I have several ms-6x coins all br & no red; it is difficult to see features & letters because of lack of contrast; also these are slabbed what type of lighting would help?
Lighting dark coppers. I use monofilament bulbs, low watts, dispersed by matted mirrors. The more indirect the light, the better the results. Of course, you cannot beat the microscope listed in a thread on the board, even at the 1.2 megapixels. Bright lights on coppers seems to illuminatte them too much. :smile:smile:smile :smile:smile
You could also try axial lighting. Here is a link you might find of interest. It discusses coin photography. Also, there have been multiple threads on CoinTalk that discuss axial lighting.
And make sure as much as possible that the background is a non-reflective black or dark grey. You don't want a light-colored background overpowering the light reflecting from the coin. PCGS slabs are nice because they are translucent and a black background shows through well. NGC slabs are a pain because of the white insert. I cut a hole in a piece of non-reflective black paper and use it to mask out as much of the white insert as reasonable possible.
+1 Brown copper tends to look best with the light roughly 45 to 60 degrees to the coin, in my experience.
Yes. The single-source lighting approach creates shadows, which creates contrast. Vitally important on low contrast copper.
Yes, yes, yes. In addition to this - zoom in as much as possible to fill the frame with the coin. That way the coin dominates the light metering, since the exposure is weighted toward the center of the frame.
I use a single fluorescent desk lamp, Home Depot $20. Personally, I prefer a white background to demonstrate that the white balance is correct. Coins really look different with improper white balance IMO. This is one of the most color accurate pictures I've taken.
WOW- thank you all very much- Cointalkers are both an erudite and generous group! I will take this sage advice and post a picture of the results.
