A Question For coinguy1 ~ Detailed Info Added By Scott From Pinnacle ~

JMOORE

Mark,

Could you tell us a little about the exquisite coin photography on the Pinnacle Rarities Web Site?

Who does your photography, what camera / lighting is used?

I really enjoy visiting Pinnacle Rarities Web Site to look at the photos and I'm sure that many others do too.


Thanks,

Jim

lordmarcovan

Yup- they have some purties there, no doubt about it.

(TTT, since the thread was sinkin' fast).

airplanenut

He just went to Baltimore today for a little while

coinguy1

Jim, thanks for the kind words about our imaging. I certainly have nothing to do with it.

I do not know the particulars, but, you can email Scott Schechter at: scott@pinnacle-rarities.com

He has been asked about this before and should be able to answer your questions.

JMOORE

Mark,

Thanks for the info!!

Jim

airplanenut

I thought Mark was going bye-bye

coinguy1

Jeremy, don't fret. You thought correctly - I'm in Baltimore with a laptop.

TWQG

I just imagined Scott getting 5,000 emails.
Maybe you could convince him to join us here?

coinguy1

TWQG, good point about the 5000 emails for Scott.

Make it 5001 - I just emailed him to warn / prepare him, just in case.

He does post here as "commemguy" on (very) rare occasions.

michael

mark

early or modern??


michael

JMOORE

Michael,

From Pinnacle's Web Site:



<< <i>he is particularly passionate about US commemorative coins and is currently involved with an online informational project commems.org. >>



Very nice web site with lots of great information.


Jim

commemguy

Jim and others, thanks for your comments.

I share the imaging duties here with Christine Monk. We use a Nikon Coolpics 990 (which I think has been replaced by the 995). The camera is held in a copy stand, which I think is the one essential accessory to taking good images. If the camera not stabilized, it's impossible to get your images focused on a consistent basis.

As far as light goes, Chris and I have different preferences. I photograph most coins in our office's ambient light, which comes from your typical overead office lights (those long neon bulbs). Chris prefers to take images in natural sunlight. Our office has large windows and it's often cloudy here in the Northwest, which is best for imaging. The Nikon Coolpics allows you to set the white balance of the camera to match either light condition.

We always take images in the camera's manual mode, adjusting for brightness because it will be consistent during each photo session.

We use Adobe Photoshop to crop and resize the images. Some adjustments are made for brightness and contrast. The better we do with the camera, the fewer adjustments that we need to make. Our images could always be better, crisper, and more accurate to the coin's actual appearance. This is one of my all-time favorite images of a Stone Mountain Half Dollar PCGS MS68, which I consider to be the "ideal' that we're shooting for:



I hope the above info is helpful!

Scott

JMOORE

Scott,

Thank you for taking the time to post this information.

Photographing coins seems to be a popular topic on the forum.

I'm sure that I speak for many when I say Thank You!

Jim

TWQG

for Scott
Thanks for sharing.

JMOORE

TTT for the evening crowd

mdwoods

That Stone Mountain is a dog. Please send it to me for disposal.

fountainheadgold

I keep reading posts about Nikon Coolpics. How much do they cost

JMOORE

CoolPix @ CompUSA