I just got a new camera. The old one stopped working. I'm not the best at taking pics, so I'm looking for tips. I used a tripod, the "macro" setting, no flash, set a timer, and had 2 lamps for light sources. They are at different angles for each side of the coin, hence different shadows.
Use a black/dark gray non-reflective background. The light coming back from the light background is overpowering the light coming back from the coins making them dark.
What angle is your lighting at? I've been working on my photography as well, and getting the light at a higher angle has helped alot. My lamps practically touch my lens. Keep at it, practice makes perfect. Don't be afraid to experiment a bit. Also depending on your light source you might try diffusing the light to see if that helps with the harshness.
I actually was using a desk lamp and put a paper towel over it and held it in place with a rubber band.
Purchase a dimmer switch for your light and you may try to control the light in that manner. Took a College course on photography and the only thing I remember about the course was the Professor telling a story of a person standing on the Empire State Building taking a photo of the City in the dark with a flash bulb. He pointed out how foolish he felt the person was trying to light up the city with a flash bulb. Someone said "well could be the camera had a flash attached and the person just took the picture", many of us agreed with this and many of us received low grades in photography.
Try limiting the overall white footprint of the slab with black or dark color fabric. Also, you don't need really bright light, 25 watt each at 10 and 2 o'clock seems balanced and helps with homemade diffusion materials. The coffee filter idea Casman offered is a good diffuse, the white ones, not brown, but that's why you need lower wattage, avoid fire danger and still have a strong enough diffused source(s) of illumination. Glare is always a problem with slabs and flips, just adjust angles until you get it right. I don't recommend cracking a slab for a photo, but flips are easy squeezy. Silver and clad is okay to use LED lights, which emit a stark, blue light, but cents/copper and gold seem to photograph better under tungsten, which is a redder spectrum, but perceived as yellow. You will see as you go as you try different things. Looks like you got a good camera, I like the potential...Spark
I find taking a photo of Lincoln facing down brings the details out more, especially for both super dark and proof/reflective specimens.
