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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;AncientJoe, post: 1806892, member: 44357&quot;]The best light I&#039;ve found is an &quot;Ottlite Full Spectrum Lighting&quot;. It mimics daylight quite well, although daylight is my preferred method if possible. I have a horizontal bar light which is a bit of a pain when it comes to photography but I&#039;ve managed to work around its limitations by using one additional light and bouncing off light specifically using business cards (it&#039;s a pretty improvised setup). I have some overhead lights which make my coins look absolutely horrible in-hand.</p><p><br /></p><p>I use a Canon Powershot G15 with a very small tripod and point it almost directly over the coin. I tend to put the coin on a stack of white business cards and tilt it slightly with a card stuck under the edge of the coin depending on how it&#039;s looking in the camera - very slight adjustments make significant differences in images from what I&#039;ve seen.</p><p><br /></p><p>Here are a few examples of the &quot;business card + Ottlite&quot; approach:</p><p><br /></p><p>I took this one at a slight angle to capture the surfaces, making it look just a bit oblong compared to how it really is, but worth it for the accurate portrayal of the coin:</p><p><img src="http://imageshack.us/a/img153/6479/bkyd.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>This coin is highly reflective in hand and I think I&#039;ve captured the luster in the image:</p><p><img src="http://imageshack.us/a/img5/708/vehq.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;ve been playing around with this image, trying to see where the lighting looks best. It is highly lustrous and slight tilts make it look significantly different, but this is a happy medium I&#039;ve found:</p><p><img src="http://imageshack.us/a/img12/8071/pzqh.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>This image is a bit unique as it uses both the Ottlite and a partly cloudy day with open windows for diffuse sunlight. It&#039;s pretty accurate, although it doesn&#039;t fully capture the surfaces, but after taking 500+ images, I finally gave up...</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://imageshack.us/a/img42/404/smalldeka.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>My avatar was photographed by Heritage Auctions and I have yet to improve upon it. It is much more lustrous in-hand but I haven&#039;t been able to capture the surfaces and the luster at once:</p><p><img src="http://imageshack.us/a/img196/7708/8cqo.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Any critiques are appreciated! I probably spend about an hour every couple weeks reshooting my small collection, sometimes with success but often resulting in me throwing out all of the images in disgust. Ancient coins are not easy to photograph![/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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