A much too large picture of a newp Morgan toner, and a thank you.

vibr0nic · January 25, 2013 11:13AM

After gathering quite a bit of advice from the friendly folks here (including this thread), I finally put together a proper numismatic photography setup. Thank you to everyone here who gave their advice as well as Mark Goodman's book. to help get a novice like me headed quickly in the right direction.

For those interested, the equipment I eventually selected was a Sony a65 DSLR, a Tamron 90mm/2.8 Macro lens, and this stand with two 60 watt GE Reveal bulbs.

I have been tinkering away over the past few weeks, especially with the lighting angles and camera settings. Learning proper settings for white balance, turning steady shot OFF, and using a delayed shutter were probably the three biggest leaps in my progress toward optimal color and clarity. The final piece of the puzzle for me was a fixed length macro lens which arrived a couple of days ago - what an enormous difference it has made!

In addition to the shot below, here is a link to the reverse (although I am not as pleased with my results on that one) as well as a picture of the coin in the holder for those interested.

Criticism and comments are of course always welcome.