LED bulbs for coin photography

hi green! I was online in our school's computer lab!

 

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Replace the reveals with some other bulbs, set your white balance and play with them. Natural sunlight would be a great answer but you cannot control it enough to properly light a coins.

There is no way to pull all this color with sunlight.

 

So true green18. I really should buy a real camera. Any suggestions?

This is a good tip! I only bought GE Reveal bulbs because someone on this board told me that was the BEST bulb to shoot coins with (dont recall who). Set white balance? That must be a camera setting. My camera is probably on the order of a cracker jacks prize. I need a better camera, but when i go to look at digital cameras I get overwhelmed. I totally agree about the lack of control with sunlight. I always end up with dark patches on coins i shoot. Your photos are great (then again you are a professional with years of experience (and probably thousands in equipment!)

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A good basic "point and shoot" with macro capabilities. 99% of presentation is based on how you fiddle with the lighting......

Aside: this coming from a guy who used to employ a scanner....

 

I use OTT-LITE lamps with their "white light" bulbs.
They work very well for me.
The most difficult part is positioning them correctly for best results.
But I'm getting better at it.

 

This are two I took in indirect sunlight.

My biggest issue is shooting through slab plastic, which tends to reflect light and other images.

The Morgan looks 10x better than this in hand. It's so electric blue and reflective.
I think this is one coin that only blu62vette @ BluCCPhotos will be able to capture.
Tell you one thing though, photographing coins is really interesting.


My iPhone does a great job with gold though ...
I just can't get anything close to this using artificial light,
give me some indirect sunlight and the coin photos just pop.
My only problem are a few darker patches (to the right of the eagle, for example)