Plays with axial lighting

I found that when the angle of the reflective glass is just right, the coin suddenly "lights up." That's the sweet spot, often just a degree or 2 from dullness. Maybe your glass wasn't angled quite right?

 

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I'm going to give this a try. Thanks for all the information.

 

That's a Gorgeous Nickel and a Gorgeous Photo. I'm jealous.

 

Agreed.
The setup is a bit touchy.
Correct alignment doesn't give you much leeway.

After figuring out where all my extraneous reflections were coming from and fixing those problems I still wasn't getting good results.
Turns out I was getting direct lighting from my source rather than reflected lighting from the glass.
Just another factor to keep in mind.

 

I think I'm on to something with this shot. I still need to expand the light source to get rid of the hot spot in the center, but I think this test shot at least keeps me coming back. Like the good putt after a bad round in golf.

Critique is appreciated

 

I'm going to guess that your light source is a bulb-type.
I can see that being the reason you'd get the "hot spot in the center".

I use a tube-type light source.
This results in the illumination being spread out more and eliminates the hot spot.

One possible solution is to move your light source further away thus spreading the illuminated area out more.
Of course this means adjusting you camera settings to accommodate the lower light intensity caused by the increased distance.

 

After another day of tweaking, only to get worse results. I'm giving up again, at least until I see another beautiful axial photo. I can get the coin to 'light up' OR get it in focus. I can't seem to do both.

 

Interesting.
Not sure why you can't focus.
If possible you'll probably want to manual focus rather than autofocus.
Other than that, I don't know.

 

As I said before, this is great stuff :thumb:

Here's a link that I came across about different effects of lighting, including a bit about axial lighting... http://www.sigma-2.com/camerajim/cjgcoins.htm

Question - are you using clear glass with your setup?

 

I'm using shelf glass, not plate glass.
You know, the type of glass that display cases are made from.
It's thicker and stronger, not that those factors help any with the photography.
But it certainly is more stable (not subject to vibrations) because of the weight.

 

Gotcha. Thanks for clarifying.

I was thinking, based on what I'm seeing with setups, that some sort of adjustable hinge is in order for the glass. I was thinking maybe picking-up a hinged doubled picture frame like so



and laying one side horizontally on top of the copy stand surface, whilst aiming the camera through the angled plate glass of the other (without the backing of course)... and if it works, to deal with vibrations, somehow adhering the perimeter of the plate glass to the inside of the frame...

Sort of seems kind of cheezy, but it'd only be a few bucks to try...

Thoughts?

 

If you're going to test out possibilities, cheap is the way to go.
I rather have a $10 experiment fail than a $100 one.

Vibration control is best done with a remote shutter release.
My old camera had an electronic device hooked by a wire to the camera.
With my new camera I have a wireless shutter release.

 

Maybe I'm missing something.... but wouldn't a timer also work?

 

True, but you're liable to find that you'll get antsy after a while.
I don't know if you can set the delay on a timer but in my experience it's something like 10 seconds.
Times 2 (both sides of a coin) and you're over 20 seconds per coin.
In that time with my remote shutter release I could do 5 or more coins.

 

I used the 2 second timer on the camera. Here's my first try, with the setup I described last night using a double-paned photo frame. Note that for experimentation purposes, I used a common but newer Lincoln that I pulled from pocket change...

 

I do things for cheap. Cut 45s out of cardboard, cut a base and hot glued them together. Got a glass from a picture frame and that's my axial.





Also have a large white dog as evident by the hair everywhere.

 

If you can cycle that quickly then I see no difficulties.
Seems to me it will work well.

 

Thanks. It's a little clumsy... I'm not looking to do rapid high volume. It's also important that whatever setup I use, it doesn't require a lot of clutter on my work table.

Here's another try on a specimen I dug out of my desk... Too bad she has a big scratch and ring ding

 

And here's the setup. As described previously, the hinged doubled picture frame laying one side horizontally on top of the copy stand surface, whilst aiming the camera through the angled plate glass of the other (without the backing of course). The binder clip is affixed to the frame's side, and one of it's handles is pulled outwards so that it forms a "leg" which keeps the two frames apart at the desired angle. A clipped desk lamp is the light source used.

The frame: $10 at Target
The light: $16 at CVS

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