Blog | Maxwell Medals & Awards

The Best Way to Photograph Medals for Accurate Replication

Written by Maxwell Medals & Awards | Mar 8, 2024 8:34:25 PM

If you have a particular custom medal that you want to replicate, our team would love to help.

Submitting a high-quality image of your medal is essential for our experts to duplicate it accurately. We've compiled some helpful tips to help you submit the best possible photo of your medal.

Follow these steps so we can start bringing your custom medal design to life!

  • PLAIN WHITE SURFACE: Find a plain blank (preferably white or light-colored) surface to snap your photo on.
  • NEXT TO A WINDOW: The closer to a window with natural light, the better!
  • LAY FLAT ON A SURFACE, TAKE DIRECTLY OVERHEAD: Place your medal flat on the blank surface (it can even be a blank white sheet of paper!). Avoid taking the photo at an angle.
    Turn on any overhead lighting.

Capturing Photos of Your Custom Medal

  1. Take a photo of the medal from directly overhead, as close as possible, with your camera flat and the medal clearly in focus.
  2. Snap two pictures.
  3. If some details are blurry or unrecognizable, take a few more photos from slightly different angles to capture details.

Capturing Photos of Your Neck Ribbon

  • Pull back to a distance where you can see both the medal and the attached ribbon; repeat steps 1-3 from above.
  • If your medal or neck ribbon is two-sided, flip it over and repeat the process for the backside.

It's pretty simple, right? By following these best practices, you can be confident that your photos are usable so our team can correctly reproduce the medal for you.

Check out the photos below to see what the ideal pictures should look like!

Example of an ideal picture of a medal.

Example of an ideal picture of neck ribbon FRONT.

Example of an ideal picture of neck ribbon BACK.