Presidential Dollar photography

perfectstrike

Capturing sharp images of the presidential dollars has eluded me. I'm hoping for some advice. Everything is sharp except the small letters under the obverse image (the years and # of the presidency). I've tried bright lights and only see the edge of the letter with the light shinging on it. I tried two light directions on the letters and they are almost completely lost in the glare. I've tried diffuse lighting and its a bit better. Bright sunlight didn't seem to get me anywhere, but I'm going to try again on the next sunny day. I'm going to play with some halogens later tonight, but I'm hoping somebody has suggestions for getting the right contrast with the smaller lettering.

Don't have any problems with copper and silver, just these crummy modern dollars.

David

messydesk

These coins typically have a very "hard," contrasty luster. In order to get a decent picture, you need to tone the luster down a bit. You were on the right track with adding diffusion.

derryb

very tough coins to accurately capture, hard to shoot from directly overhead. I believe angle and lighting is critical with these. Here's a double sided strike through with no edge lettering.

Lehigh96

So I went looking for my photos of Presidential Dollars and discovered that I am a little behind on the series. Here is my last photo!



Sorry, don't really have any tips, it's been two years since I snapped a photo of these.

Swampboy

I have all the proofs but only the first 4 imaged.

notwilight

<< <i>very tough coins to accurately capture, hard to shoot from directly overhead. I believe angle and lighting is critical with these. Here's a double sided strike through with no edge lettering.

>>



I agree these are some of the hardest coins to photograph. Just look at my ebay auctions if you want to see some very mediocre photographs taken with a good camera, good copy stand, and the best lighting I can come up with. Some of my other photos are pretty good. Above is one of the best photographs of this series I've seen. I sold a bunch of those starbursts which I think are very cool and should command a premium. There are a lot of them so perhaps someday the redbook will add them. --Jerry

keyman64

What f stop are you at? Where is your focus point set on the coin. Increase your f number to at least f/9 but I would go for f/11 most likely then lower your point of focus a tiny bit. Those two things should provide you with an improvement in your depth of field...and therefore image sharpness for all areas of the coin.

perfectstrike

Thanks for the suggestions. I should have mentioned it was only business strikes too! Satins and proofs work almost like copper.
I'll play with the f stop keyman64, I was at f/8. I also see I lose field depth within photoshop. I increased the number of pixels across the image and they are much better without any changes
I got many images similar to the ones lehigh96 posted. I could get the upper letter sharp, then the lowers are trash. I ocassionally get the lowers then the uppers wash out.
I got quite a few where some the upper and lowers were sharp with halogens tuned way down, so I thought just more bulbs and diffusion would get it done, if the mages aren't already good enough. Now I just need a way to mount all those bulbs :-)
I never thought of a slight angle. That would do it too.

It'll be a couple days before I can try again. I'm overwhelmed with a pile of paperwork that landed on my desk today.

David

perfectstrike

Lots better! Now I need to measure the white balance after choosing the right location for the lights.

I should mention I'm used just two diffused lights, but the depth is all there now. Maybe I should polish all the scratches out of the holder

David