Discussion Photographing a collection of coins

[modofantasma]

Hi Folks.

Novice camera phone owner here (I won't offend you all in this section by claiming to be a photographer)

A question I've not seen answered would be how to take a photo of a collection of coins together. 

Here is an example photo...

If I wanted to take a photo like this again with the same equipment... but higher quality or more coins, could I take say 4 photos of the same spread of coins and then join them together on a program like GIMP? 

Would I end up with a better photo providing it is done well or would the software reduce the quality down anyway?

[Charliemouse]

1 hour ago, modofantasma said:

Hi Folks.

Novice camera phone owner here (I won't offend you all in this section by claiming to be a photographer)

A question I've not seen answered would be how to take a photo of a collection of coins together. 

Here is an example photo...

If I wanted to take a photo like this again with the same equipment... but higher quality or more coins, could I take say 4 photos of the same spread of coins and then join them together on a program like GIMP? 

Would I end up with a better photo providing it is done well or would the software reduce the quality down anyway?

Great question.  There definitely isn't a single best answer.  It totally depends on the size and nature of the collection, and what aesthetic you are trying to achieve.

What you describe is the concept of a "panorama".  Normally used for landscapes, of course, it is often used in macro or product photography, to overcome the physical limitations of the lens and sensor. 

Benefits:

• Greatly increase the number of pixels by stitching together the individual shots.  Most photography post-processing software can do this (semi-)automatically.
• Focus stacking, or adjusting the focus between each shot, means you can have a greater depth in focus, defeating the issue of shallow depth of field in macro shots.  Again, software is available that takes a set of images and creates one image that is entirely in focus.

Difficulties:

Building an image from multiple photographs taken with the camera in different positions and with different settings, introduces a number of potential problems.

• Moving smoothly and consistently between shots, often using a tripod, is not easy.  There are all sorts of gadgets available to achieve this, but unless you do this for a living, it is unlikely you own them.  For example, it is easy to move closer or further from the subject, twisting the camera, etc.  This will all produce odd results when stitching together the final image, and may make it difficult for software to do it automatically.
• Lighting.  Especially with coins, the way light reflect will change if you move the camera.  Again, this may cause very weird effects in the final image.
• Image size could be very large.  I have taken images that were stacked from 100's of individual photographs, and processing those images requires a very powerful computer with a lot of memory, and takes a long time.

Suffice to say, if you want to achieve a certain look for your collection image, it is almost certainly possible.  It just might take more equipment, time and effort than you are willing to invest.

Focus-stacked collection image.  Stationary camera, variable focus point.

Panorama collection image.  Camera panned across scene, with small focus adjustments.

[modofantasma]

14 minutes ago, Charliemouse said:

Suffice to say, if you want to achieve a certain look for your collection image, it is almost certainly possible.  It just might take more equipment, time and effort than you are willing to invest.

Thanks for the detailed response. I will have a little practice on some random change and then when I can get my sovs together I'll know what to do. I don't need them good enough to go on a billboard but it would be nice to be able to read the dates 

[Charliemouse]

18 hours ago, modofantasma said:

Thanks for the detailed response. I will have a little practice on some random change and then when I can get my sovs together I'll know what to do. I don't need them good enough to go on a billboard but it would be nice to be able to read the dates 

The alternative to panning across a large array is compositing.  Photograph a subset of coins, as many as will fit in the frame while keeping the level of detail you want. I suggest 5x3, but we'll depends on resolution. Then photograph the next set, etc.  Then stitch all the sets together into one big image.

With a dark background, the stitching will be easy, and difficult to spot. You just need to be careful to take each shot under the same conditions.

[modofantasma]

So for example... I've taken these on different occasions of the individual runs. It would be nice to take them as you say under the same conditions. If I took one photo of the whole lot together it would probably be difficult to see any detail although if the lighting is even it would probably be sufficient for my purposes

[Silverlocks]

@modofantasma - a family photo would be nice, but you most likely want to take a collection of glamour shots of each coin as well.  You could do something like the shots I'm doing with about £100 or £150 worth of kit and your existing smart phone.

I did this by just taking screenshots of directories full of individual photos.  You could also use a paint program to assemble a single large image.  In fact, to make it work I had to chop up the pictures into rows and post grids of the rows in order to get it to load.  

Edited April 12, 2023 by Silverlocks

[modofantasma]

3 minutes ago, Silverlocks said:

@modofantasma - a family photo would be nice, but you most likely want to take a collection of glamour shots of each coin as well.  You could do something like the shots I'm doing with about £100 or £150 worth of kit and your existing smart phone.

I did this by just taking screenshots of directories full of individual photos.  You could also use a paint program to assemble a single large image.  In fact, to make it work I had to chop up the pictures into rows and post grids of the rows in order to get it to load.  

Cool. That looks good. The phone doesn't like the format but I see what you mean 

 

[Silverlocks]

1 minute ago, modofantasma said:

Cool. That looks good. The phone doesn't like the format but I see what you mean 

 

Join the PC master race.  Search on Ebay for a Thinkpad X280 or T480 (older models won't support Windows 11 when Win10 goes EOL) - you should be able to get one for about £200-300.  That will be a far better buy than anything you could get from a high street retailer.

Edited April 12, 2023 by Silverlocks

[modofantasma]

Windows 10? I'm on windows 7 on my laptop 🤣

[Silverlocks]

1 hour ago, modofantasma said:

Windows 10? I'm on windows 7 on my laptop 🤣

Ah, PC master race already.  Fabulous.

Maybe I'll try a big grid post with all the images of my sovs and see how well TSF handles that.

Edited April 12, 2023 by Silverlocks

[Charliemouse]

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Edited May 10, 2023 by Charliemouse