Coin Photography Question??

Hello everyone! Hope all is well and good.
For some time, I've been trying to perfect my photo skills, mostly with Proof coins. My questions are as follows:
In need of tips and trick (not treats) to eliminate shadowing on fields or image of partial self. Also, is there a program to change the lighting in the fields of the coin?
What programs do all of you use for editing also? I've been using Photoscape or LunaPic.
Comments and recommendations welcome.
This is the type of problem that I'm talking about....

 

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Have you tried using more than one light source from different angles?

 

Yes you need to redirect the lights. At the position they are in it is reflecting the mirrored surfaces back at the lens. This can be achieved by more than one light at an angle or more light blasting the surface to wash out the reflection.

 

I position three Jansjo lights around the subject, placed at 9, 12, and 3 o'clock. Two lights at 10 and 2 o'clock work well too. You may have to move the lights or the subject to achieve the best results. I put a strip of vellum over the lens of each of the lights to mute the strong light source.

 

So the lights at angles "erase" the 90-degree mirror reflection of the camera?

 

Half the time I have the coin to work with Especially the reflective ones, I blast them with light and adjust the camera, this if done correctly show the radial die flow lines, by the way I use three lights.

 

They do, for the most part.

[your results may vary]

 

I always post that disclaimer......

 

My phone/camera is an unfortunate pinkish/copperish color and I can usually see that color reflected in the fields of coins that I am trying to photograph...regardless of lighting...and especially with proofs. A mirror is a mirror. I usually end up at an angle +/- a few degrees off of 90-degrees (87/93) so that the color of the phone is not seen in the fields. I have masked the phone with black paper also to solve the problem. In the end, I don't give a crap enough to keep fiddling with it.

 

Get a bloody real camera........

 

And I've exceeded my limit of libation for the moment. Pardon me while I have some sustenance.......

 

See "...I don't give a crap..." remark above lol

 

LOL freakin' loud......

To be fair though, we really should. If only for the sake of the children.......

 

Think indirect.
The lower photo is direct lighting above the lens.

 

I only have an iPhone 14 and experiment with it. My best efforts are with indirect natural light at a window. The temptation is to center the coin in the screen but it's often best to zoom in 2-3x and find the spot where the lens is above the reflection from the phone. As long as the focus is decent I crop it in Paint and good enough for me. I end up with reflection from the sky outside the window but it's fun to use that and create glamor shots. Here is probably my most reflective coin; it's like a mirror and very difficult to photograph.

 

You might try placing a small reflector on the side away from the window to kick some light back onto the coin from the opposite side from the light source. That could remove the shadow at the top edge of the picture.

The reflector could be as simple as a piece of white cardboard, a small mirror, or a bit of aluminum foil. Don’t use a fill light here, just reflected light, because you don’t want to have to try to compensate for light sources with different color signatures.

 

this is my current lighting set up.
using a olympus 3/4 mirror less camera with a 55mm macro lens from my konica film slr from the 70's. the diameter of the light makes a difference. old school lamps seems to be better.

 

Good tip and I'll experiment with it a bit more. I'm too lazy to get very sophisticated with this. The problem I have (and many others probably) is imaging very reflective coins without it ending up looking like a scan instead of a photo. Same coin as above just done in the window with a mostly white beer carton behind and used to prop the phone on. It picks up every tiny ding (which is why ANACS gave it MS62) but in hand it looks more like my first image.

 

Photographing proof coins is an absolute pain. For uncirculated coins, I use direct lighting with two gooseneck lamps placed at 10 & 2. Now you can still do this with proof coins, but you will lose the color to the reflective fields. Take this Washington Quarter for example.




The color shows somewhat, but in order to unleash the full toning profile, you need to use either diffused lighting or axial lighting. I simply put a shade over the gooseneck lamp to achieve this, even a piece of paper will work. The result is more color, but more hot spots and dark spots, and an overall lower quality photo.



If you see someone who can routinely take quality photos of proof coins that show both color and correct contrast, they will often be a very good photographer with top shelf camera equipment.

 

l like a macro lens for sure