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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Volante, post: 1991424, member: 57279&quot;]I recently made the switch from incandescent lighting to compact fluorescent and I thought I&#039;d share some of the immediate changes I&#039;ve noticed, along with a side by side photo comparison of a few toned silver coins.&nbsp; All photos below were taken on a point-and-shoot camera with two lights.&nbsp; The incandescent lights were ordinary 60W bulbs, while the CFLs were natural daylight bulbs with a color temperature of 5500K.</p><p><br /></p><p>The first difference I noticed was how much brighter CFLs are than regular bulbs.&nbsp; The 15W CFLs I bought were supposed to be equivalent to a 60W incandescent, but in practice I found them much brighter.&nbsp; Brighter isn&#039;t always better, as too much light can wash out the color on coins with more delicate toning.&nbsp; I currently have my CFLs in adjustable-neck lamps with metal shades, so I may experiment with using just the bare bulbs to see if that diffuses the light a bit more.</p><p><br /></p><p>Another big difference I found was how much easier it is to achieve correct white balance with the CFLs.&nbsp; Previously, I had struggled immensely with white balance on toned coins.&nbsp; White balance options on a typical P&amp;S camera are limited and often overcompensate, moving the image into an entirely different hue.&nbsp; The white balance tool on photo-editing programs is not much better—adjust the balance and you run the risk of de-saturating any toning on the coin.&nbsp; The CFLs seem to do a much better job of capturing the in-hand color (and color temperature) of a coin, with minimal to no required white balance adjustments.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]356602[/ATTACH]</p><p>This <strike>Peace</strike> Morgan dollar is a good example of the above.&nbsp; The image on the left was taken with two incandescent bulbs at 10 and 2 o&#039;clock.&nbsp; The original image was much too warm (pinkish hue), so I had to adjust the white balance in my photo-editing program.&nbsp; Unfortunately, that also muted the toning on the upper-left.&nbsp; With the CFL bulbs, I did not have to make any adjustments (beyond selecting my camera&#039;s &#039;Daylight&#039; white balance option), which allowed the toning to appear as it is in-hand.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]356600[/ATTACH]</p><p>As you can see here, the white balance is incorrect on the left image, resulting in a reddish hue.&nbsp; The colors are also deeper and more saturated.&nbsp; For the right image, I had to tilt the coin to get the colors to come through.&nbsp; The colors are slightly less vibrant and saturated, but you can see much more of the greens and blues around the bottom half of the obverse, and the overall hue is much closer to that of the coin in-hand.&nbsp; The contrast of the image on the right is also slightly muted compared to that of the coin on the left - part of this is due to the way I tilted the coin, but I noticed a similar effect on a few of the others below.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]356601[/ATTACH]</p><p>This is another vibrantly toned coin, with prooflike surfaces that make it somewhat difficult to photograph.&nbsp; Again, the colors on the left are more saturated, with an unbalanced pinkish hue for the base patina.&nbsp; Switching to the CFLs on this coin made getting a full color band much more difficult - what you see on the right is actually a composite of three separate images.&nbsp; The CFLs are very bright and seem to have a much more focused (as opposed to diffuse) beam of light, which meant I could only capture the colors on one quadrant of the prooflike obverse at a time.&nbsp; I&#039;m not very satisfied with the CFL image yet, so I&#039;ll have to keep tweaking my technique and see if I can get a decent picture without resorting to a composite.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]356605[/ATTACH]</p><p>Another Maria Theresa thaler, but with slightly different results.&nbsp; The surfaces of this coin are less prooflike than the previous one, so that made capturing a full color band with the CFLs much easier.&nbsp; The image on the right is not a composite, unlike the previous one.&nbsp; Again, you can see more of the blues, greens, and yellows in the CFL image compared to the incandescent.&nbsp; There&#039;s also a much nicer contrast (in my opinion) between the gold toning on the lettering and the blue on the fields.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]356603[/ATTACH]</p><p>A typical &quot;gun-metal&quot; patina.&nbsp; Not much more to say here—the incandescent image is still warmer than the coin in-hand despite having white balance adjusted both on the camera and again in photo-editing.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]356604[/ATTACH] An example of a coin with booming luster but non-prooflike surfaces.&nbsp; Compared to the MT thalers, the CFL image here shows a more complete obverse color.&nbsp; It&#039;s much easier to illuminate the entire surface of a half dollar than it is to illuminate the 41mm MTTs.&nbsp; I might try experimenting with three lights on larger coins, though positioning becomes a bigger hassle with three lights rather than just two.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>I also thought this thread might serve as a good example of how coin images can be misleading.&nbsp; When I compared all of these images, I was honestly surprised at the massive color differences.&nbsp; Never assume that an eBay seller has taken the time to properly white-balance his/her images.&nbsp; If you see an image with a reddish hue, odds are that the colors are not balanced and are possibly over-saturated as well.&nbsp; When buying toned coins online, you should always keep in mind that what you see may not be what you get.</p><p><br /></p><p>Thoughts, questions?&nbsp; Any photo tips are also greatly appreciated.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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