A catalogue photograph serves one purpose: it must show the coin or stamp accurately enough that the grade can be assessed and the item identified unambiguously. Equipment matters less than technique. A modern smartphone with the right lighting setup produces images adequate for any collection management tool. A DSLR with poor lighting produces images that hide what matters. This guide focuses on technique, because technique is what most photographers get wrong.

The one thing that matters most: light

For coins, the goal is to render the relief accurately. The design of a coin is three-dimensional: the fields (flat areas) and the devices (raised design elements) sit at different heights. The correct light reveals this depth. The wrong light collapses it.

The best setup for coins is a single light source positioned at a low angle, 30 to 45 degrees from the coin's surface. This raking light creates shadows in the recesses that define the relief and make the coin's condition immediately readable. A desk lamp with a diffuser (a piece of white paper works) placed to one side of the coin achieves this simply. Move the lamp until you can see the relief clearly in the camera preview.

Direct flash from a camera or phone is the worst option. It fires straight at the surface, eliminates all shadows, creates a bright hotspot, and makes every coin look flat and overexposed. Turn off the flash entirely.

Background: what to put the coin on

Dark backgrounds (black velvet or black card) work best for silver and gold coins, because the contrast makes the coin's edge and the detail of the design visible against the background. Light backgrounds (white or grey card) work better for dark copper or bronze coins for the same reason.

Avoid patterned, textured, or reflective backgrounds. A crinkled black cloth, a wooden table, or a shiny plastic surface all introduce visual noise that distracts from the coin. Black velvet from a fabric shop, cut to an A4 sheet, costs a few euros and lasts for years.

Smartphone technique for coins

Place the coin flat on the background. Hold the phone directly above and parallel to the coin surface. Tap to focus on the centre of the coin in the camera app. Take multiple shots and choose the sharpest. For macro detail, use the 2x or 3x optical zoom if available rather than digital zoom, which reduces quality.

Most modern phones can produce coin photographs sharp enough for catalogue use at 2x optical zoom. Resolution is rarely the limiting factor: focus and lighting are.

Photographing stamps

Stamps require even, flat lighting rather than raking light, because the design is printed flat and relief is not the subject. Position two light sources symmetrically on either side of the stamp at about 45 degrees, or photograph near a window with diffused daylight and a white reflector card on the opposite side.

For mint stamps, photograph on a white or grey background. For used stamps with coloured cancellations, a white background helps the cancel read clearly. To assess the watermark, place the stamp face-down on a dark background and hold a light source below or behind the stamp. A backlit phone screen works well for this.

To document perforation gauge, photograph the perforations from directly above with good light and a ruler for scale. The number of perforation holes per 2cm is the standard measurement.

File format and naming

For catalogue use, JPEG at high quality (90% or above) is the practical standard. It keeps file sizes manageable and is universally compatible. For archival purposes, lossless formats (PNG or TIFF) preserve maximum quality but produce much larger files.

A consistent naming convention saves time. A format such as year-denomination-grade-side.jpg (for example, 1957-500lire-fdc-obverse.jpg) makes images searchable without opening each file. When the photographs are attached to a digital catalogue entry, the naming becomes less critical, but organised file storage still prevents the chaos of a folder with 400 files named "IMG_0001.jpg".