Coin photography with an iPhone

[Figleaf]

It will definitely work. It is just a question of finding the right light. You don't want the light to hit the coin directly. This is easy.

Set up the stand. I use an upside down whiskey glass with the phone resting on top of it, with the lens sticking out. Preferably use a table lighted with daylight (evening light is nicer for shiny coins) you can walk around. Put the coin on the table and observe it through the phone screen as you turn it around. Do not stand in the source of the light. You will see the details coming out differently at different angles. Choose the best angle.

Now equip yourself a sheet of blank, white A4 paper. Walk around the table and hold the paper at different angles to change the lighting. Watch the effect on the screen of your phone. Some phones require a few seconds before they adjust their settings. You may decide you don't need the paper after all. Take your time. When you found the best setup, click. When still in doubt, make pictures with different lighting. It costs practically nothing and deleting a picture is easy.

Note that this approach also works for non-shiny coins.

Peter

[bububoy]

aha.. thanks for the tips peter, this will be my small weekend project..

regards,

mahe

It will definitely work. It is just a question of finding the right light. You don't want the light to hit the coin directly. This is easy.

Set up the stand. I use an upside down whiskey glass with the phone resting on top of it, with the lens sticking out. Preferably use a table lighted with daylight (evening light is nicer for shiny coins) you can walk around. Put the coin on the table and observe it through the phone screen as you turn it around. Do not stand in the source of the light. You will see the details coming out differently at different angles. Choose the best angle.

Now equip yourself a sheet of blank, white A4 paper. Walk around the table and hold the paper at different angles to change the lighting. Watch the effect on the screen of your phone. Some phones require a few seconds before they adjust their settings. You may decide you don't need the paper after all. Take your time. When you found the best setup, click. When still in doubt, make pictures with different lighting. It costs practically nothing and deleting a picture is easy.

Note that this approach also works for non-shiny coins.

Peter

[Figleaf]

See below for an extreme example.

The problem with a slanted coin/token solution is that the coin will be oval. I don't know if this will work in other graphic software packages. It works with Graphic Converter 11 on a Mac and a simple Calculator simulator.

• Open the picture of the oval coin with the graphics software package
• Measure height and width of the coin on your screen. Note: you can measure electronically, but I like just to use a ruler.
• If height is the largest value, multiply it with 100 and divide by the lowest value (mutatis mutandis if width is the largest value). The result is the correction factor. It should be slightly over 100. Copy this value.
• In Graphic Converter, select Resize:Scale... or find the equivalent in your graphics software.
• In the window that opens, de-select the Proportional option. If height was the largest value, leave it unchanged and replace the width percentage with the conversion factor.
• Click OK and you are done. The coin will now look round.

Uncomplicated, yet simple.

Peter