I have an iPhone but I have seen some beautiful pictures taken here with them. What I am struggling with is the lighting. I have 75 watt frosty incandescent light bulbs. 2 lamps too and I can't get good shots. Always shadows on the coin. What can I do?
Here is my set up. The tall lamp is at 10 24" from surface. The smaller lamp is at 2 12" from surface.
Much, much more incident lighting (light up the entire room since you are photographing, not grading and perhaps near a window if you don't have enough overhead and nearby lamps to brighten the room) and much less direct lighting from your sources onto the subject. You can also try diffusing your direct lighting with a curtain of napkins, toilet tissue, linen etc. A plain white background is less than ideal. 18% gray is great for white balance automatic exposure, but, I prefer just about anything that catches my eye estimated to be closer to 18% than white or solid black, and I like it to have sharp crisp lines, like say the peel off adhesive protective strip on this large Mead legal envelope I just spotted on my desk. A non-plain background is nice because; it provides a solid reference for focus, depth of field and a reference for your intelligent coin tube make-shift tripod being stable with your 'shutter' technique. Beyond that, it will show the size of your pixels which provide the viewer with some reference to the image quality level. You're on the right track.
It looks to be a Type 1, at least you have it down well enough to determine that. If you spend it, spend it my way.
Better would be to turn the taller lamp towards your ceiling and screw in as powerful a bulb as you have. Your distance dimensions do not compute. One direct/diffused lighting source will provide better results when trying to pick off very fine details, just rotate your coin relative to it and see which shot reveals what you are trying to show. The toning is another subject and series of steps.
"I Can't get my Lighting Down and it's Driving me Crazy" Yup, it has habit of doing that - and not just to you Practice, practice, practice ! Experiment and then experiment some more.
I'd rather know where the camers is placed, its' distance from and orientation to the coin before offering advice. Generally, your best starting point is two evenly-spaced lamps at 10:00 and 2:00 to the coin. Distance does not much matter, but background very much does. A light background reflects its' own light back into the lens, costing you contrast, and a colored or patterned background interferes with color correction. "Area" lighting prohibits accurate depiction of luster, but direct lighting always creates areas of shadow and brightness. This is where experimentation comes in, because with lustrous coins you'll want some level of diffusion.
I'll give ya another tip. You do not want any other light source in the room other than the light/s you are using to take the pics.
On the platform made with the Guardhouse square tubes as is clearly shown. The first step is to bust off effortless pictures of coins that are crisp and sharp, sans high contrast that loses detail. Most fail at crisp and sharp due to technique. Taking pix with a comparatively crude, but, very good cellphone, isn't the same as using a full fledged 35mm setup with larger optical cards, adjustable aperture macro lens etc.
The one lamp looks a bit short to shine straight down at the coin and have room for the camera. Play with the angle your lights are at. I agree with Doug. Don't mix different types of lighting.
Also tonight grab a flashlight, go into your dark bathroom, and shine the flashlight up at your face from under your neck. See how that looks in the mirror. That's how you shot this Ike
