HipShot Photography

They're single-exposure images, I don't use HDR for coins (but I love it for building interiors) however, on rare occasions, I will use luminosity masks. This image was shot with a macro lens, so it's a 10-frame focus stack to get the entire shot in focus. Of course, you'll notice the entire frame isn't in focus. That's because I wanted a shallow depth of field for this image, so after it was focus-stacked, I used the tilt-shift in Photoshop to put the focus area on a different angle than my camera gave me, and made it as wide as I wanted it. It's best to create a separate layer as a smart object so you can tweak the tilt-shift effect. This image was intended for cropping for either horizontal or vertical presentation in online ads. The best part, I still have the fully focused version if I need it for something else.

This image is not shot with axial lighting but uses the same single light as mentioned above, positioned behind the coins, using the same diffuser and a few small mirrored reflectors in front to throw highlights on the edges of the coins. As always, the position of the camera relative to the light, and the position of the diffuser make all the difference.

I shot the gold coins below a few days ago, both with my axial lighting set up. I use a single light 500 W studio light (with a 30-degree honeycomb grid) on the right side, passing through a layer of Lee 216 diffuser that I positioned closer (or farther away) from the coin as needed, for different levels of contrast. In this case, the diffuser is fairly close to the coins, about 6" away, for a soft even light. It can be up to 15" away for high-contrast light.

Here you go... this is about as "in hand" as you can get. Shot with my cell phone. My apologies to the thread, this is not a gold coin. And this is my axial lighting image, processed in Photoshop. It's not that different.

Cool.. I'd like to see the pictures. Were the bars you shot newly minted, or kinda scratchy like the ones I had?

Yes indeed! Three 1-kilo coins at once was a first for me. I've shot plenty of gold kilo bars, or even bigger ones, but kilo coins don't surface very often. Only 50 of the Lacrosse coins were minted, but less than a quarter of them were sold. Another coin from the same series fetched $90,000 US (approximately $117,200 Cdn.) at auction a few years ago. If you're wondering, the coin and bar image above was shot with a single light - essentially a bare bulb - about 2 feet behind it, and up at about a 30-degree angle, placed behind a layer of Lee 216 diffuser, and some small reflectors in front. It takes some tweaking to get the camera angle, the light angle, and the placement of the diffuser just right to light it but not burn it out.

Here's one of three 1-kilo gold coins I had the privilege of shooting recently. This was done with my hybrid axial lighting setup. The gold maple is in there for size reference.

To me, none of those look like they were taken by a professional coin photographer. To be fair, there are so many variables in photography, and over 18 years it seems impossible to make them look the same, even still, they should all be of better quality overall. I've seen some horrid work on the NGC website. Here's a sample of some gold coin images I took, from ancient, medieval, and modern times. Some were certified, others were raw. It's all about the lighting. All of these were shot on a white background (to help light the edges) and the background was removed in post-production. These are presented in my version of the TrueView style.

Your graphic work is exceptional. I particularly like the layouts of your Denarii collections. Well done. Were those created for a specific application or for fun?

Thank you. Yes, those images are focus stacked. Generally, it takes about 15 -20 images to capture a coin.

There is some beautiful work here. When it comes to presentations, let me add my own two cents worth. Personally, I try not to let the background overpower the coins. To me, they are the stars of my show. Simplicity can be your best friend. Sometimes negative space makes the biggest impact. And you can always leave room for text, above or to the side. or, as I do occasionally, go completely off the rails.

Thank you so much for your help. I downloaded the pdf and used google translate, which worked pretty well, but not without a few hiccups. I had to manually correct a number of formatting issues and translation glitches, but overall, very happy with it and the article is excellent. Well worth the effort. Thank you for recommending it. I'm going to add a link to my translated document on my website when I finish the article.

Hello Everyone, I'm fascinated by the history of numismatic photography and I am looking for any gems of information anyone can provide. Does anyone have any stories, anecdotes, references, or links to share? Little known facts? I would be very grateful for any assistance.Also, if anyone can direct me to threads already within this forum on the topic, I'd really appreciate it. I tried searching here but my keywords returned too many results to reasonably sift through.I have been going through the archives of both the ANA and the RCNA, and while it's immensely helpful, it's a slow process, and more importantly, I'm sure this community has a wealth of additional knowledge about numismatic photography beyond North America to share. Anything and everything would be greatly appreciated.Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!

You may enjoy it but I believe you're shooting yourself in the foot with its light control limitations. It doesn't allow you to feather the light across the coin or control the density of diffusion. A Fresnel lens is hard light when, IMO, coins want soft light with highlights. Of course, my photographic goals are not scientific, but esthetic. I want to create an inviting coin image; one you feel like you can almost reach out and touch. I use light control to achieve this. Perhaps this is not a shared goal. So if not, please carry on.

I realize this is just your opinion, but in my opinion, this is an underestimate, though I suppose that depends on what the expectations are. Photography is a lot like music. You may learn the notes and scales in 2-3 hours a week, though they will hardly become ingrained. Regardless of what style you play, be it jazz, rock, or classical, you can't play it properly, or even adequately with 2-3 hours of practice a week. This will only lead to the frustration I see in so many of the photography-related posts I read here. There's a saying in photography; your first 10,000 pictures are just practice. Again, I guess it depends on what the expectations are, but if you want great coin pictures, just like assembling a great coin collection, you have to put in the work and learn the craft. Otherwise, you will always get out of it what you put into it.

You might be disappointed to learn I use a simple pane of glass from a quality 8x10 picture frame. I built a custom holder for it. It works very well and accommodates coins and exonumia up to 4" in diameter. I position my light source 14" away from the coin, and it has a 40-degree honeycomb grid to focus the light on the glass pane. I also have a few other little tools for controlling the light depending on the coin.

A dark coin doesn't have to make a dark photograph. They can be exposed to bring out the details. The coins below are very dark in hand, you can hardly make out the details, but with proper lighting and appropriate exposure, they reveal the coin's details but retain the feeling of a dark coin. One thing I can't stress enough is shooting the coin on a white background to wrap light around the edges. For presentation, a white background for a dark coin makes it pop, and every detail of the coin seems clearer. That's a nice shot, but I'd bet it would present better on a white background.

I hope you have an opportunity to give that a try. I would like to compare images. I have found there is no setup that works for every coin. Although my dynamic axial lighting is my go-to, I use five different techniques depending on the coin itself, the effect I want to achieve, a hard or soft transition, or a coin's packaging, (if I can't remove them from it.) Dynamic Axial Lighting is not the best method for every coin, but in my opinion, it is for the majority of raw coins, and it will never produce a bad image, if not always the best. All of the light passes through the Lee diffuser. The level of diffusion is controlled by the position and angle of the diffuser. The conventional axial lighting setup has a fixed-level power light source so no intensity modifications are possible with that one. However, if you use variable power lights, then yes, but they only allow intensity adjustment at the light source. My dynamic axial lighting offers that control plus additional levels of control of diffusion, intensity, and light direction, all of which affect the quality of the light falling on the coin. The truth of photography is that pointing a light directly at something is rarely the best way to illuminate it. Coins are no exception. For proof/mint state coins, or any highly reflective item, the intention is twofold; illuminate the coin's non-mirrored surfaces and illuminate what the coin reflects in it's mirrored surfaces. For most commercial products this is done with independent lights. With coins, this can be done with a two-light setup and a positioned reflector to apply a hard or soft transition. It can also be done with one light and dynamic axial lighting. The coin featured in the image attached is very busy and none of my normal techniques worked well, so I shot it with a combination of strobe light diffused through an angled sheet of 1/8" white plexiglass (colour correct for flash) from the top and a strategically placed mirror on the bottom provides the black areas for contrast.

My aperture and shutter don't need to change because I use a studio strobe. I don't rely on continuous light and the flash fires at 1/10,000 of a second so the shutter speed is irrelevant. I set mine to the fasted sync speed for my Nikon, which is 1/200 sec. My aperture is f/14 which gives me adequate depth of field for most coins. I might occasionally change if the situation requires it, but that is rare. The strobe gives me more than enough power for these settings. I use a 105 macro, which had a focal plane distance of 12 1/4", allowing lots of light between the lens and the coin. Happy Shooting!

My hybrid axial lighting uses a single light source, in my case a 500w studio strobe because, as was pointed out above, you do lose a lot of light with axial light (though strobes provide many benefits beyond just additional power.) My system controls the direction and intensity of the axial lighting, which is impossible with the conventional technique shown in the video posted above, which I find produces poor results and no doubt frustrates many people about using axial lighting (as it frustrated me in the beginning.) I use a diffuser, specifically a piece of Lee diffusion material, to control the light contrast over the coin, and because it is color neutral, meaning it doesn't leave a color cast, unlike kleenex or almost every other thing people use to diffuse light. Interestingly, I've never come across any images of ghosting. Of course, there is much more to it than just those few things, and virtually every coin I photograph requires slightly different settings, however, my aperture and shutter speed never changes. You can judge the results for yourself, from ancient to modern coins it provides beautiful illumination. In my opinion and experience, it is not possible to achieve anything like the images attached with ring lights or a couple of LED lights. With that said, natural light and unusual lighting setups can create some stunning artistic coin images.

Photographing dark coins is no different that any other coins. It's always about getting the correct exposure. The problems arise if you have a dark coin and you're trying to make a light image. These are all dark coins shot with a hybrid axial lighting system without sacrificing detail, tone, or texture.

It's unfortunate you need to learn how to read a photo because someone else didn't bother to learn how to take a decent picture. Such is life, I suppose.

Yes, I used my axial lighting set up with this coin, and as always, it was shot independent of the background and shadow, both of which were added in post. I don't block non-axial light; I embrace it. To me, with most coins, axial light alone is low contrast and makes the image look flat and lifeless. However, combining it with a non-axial light requires controlling its intensity, direction and contrast, and that's where the challenge lies, but to me, the results are worth the effort. I agree that high-relief coins have deep shadows when illuminated with axial lighting alone, so I've developed some additional techniques to capture the shadow information within my axial lighting system. Of course, none of this would be possible without a thorough understanding of raw files and Photoshop.