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<p>[QUOTE="SuperDave, post: 2360566, member: 1892"]Generalities:</p><p><br /></p><p>Luster is best depicted by lighting as close to vertical above the coin as possible. This tends to indicate that your lights should be as small as possible, to get as close to vertical as possible. The same applies to "pinpoint" lighting as opposed to broader-field stuff like large bulbs and straight fluorescents; the former makes the best effort at accurately depicting luster. This method is also least likely to cast shadows which might obscure details. The better that all is, though, the less-evenly the surface will be lit, and the more likely you'll run into washed-out areas. Another potential problem area, especially when using LED's, is that higher-resolution cameras can cause what look like chroma noise effects on the image - specks of color where none should be. It's forced me on many occasions to use the Chroma Noise filtering system in RAW processing software (if you have RAW available with your camera, quit taking jpg's and switch to it after you've learned the processing flow) to eliminate it. Someone whose opinions on imaging I trust (wish I remembered where) theorized this was due to the LED's used not being full-spectrum - emitting light across the color spectrum, rather than being deliberately limited to a certain color temperature. It's on my list of things to explore.</p><p><br /></p><p>Diffusion - taking that sharp, directed light and hiding it somewhat behind translucent coverings of one sort or another - helps to eliminate washouts, at the cost of luster. </p><p><br /></p><p>I'm hoping rmpsrpms, who has forgotten more about lighting than I ever learned, will weigh in. I thought I was pretty good at this - actually, I <i>was</i>, sorta - until he happened on the scene and started teaching me all the stuff I'd been missing, like it didn't take a $500 lens to do it. <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="SuperDave, post: 2360566, member: 1892"]Generalities: Luster is best depicted by lighting as close to vertical above the coin as possible. This tends to indicate that your lights should be as small as possible, to get as close to vertical as possible. The same applies to "pinpoint" lighting as opposed to broader-field stuff like large bulbs and straight fluorescents; the former makes the best effort at accurately depicting luster. This method is also least likely to cast shadows which might obscure details. The better that all is, though, the less-evenly the surface will be lit, and the more likely you'll run into washed-out areas. Another potential problem area, especially when using LED's, is that higher-resolution cameras can cause what look like chroma noise effects on the image - specks of color where none should be. It's forced me on many occasions to use the Chroma Noise filtering system in RAW processing software (if you have RAW available with your camera, quit taking jpg's and switch to it after you've learned the processing flow) to eliminate it. Someone whose opinions on imaging I trust (wish I remembered where) theorized this was due to the LED's used not being full-spectrum - emitting light across the color spectrum, rather than being deliberately limited to a certain color temperature. It's on my list of things to explore. Diffusion - taking that sharp, directed light and hiding it somewhat behind translucent coverings of one sort or another - helps to eliminate washouts, at the cost of luster. I'm hoping rmpsrpms, who has forgotten more about lighting than I ever learned, will weigh in. I thought I was pretty good at this - actually, I [I]was[/I], sorta - until he happened on the scene and started teaching me all the stuff I'd been missing, like it didn't take a $500 lens to do it. :)[/QUOTE]
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