(Coin photography) lighting question

I'm far from a pro....but I only use one light source. I like just one because I freehand all my shots and I can change the light around very easily. It's also a great setup for showing luster (cartwheel spokes), surfaces and toning (via angles).

 

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That thing is scary, looks like it could get up and walk off the desk! AWESOME SET UP!

 

I think I was wearing a red shirt that day........

 

Yeah, ring lights are good for that black-and-white thing.

They're also effective for lighting high-magnification detail images when coloration is less important. Sometimes you want a single direct light to shadow a die crack (for instance), but sometimes you're better off flooding the area imaged and a ring light is good for that.

 

I shot the March of Dimes Dollar on the previous page with this:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B016A3ABWM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1


The lights are arranged in an oval, which does interesting things to Proofs (as you see in that Dollar) while not interfering with usage on micro shots. The whole stem is flexible, and the head is barely half an inch thick so it's compatible with short working distances. The center hole is also oval, and only 1-1/2" wide the short way. This is not a problem with the duplicating lenses and microscope objectives I shoot with, but would be incompatible with a "regular" macro lens. It's battery powered, although it can be run plugged into the charger. White Balance is very problematic due to the flicker rate of the LED's so I don't use it except when working in monochrome.

A few years ago I did this with a kitchen light fixture:



Cut a hole right thru the center, painted it all matte black and looked to see what it could do for a Proof. It wasn't bad.



On a Business Strike, though, it did this:



...to a coin which normally looked like this:



....which is why I don't use ring lighting on Business Strikes.

 

That proof is gorgeous
I name everything, I name your photo rig
“PHOTOGRAPHENSTIEN’S MONSTER”
Yes that makes you DR. Photoghraphenstein.

 

Not for normal coin photography, but I use most of one of these mounted to my microscope.



I've taped a business card over part of the tube so that what remains is a little over 180° of the ring. This way, I get pretty even light on my scope and I can rotate the coin and change the shadows or highlights as needed for the feature I'm trying to see or the picture I'm trying to take.

 

I usually mask the bottom 180-deg using layers of vellum not to eliminate the light but to reduce it. I also dark mask between 11:00 and 1:00, to eliminate light coming from directly overhead. So what's left is an arc from 1:00-3:00, and from 9:00-11:00, with fill-in light coming uniformly from 3:00-9:00. Works superbly.

 

Invested in a decent SLR camera and a copy stand on cyber monday. Have a ton of practicing/learning to do but I'm excited to get some decent results with my first attempt. Here are a few I shot, compared to my phone camera photos it's night and day, really excited to play around some more and keep improving. Fun stuff

 

Read about white balance in the manual. If you're shooting raw and post-processing using Camera Raw, then you can easily change the white balance then.

Be careful about using the same lighting angles for everything. The 80-S dollar on the right really shows where your lights are --- 10:00 and 1:30. The really hard luster on the coin is also giving you a little more contrast than you probably want. Adding some diffusion will help with the contrast and also get some needed light to the bottom of the reverse. I would also move the lights a little bit in the 6:00 direction for the Morgan reverse.

 

Thanks for all this!

Is the larger S mm unique to the 80-S? Or do you just look at a Morgan and instantly process the VAM at this point?

 

Large S is unique to 80-S. Spotted it right away. I assume the other is either 80-S or 81-S based the overall appearance.

 

Yep the other is an 81

 

I think this is the best answer so far. There really is no "one-size-fits-all." I have 3 lights, but sometimes I only use 2. I move them around and watch the screen until I get the look I want. Copper will require different lighting than silver, different for gold, different for proof, etc. You just have to experiment until you get it right.

Mark Goodman's book does a really good job of walking you through different lighting techniques for different types of coins.

 

There is actually a lot you can do in jpg. Here's a bit of editing to improve the WB:

 

NICE FIX!!!

Don't be afraid to FREQUENTLY adjust WB when shooting IBet. Personally, I do no post-processing ever other than a crop/resize. The biggest thing I've learned about taking pictures is- it's "in the light". Master light and your pictures always improve!

I'd say you're off go a good start IBet!

 

Thanks!

I learned that last night that you need to frequently adjust WB. I was playing around with lighting a lot trying to get the color to show right and didn't reset the WB a few times and noticed after I messed that up. So many variables, I'll get there!

 

When I want to ensure very accurate color (for instance with toners), I shoot on a calibrated background. I then do a calibrated WB to the background, and each shot can be ensured to be true-color as it is taken through any processing.