Coin Photography - Black vs. White Background

Here is another photography question...and yes, I know this one can be harder... @Denis Richard, I would love to hear your thoughts.

Toned proof coins. For example...I have a German commemorative coin which is silver and proof with a DCAM look to it. When I take photos of it, not surprisingly...I get that cameo look with frosted devices and mirrored fields and the lovely rim toning is lost. I understand that to get the toning, I will have to lose the black mirror affect...but what is a way to accomplish this. My thought is to angle the lighting different but I haven't quite figured out how to do it yet. Any tips?

 

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Seems to me that lighting is the answer to 90%+ photography questions.

 

Have you read Mark Goodman's book? One of the biggest tips is the idea of lighting contrast - vary the number of lights, their height, and their angle based on the type of coin and the desired output. Sometimes you just have to play around with it until you get it.

Another idea is to use "diffused" lighting. I've not yet perfected that technique, but photographers like @messydesk use it well.

 

I have read the book and I am trying to move my lights around. I have tried 1, 2 and 3 lights as well and still haven't gotten what I want. I think it's just a matter of finding the right spot and once I have done it I will know how to do it.

I have not yet tried to diffuse the light.

 

Diffusing the light allows you to show the color of the coin, but it is still very tough to get an accurate depiction of what the coin actually looks like.

Direct Lighting:



Diffused Lighting:




I'm able to get decent photos with my setup but in order to eliminate all the reflections on the direct lighting and dark spots that we see on the diffused lighting, we really would need to hear from one of the professional photographers like @Denis Richard I absolutely hate imaging proof coins.

 

Use a plain sheet of white paper and move it around behind the coin to bounce your light onto the coin from a different angle and you will lose the black fields but gain the toning. Takes some experimenting.

 

Paul, what do you use over your light to diffuse it?

 

He does use it well. He gets the lighting right and the images come off showing the true look of the coin.

 

Yes. This is something that folks should play with. It works well. Bouncing the light works well with many types of imaging.

 

tissue & rubber band

 

Just wrap a white tissue around the light to soften in?

 

Yes, that is my method. Not very high tech, I know!

 

Lol. I use a white note card rubber banded to my flash with the flash pointed upwards when I do portrait and family shots. Same thing. Simple but effective.

 

There are two ways I use to shoot mirror finish coins. Axial lighting from above, like this image, which has a soft graduated light across the face ( I added the blue tint in post on a whim)


...or with a diffused light from behind or beside the coin, like this image of the Kraken, below. This image has far more contrast. The contrast is controlled by how far away the diffuser is placed from the coin. I use a LEE 216 diffuser material. It is color balanced for flash, unlike tissue papers or other materials that leave a color cast, or worse, an uneven spread of light over the coin.



Speaking of contrast, moving the diffuser farther away, and tilting it will produce an image like this below, with hard edges and deep black areas.



Use whichever method produces the image you prefer. I realize none of these coins are toned, however, to that point, I need to clarify that you don't actually illuminate a mirror finish coin. You illuminate what it reflects, based on your camera angle. For example, with this coin, those black areas are where there is no light reflecting off the coin at the opposite axis as the camera. So obviously, if you need light to capture the toning, and no light to render the blacks, you can't do both... at least not with a single shot. So shot one image to capture the blacks, and relight the coin to capture the toning, then blend and balance the two images together with your image editing software. Just make sure the camera and coin don't move between shots. It's not the end of the world if they do, but it will make your blending much more difficult.

 

Yes, I have read that book. Lots of useful information in there, but honestly, I don't find it the best method to capture coin images. I found the section on axial lighting very thing. Too thin. I think it was a single page. I've tried all of the techniques in that book, but modified axial lighting is my preferred method for raw coin photography. I use this custom made rig to shoot most of my raw coins. It's extremely versatile.



you can shoot images like this with it..



and this...



I highly recommend axial lighting.

 

I understand the desire for axial lighting, but I have absolutely no idea why I would ever want to shoot an image like those. The first is a weird angled profile of a fraction of a coin face with no real purpose or reason. If it was to show a variety, I might get it? But as it is? We're getting a really weird angle profile of QEII.

And the second one? That's even weirder. Why do I want a closeup of the eagle and snake? And why do we need axial lighting for that?

I think you're trying to be hip and cool and take artistic shots. The problem is, in the process you've completely forgotten why we take pictures of coins.

 

I think there's some confusion about diffused lighting. Diffused lighting doesn't allow you to see any more of a coin, it simply reduces the contrast in the light. It softens it. If you want to see more of the coins detail, you need to change the quality and angle of the light falling on the coin. Changing the angle of the light, relative to the axis of the lens allows you to see more, because the light is not reflecting directly into the lens. This is exactly why I use axial lighting. I allows precise control of the direction, intensity and contrast of the light. Under such conditions, any camera will capture a great shot. Compare the details visible in the coin shots above to the detail visible in my shot below.



Yeah for axial lighting!!!

 

Axial lighting is a tool I use produce clear, detailed and accurate coin images. Is that not why you take pictures of coins? Yes, I do choose to make some more artistically, but that's what I get paid for. The system works just as well with the thousands of catalog images I produce.

 

OK. Here is one I tried. I went with the black back ground over the white as I felt like the white washed the coin out too much.

For this one, I used the lights angled back and a white piece of paper to reflect the light onto the surface of the coin. I think it brought out the toning nicely and had a good result. What do you think of this attempt?

 

OK. Here is that proof I was talking about. I angled the light and used a white sheet of paper to reflect the light over the surface to pick up the toning. What do you think of my results?