am taking with my phone!
all the pics are actually a very short video
You must have 'Live' Photo enabled for that feature.
Hmmm...Danged if I now.
It does take good pictures!
What lighting and background do you use? I always get a reflection from my lamp and uneven lighting
As long as it's not dark(reasonably well lit room) I don't need to use a light. If I do use a light it takes a lot of moving around and slight tilt this way or that to avoid a reflection. Evidently the camera in it does have an excellent white balance sensor or whatever it is!
It works great for me. Practice makes perfect.
I have an iPhone 7 and with a little practice I get some very good pictures . I have lights (led) and other holders and stands(for the iPhone) but using natural light or just a lamp works. The window is good ( natural).
Anymore I just set what I’m photographing in the chair or hold it with my fingers ( the best for tilting).
I find grading and photography to be similar in degree of difficulty.
I believe I’m about to be gifted a proper set up. Fancy camera and interchangeable lens. 😊.
Their taking wagers on how long before I return to the iPhone 😉🙀🦫
🎶 shout shout, let it all out 🎶
Put the phone on something so it stands still above the coin and use the timer so the pictures come out focused. Like this where I’m using a plastic bottle to hold the phone still and level about 4 inches from the coin.
Above was my first setup, and it worked great for most coins, but didn’t always get the color to show. I ended up trying different lights and this setup shown below ended up being the best, just keep moving the lights around till it lights up the coin just right. Sometimes I also still use the lights from my older setup in addition to these new ones as extra side lighting.
For small coins, especially in NGC slabs, the autofocus on the iPhone gets confused and focuses on the white slab insert or the prongs. For those I use an app called Camera+2 that allows manual focusing and I can take pictures of small NGC slabbed coins that are better focused. Here’s an example
But for larger coins, especially in PCGS slabs, the autofocus works good. Here’s an example
But even for PCGS slabs, I like to put a few drops of compass oil on the slab above the coin to both make any slab scratches temporarily invisible and to prevent slab glare. The pictures above had the compass oil on the slab over the coin.
I use this kind of compass oil https://forums.collectors.com/home/leaving?allowTrusted=1&target=https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077BLP62F/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_06GANN5SE4JCFXSCH5Q9
I like that one because it is slightly volatile so it slowly evaporates without leaving an oil residue. I blot it off with a paper towel and then let any residue evaporate
Mr_Spud
Cortex is an iPhone photo app that'll help with stability and clarity.
peacockcoins
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feel free to post a couple/few examples of your current results. i think it would be easier to assist you if we can see what areas need tweaking.
Most of my pics are taken with an iPhone under the vanity lights in my bathroom. (I’m not bragging about the quality but it doesn’t leave much to the imagination about the in hand look)
@Joey29 asked “Is daylight good on my window sill?”
I’m sure that, sometimes, daylight on your window sill will provide good lighting for taking a picture. But it won’t be reproducible, more hit and miss. Too much variability hour to hour, cloudy versus sunny, etc.
Mr_Spud
Disclaimer: I'm not a dealer, trader, grader, investor or professional numismatist. I'm just a hobbyist. (To protect me but mostly you! 🤣 )
Sunlight is about the least flattering light for coins IMO.
Mr_Spud
After you take the pic then what? What do you use to get pics like you have above? Software?
TIA
Mike
My Indians
Danco Set
I use an app called Xircle that literally does nothing else except crop any picture into a circle. Like this:
Then, if I want a side by side obverse and reverse, I use Photoshop Express and click on collage, click on the 2 images, and use aspect ratio Facebook Ad, like this where I combine 2 round pictures. Note, I didn’t use Xircle to crop the moon, I’m just using it cause it was in my camera roll, but all the coins will come out the exact same size.
Then, if you want, add text and save
Mr_Spud
Mr_Spud
Thanks for all the info, looks like I have some work to do. I'm not very good at stuff like this but I'll give it a try
Mike
My Indians
Danco Set
Repeat just the Xircle part above with several coins and you can do stuff like this too. This is just a screen shot of the thumbnails that’s part of an album in my camera roll 🌚
Mr_Spud
impressive
Where do I find the app xircle?
Mike
My Indians
Danco Set
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/xircle/id736008975
Mr_Spud
Ok, Thanks again. I thought is was a computer software, like I said, I'm new to this stuff
Mike
My Indians
Danco Set
It’s super easy, after you do one or two
Mr_Spud
For Android users, I found an app called Crop My Pic. It's pretty decent and small and does the job well for cropping circles. Example below:
10-4,
My Instagram picturesErik
My registry sets
I don’t like all of the image manipulation that software makes automatically.
Can you clean that up? All the numbers and letters are out of focus and blurry. Thanks. Cheers.
Does this look better?
Why yes, yes it does. B is better than A. Thanks. Cheers.
As sharp as I can get it.