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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 800264, member: 19463&quot;]<u><img src="http://www.pbase.com/dougsmit/image/121503163.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></u></p><p>&nbsp;Three coins are shown here lighted in exactly the same manner (distance,&nbsp; elevation angle, bulb type etc.) but the coin was rotated 90 degrees between&nbsp; each shot so we have the light coming from Left, Top, Bottom and Right. The&nbsp; purpose is to show the importance of orienting the coin to the light direction&nbsp; according to characteristics of the coin. Obviously, it would be perfectly&nbsp; possible to adjust the coin between these quarter turns and, in many cases, this&nbsp; will produce better results than any of these. Rarely, if ever, will the light&nbsp; from the bottom be most pleasing (&#039;ghoul lighting&#039; named for a Halloween&nbsp; character lighting its face with a flashlight from below). </p><p><br /></p><p>The coins are&nbsp; selected to show a bit of variety. The Ptolemy I tetradrachm (top) is toned&nbsp; silver while the Septimius Severus denarius (bottom) is bright. Between them is&nbsp; a Gordian III and Tranquillina bronze with less than perfectly even green&nbsp; patina. It was included to illustrate the effects of direction on left and right&nbsp; facing portraits on the same coin. </p><p><br /></p><p>Most people will probably prefer&nbsp; examples with light from top or right (unless the portrait is left facing where&nbsp; top or left is probably better).</p><p>&nbsp; </p><p>&nbsp;<font size="2"><font face="Arial"><img src="http://www.pbase.com/dougsmit/image/121503162.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></font></font></p><p>&nbsp; </p><p>&nbsp;Since we expect top or right lighting to be better, these six images show&nbsp; the effect of more minor adjustments within those ranges. In fact, the&nbsp; difference made by very minor adjustments can be greater than expected. The ease&nbsp; of previewing this is why I prefer to use continuous lights rather than flash.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>These six are not exactly evenly spaced and the yellow arrows only&nbsp; approximate the direction. The coin, a silver tetradrachm of Side, has a number&nbsp; of surface problems and scratches which show more strongly in some light angles&nbsp; than in others. I prefer the example in the lower left corner (roughly 1 o&#039;clock&nbsp; angle) for this coin but every coin is an individual and the best results will&nbsp; be found by turning the coin until you see what you want. </p><p><br /></p><p>These images&nbsp; vary (intentionally) only in the light direction. Other changes could be made by&nbsp; raising or lowering the light (a single CFL bulb) or changing the reflectors&nbsp; used with that bulb. Unfortunately there is accidental variation introduced by&nbsp; the fact that this ancient coin has a reverse that makes it hard to sit&nbsp; perfectly and consistently flat as would be possible with a modern coin with&nbsp; flat relief and raised rims. Also the imperfect alignment of the camera to the&nbsp; coin becomes obvious when comparing the various images. These differences do not&nbsp; become troublesome until you try to shoot matching images.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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