Tip of the Day: Photographing Coins

If you are a collector and trader of coins, you may have already experienced the struggles with photographing your coins. If so, this tip may help. Good lighting is essential when shooting coins. To produce an evenly lit coin, consider acquiring a light tent with a open top. This will allow you to shoot down, into the tent. If you do not have any artificial lights, consider placing the tent on a small table next to north facing window. Any overcast day will present an excellent opportunity to shoot your coins. If a tent is not in your budget, a cylinder made out of a large sheet of white paper will work as well. Different paper has different thickness, and thus passes light differently, so do not use cardboard. You may need an external light source, like a desk lamp lighting the side of the cylinder. If you are planning to photograph a lot of coins, and need to get very accurate photos, you will need a tripod with tilting center column. This type of a tripod allows for the center column to become horizontal, which will hang the camera directly above your tent, instead of an angle.