Coin Photos Lighting Requirements

I have been internally debating purchasing the Mark Goodman Book ... Thanks, you have helped and will be checking out the Kindle Version

 

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Mark's book is excellent, and every coin photographer should buy a copy. It will give you a starting point for most all styles of coin photography. From there, it's practice, experiment, practice, until you get the results you want.

tpsadler, your latest Cent shot shows highlights on the angled edges of the devices. This is a symptom of lighting being at too low an angle. A while back I created some graphics to explain what's going on, using the ribbon and C devices on a LSC, see below:

Showing highlighting on device edges due to low incident light angle:


Showing highlighting on device surfaces due to higher incident light angle

 

Interesting graphic, @rmpsrpms . For the interest of education, if you have time, could you post actual pictures of a coin taken with multiple lighting angles (low, medium, high). This may help show the differences as well.

 

Check out Brandon's thread he linked to on first page. He shows the effect of low, medium, high angle lighting.

 

@rmpsrpms What wattage Jansjo LED lamps are you recommending? I see many types.

 

Great graphic, rmpsrpms. It allows one to easily imagine a coin with mirrored/proof fields, for example, where a light at low angle will reflect off nicely, but not back at the camera (yielding the dark fields in the shot of the penny the OP has posted), whereas a light directly from the camera (ring light, scanner, etc) will reflect right back to the lens yielding a bright field. That's the extreme case of course.

 

Here's a link to the Jansjo work lamp:

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/20169658/

 

One thing that I haven't yet seen in this discussion of lighting coins for photography is the use of video and a tilt stage.

Here's an analogy: As an author of prose writing, one needs to think about the reader.

It's the same as a photographer trying to show off a coin to a viewer, especially if she/he is utilizing images to sell the coin. What do buyers who purchase coins in person, (ie., at a coin show), do when looking at a coin? They hold the coin (or slab) in their hand and closely examine it, usually through a 5X loupe. They also tilt the coin to get a better idea of the surface preservation, and especially the luster and overall eye-appeal.

I see really amazing still coin-photography, much of it here at CT, so don't get me wrong, but why do photographers think that they can best approximate the "in-hand" experience described above with stills? This is not an argument against stills, but an argument for a "both/and" solution: Both stills and a video component with the best lighting possible. This would better approximate the "in-hand" experience for a potential buyer than stills alone.

Coin photography today is usually for the purpose of showing coins in an online format, and not usually for print publications (books, magazines, auction catalogues). Also, with the advent of higher-resolution HD video and the ability for most of us to view these videos on many different kinds of devices, I really don't see any excuse for not having video as a component for most digital coin photography.

 

I have occasionally used animated gif images to display luster or color variations due to change in angle. A series of stills can be used to approximate video. Here's an example:

 

Here is a photo with 3 lamps and a tilt on the coin with f/25 ISO 1250
Is this the tilt you were referring @rmpsrpms ?

 

as you can see that is tilted with 3 sheets of paper the DDO is now visible on the L in Liberty and G of God ... just not sure you can see it with this photo

 

Looks like your lights are at 3:00 and 9:00. Tilt won't help you much in this case. I recommend moving the lights to 10:30 and 1:30, and then tilting the coin the opposite direction, ie with the paper under the lower half of the coin.

 

I don't know what settings anyone else uses, but I use ISO 400 or 600, and F/5 to F/8. What shutter speed do you use? I'm usually between 1/300 and 1/800. I've heard that my settings are unusual, but that's what works best for me (T3i)

 

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Do you mean leave the coin in same orientation move the tilt to 180 degrees plus reorient the lights?

 

The last shown picture is f/25 ISO 1250 With the tilt @rmpsrpms I had to increase the DOF to f/25

 

Are you hand-holding the camera? The only odd thing here is that folks wouldn't trade off the lower quality from the higher ISO against a fast shutter speed if they had a tripod.

 

Below are the pictures @rmpsrpms is talking about (also in my original link).

Low angles show up as the devices being outlined by light, high angles show up as outlines of devices being "shadow" areas. In general, high angle is much better for showing luster, toning, and details of the surface.

 

Here is the coin f/25 ISO 500 tilted 180 same orientation of coin

 

No, I have a copy stand.

 

I use a very simple system and consider my pictures just "good enough" for the web.