After reading Gavin Richardson's recent post where he mentioned using a cloth for the background of his coin photographs, (https://www.cointalk.com/threads/macro-lens-for-iphone-coin-photography.353462/#post-3999506) I decided to try an experiment. It's not particularly fair because I photographed one coin outside and the other two inside, but it'll have to do for now since it's cloudy and snowing, and the light is terrible for outside photography. I photographed the same Septimius Severus denarius against three different backgrounds. The first was photographed outdoors with my traditional (a.k.a.very old) black construction paper background--which usually comes out as a mottled gray in sunlight--the second was with a purple cloth background and the last with a light blue cloth background. Does anyone have a preference, and if so, why? Thanks for your thoughts. Traditional: Purple cloth: Light blue cloth: BTW, I like the light blue cloth background and my wife prefers the traditional. Anyone interested in stirring up some mischief is welcome to try to get my wife and I arguing with each other!
I like the light blue... although the purple is kind of interesting. I plan on a few experiments myself based on @Gavin Richardson 's post.
I always like mischief. Purple. For the emperors. But the only person you really have to please is yourself. Or maybe your wife. I will say that I like the heavier shadows on the first gray pic. But that may have more to do with placement than background. You may want to experiment further with making the coin higher in elevation using a dowel or spindle or something. I can see the texture of the cloth. If the camera focuses on the coin and sufficiently blurs the cloth, you might just get the color and not the texture, so you won’t have competing textures of coin and cloth. Just an idea to experiment with.
The first shot was taken outdoors; thus, the higher shadows. The next step is to take some outdoor shots with the cloth background. It was too cloudy to do that yesterday. Maybe purple for emperors, blue for everything else? Kind of a neat idea, Gavin. I agree about the higher spindle, and I hope to get around to drilling out and replacing the current one soon.
This seller uses purple backgrounds and even the bronze coins look good. But he doesn't elevate the coin. To me that's the most important feature. I really like how a blurred background sets off and sharpens the coin detail. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Maximian-A...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649
Purple cloth seens to give the sharpest result.personally, I use my red Swiss passport cover as the best background for my coin pictures !
Can you explain why you like using cloth at all as a background? Obviously to each his own. If you like it you like it and that's the end of that but from an aesthetics point of view only the subject (the coin) needs to be there. Anything else is distracting. So you might want to start by asking yourself "do I want the viewer's eye to focus 90% on the coin and 10% on the fabric or should he/she just look at nothing but the coin"? Rasiel
Well, there has to be something behind the coin. White, black, it doesn't matter. You have to make some decision, and whatever is behind the coin is going to influence your overall impression of it. I agree that the weave might be distracting, and I plan to experiment with raising the coin up higher from the background, as Gavin suggested. Although I have to admit that I like PMONNEY's avatar with the passport background. I'm also beginning to suspect that, with my old Nikon Coolpix, the coin will photograph best against a background of similar brightness--light for most denarii, darker for bronze--so I may end up using different colored cloth for different coins. But that's just a suspicion at this point. I'll play around some and see what I can come up with.
