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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;lrbguy, post: 3822722, member: 88829&quot;]Last week TIF started a thread on finding a better black background for her coin photography:</p><p><a href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/coin-photography-a-blacker-black.349008/" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/coin-photography-a-blacker-black.349008/">https://www.cointalk.com/threads/coin-photography-a-blacker-black.349008/</a></p><p><br /></p><p>During the course of its run Ed Snible asked about white backgrounds.&nbsp; I resonated to that since I have never been satisfied with my shots of coins against a really shadowless white background. However, in a post by Severus Alexander he drew attention to a light-box tracing pad as a means to getting a white background for numismatic photography, and he provided a link to the &quot;Tikteck&quot; pad.&nbsp; I have tended to default to black backgrounds at least in part because of my trouble getting a good result with white (though I do prefer the black aesthetically anyway), but having worked with a lightbox for my transparencies (back in the day) I surmised that a lightbox might do the trick.&nbsp; So I decided to order one since it was on sale for about $16 shipped.&nbsp; It came and today I did some testing and thought I would share the results for the sake of anyone else on the list who has struggled with this as I have.</p><p><br /></p><p>For a subject coin I chose a rather bright billon antoninianus of Diocletian (silver will be next).&nbsp; For reference I shot this coin against a black background for a range of lens settings f11-f8. I like nicely saturated color balance, so tend to prefer a somewhat darker image.&nbsp; For these I did not do any post editing of the pics.</p><p><br /></p><p>Here is the reference shot (at f11):</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1017432[/ATTACH]</p><p>And here is the camera setup for that:</p><p><br /></p><p>-2 gooseneck lamps with daylight LED bulbs (~5400K) and 20# white paper diffusion screens, set at positions 10 and 2 (appearances in the photo below notwithstanding)</p><p><br /></p><p>-black velvet background on a vertically adjustable stage sitting on a platform of iron plates.</p><p><br /></p><p>-Canon Rebel XLR fitted with a 105mm Nikon Micro-Nikkor lens set out 1 inch from the camera body by a combination of tubes and adapters.&nbsp; The camera rides on a focusing stage attached to an old copystand.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1017433[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>This camera setup was not changed, but the staging for the coin was altered to accommodate the placement of the tracing screen directly on the iron plate platform:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1017434[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>I powered up the tracing screen and took a shot using the same camera settings as before.&nbsp; At first the results were unacceptable:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1017435[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>The coin image was fine, but the background was not uniform.&nbsp; The tracing pad does not have a uniform distribution of light although it appears to be close.&nbsp; As long as the light was steady it seemed one might be able to get a uniform background by staying close to a central spot.&nbsp; When I was careful to flip the coin on the same spot:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1017437[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>That one is close enough to be a contender.&nbsp; Going forward I will use a Sharpie to place a small mark on my undersheet of mylar and use it to position my coins for both sides within reasonable limits.&nbsp; I still plan to tweak it to brighten it up against the background, and eliminate as much of the shadowy haze still showing, but now I have hopes that with a bit more tweaking better white background shots are ahead.&nbsp; Thanks for the link to a handy piece of gear, Severus Alexander.</p><p><br /></p><p>Show us your solutions to the white background &quot;problem,&quot;&nbsp; especially those that do not require a lot of tweaking in post.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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