(Think I've found what I need, now- thanks - ignore this thread)

lordmarcovan

I saw one of my favorite ancient coin dealers on VCoins was offering numismatic photography for a dollar a coin a little while ago. (Just rechecked his site and see no mention of it now, though it's possible he might still offer it).

But I thought I might offer the contract out to a forum member here, if somebody's interested.

A dollar a coin sounds like it might be pretty cheap compared to the going rate for numismatic photography these days. The five bucks a coin some work for is reasonable for a high-end collection, but out of the question for me. At a buck a coin or less, I'm potentially a customer, though. Let me explain why I'm looking for cheap, beyond the fact I'm so poor.

I want to image the entire contents of my Holey Coin Vest and Holey Gold Hat so I can at least do a Photobucket page or someday devote a page of my future website to it (whenever I get around to having a website- that is something else I will need help with).

There are several hundred coins. These are low-end "damaged" coins, obviously, and some of 'em ain't worth doodley-squat, monetarily speaking. So it would be silly to spend big bucks imaging them. A lot of them have an appeal that goes beyond monetary value, though.

I don't need fancy TrueView-quality images, either- just adequate, clear pictures. I could do poor to adequate pictures myself if I had the block of time and patience necessary to devote to it, but I don't. In fact, since I'm on a budget, I suppose I could do the post-editing work myself (the stuff like merging obverses and reverses into a single picture, etc.) At the bare minimum, I could use a just a clear, uniformly-sized exposure of both sides of each coin, and I could do all the cropping and sizing and merging and so on.

I'm now willing to make this investment in the collection since for years I haven't even known what I had on that vest without taking it out of the closet and looking at it. Every time I get it out of the garment bag I see cool coins I forgot I owned. If I were more organized and had pictures of them all online, it would be nice. Then I could make it a more cohesive collection instead of the semi-random accumulation it is now.

I would eventually like to do the same with my metal detector "keepers" album, which is just short of 400 coins. But we can start with the vest and the hat.

Anybody have some time and a good camera setup and the necessary skills to tackle a somewhat sizeable coin photography project? I'd welcome bids on the job.

coinpictures

It depends. Are you literally wanting one picture per side per coin, or just grouped shots of portions of the vest, hat, etc.

If it's the former, you are talking a BUTTLOAD of work. I'll be frank: I wouldn't do it for $5 a coin, much less $1 a coin, especially if cropping, sizing, and masking are part of the deal.

It's one thing if you're just talking raw images straight from the camera. That's what you get from others (that I have personally sent coins to) at $5-10 per coin. You want cropped, tweaked, masked, and sized presentation pics, it's closer to $15-20 per coin.

The actual camera work is a small fraction of the labor involved. The computer work after the fact takes far longer.

I traveled to bidask's place 3 weeks ago and photographed over 260 coins over 2 days, taking just under 2,000 shots total.

I'm *still* doing the image file work after the fact. In retrospect, I underbid the job. I'm not complaining though, because not having done that many coins in one sitting before, I had no idea how long it would take me, both for the actual shooting, and for the work after the fact. So it's a learning experience. Just to be clear: I set the price, so any error is mine, not Dan's.

If I take 5-10 shots of a face of a coin (different lighting angles and exposures, etc.), there's the time spent evaluating and comparing the shots to choose the best one to use for the final presentation; for some coins there may be multiple shots that I decide to finalize because as you know different lighting angles and rotation will often highlight different aspects of a coin; there isn't necessarily a "right" or "wrong" shot. Then there's the time to crop them, adjust the brightness and contrast, mask the images properly, and resize. It is a very labor-intensive process to do it right. There is no automation.

If it were just 5-10 coins, I'd do them gratis as a favor, but 400+ coins? Dang, man, that's a boatload of labor...

FilthyBroke

That'll be an amibitious project for someone, for sure! I usually have to take 25-50 shots of one coin to get one I like or at least one I can use. Thank God for digital cameras, I'd be one broke puppy if I had to buy that much film!


I wonder who it is offering photos for a buck? That sounds like a super deal, if they are a trustworthy outfit.

MacCrimmon

If I take 5-10 shots of a face of a coin (different lighting angles and exposures, etc.), there's the time spent evaluating and comparing the shots to choose the best one to use for the final presentation; for some coins there may be multiple shots that I decide to finalize because as you know different lighting angles and rotation will often highlight different aspects of a coin; there isn't necessarily a "right" or "wrong" shot. Then there's the time to crop them, adjust the brightness and contrast, mask the images properly, and resize. It is a very labor-intensive process to do it right. There is no automation.


And now you know why Heritage will never offer top-grade images such as yours.

bidask

If you want QUALITY work, hire COINPICTURES..........I have long admired what he posted on these boards and recently hired him to photography 260 coins.

I paid him a price per coin plus all his expenses,

I salute him for the time and concientious he is putting into completing the project. I would not hesitate to recommend him.

lordmarcovan

In answer to coinpictures query, no- obviously I would not expect editing work and cropping and all that jazz. I am going to do the post edits myself. I just need a basic shot of each side of the coin, no closeups or special edits necessary.

I have three bids and I think I am down to two contenders, so it's time for me to close off this thread so I don't keep getting PMs.

coinpictures

<< <i>In answer to coinpictures query, no- obviously I would not expect editing work and cropping and all that jazz. I am going to do the post edits myself. I just need a basic shot of each side of the coin, no closeups or special edits necessary.

I have three bids and I think I am down to two contenders, so it's time for me to close off this thread so I don't keep getting PMs. >>



Cool! Glad you'll get what you want.

P.S. I mean nothing disparaging towards other photographers or your request/pricing. Different folks, different methods, different time constraints, different... well... everything.

lordmarcovan

Oh, definitely. I just figured somebody would be willing to do some cut-rate bulk work. I know a buck a coin is cheap. I am not sure I would want to do it for that amount myself. But somebody with the proper skills and setup can probably do the job in a quarter of the time it would take me, and get a better end result, too.