Featured The Lighting Setup No One Expects to Work on Ancient Coins

Thessaly, Larissa Silver Stater (356–342 BC)

I wanted to share a recent image and a few behind-the-scenes shots showing how it was made. The coin is a silver stater from Larissa, Thessaly (356–342 BC) — a municipal issue with a remarkably high-contrast surface. The reverse features a bridled horse advancing to the right, with its foreleg raised.



What made this one challenging was the extreme tonal range: bright, untoned metal next to deep fields of oxidation. Even well diffused lighting immediately blew out the highlights and crushed the midtones.

Instead of fighting it, I reversed my approach. I turned the coin away from the light, and the main illumination came from white and silver reflectors angled in front. This let me “wrap” the light around the relief softly, maintaining texture and definition without washing out the contrast. It took some tweaking, but I think the result was worth the effort.

In the setup images below, you’ll see:

• The coin is facing away from the light.
  
  
• A set of curved white card reflectors on the left and right, and a matt silver card directs the light onto the face to control the balance.
  
  
• The coin was mounted at an angle because that's the view I wanted, but also so that the reflections could be fine-tuned.
  

Below, the main light, on the left, is large and diffused with maximum contrast.


I shot it at f14, @ 1/200 sec., ISO 200. I used a 105 mm macro lens to shoot a 12-image focus stack. The result preserved the metallic sheen and surface depth while taming the contrast that would otherwise dominate the image. Click on the finished version to see the details.

Indirect lighting, like this, takes a little more time to set up, but it yields far more pleasing results — especially on coins with uneven reflectivity or complex patinas. The reflectors do the heavy lifting, not the light source itself.

Getting the light right is half science, half instinct — and every coin teaches something new. For anyone who photographs coins regularly — especially ancient pieces with uneven toning — indirect lighting like this can be a big help.

I’ll be posting more behind-the-scenes examples from the studio as I work through different surfaces, metals, and problem coins.

If you enjoy seeing the process behind numismatic photography — the setups, the experiments, and the occasional surprises — feel free to share your own experiences lighting tough coins. I always appreciate seeing how others tackle the same challenges from different angles.

 

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That is a breathtaking coin and image. Your setup is incredible. I was almost proud of myself when I found the Pro button on my smart phone camera. Great work and thanks for posting.

 

Very creative solution to a lighting problem! Wonderful result.

 

Thank you. BTW, I don't think my smartphone has a pro button... It has a terrible camera.

 

Fascinatingly creative! And what a crisp and impeccable image of the specimen! The contrast and detail of the both the surfaces and large portion of the edge is stunning. All that, combined with the light draped so perfectly, makes it feel like I can lift up the coin from my computer screen. Thanks for sharing!

 

Intricately marvelous technique. Fabulous photog........

 

Incredible work, as always! I can imagine how challenging that particular coin would be to get right, and you hit the nail right on the head. Outsanding.

 

For those interested, this is the obverse/reverse of the coin, presented in a registry set format. It was shot with a different setup from the angle view, but with equally soft light. Even still, the highlights on the horse are on the edge of burn out. Those that are familiar with my work know axial lighting is my "go to" for coin illumination, but ancient coins like this are often the exception. This was shot with two 500 watt studio lights, placed about 4 feet away from the coins. In such cases I prefer to use the penumbra of the light rather than pointing it directly at the coin. The penumbra is the softer, partial shadow that surrounds the umbra, where only part of the light source is used. This is where photographers often focus, as its size and softness are influenced by the light source's size, affecting whether the light appears hard or soft.


The image above shows what the coin looks like in hand. It's a high-contrast piece with dark areas, but the customer wanted to see more detail in the darker areas, particularly on the obverse, so I edited it as shown in the image below. Easy adjustments like this is just one of the benefits of working with raw files.



Personally, I prefer the original as an image and the revision as a study tool.

 

I just realized I meant to write maximum contrast, not minimum. oops...

 

Thank you. I thought I only had a certain amount of time to edit a post after it was posted, and that time had passed. Does it have a time limit?

 

Ditto. Exactly.

Superb example; superb photography.

 

I don't know if there are cameras that will do this in-camera. It wouldn't surprise me if there were, but I've never looked. I use Nikon gear, and none of my cameras do that. There's software that will capture the focus stack for you, or at least do a frame-by-frame capture with you. I've used Helicon in the past, and it was fine, but in the end, I found it faster and easier to do it myself. I start at the front of the coin and move the focus to the back. My viewfinder sees f2.8, but my camera is set at f14. This means the area I see in focus is smaller than the actual depth-of-field captured. Knowing this, as long as I move the focus based on the f2.8 area, there's plenty of overlap to make the focus stack work effectively. Photoshop has tools to assemble a focus stack, though not with a single button, so I made an action to do it. A word of caution: focus stacking is not perfect, so my action includes a built-in stop to let me check certain areas with conditions that are prone to stack failure. If you shoot enough of these, you get to know where focus stacking can fail. In those cases, I manually adjust the masks.