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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Larry Moran, post: 820132, member: 4580&quot;]<b>Comments on Axial Lighting</b></p><p><br /></p><p>I am really enjoying the images posted so far.&nbsp; Very nice, everybody. leeg is right about the two Ott-Lites for slabbed coins,and I&#039;d almost bet his coin is in a slab.&nbsp; : )</p><p><br /></p><p>To 900fine... A search on &quot;Axial lighting&quot; will show you more about it and when I have time, I&#039;ll post photos of the device I made for axial lighting of coins.&nbsp; It&#039;s more compact than many setups.&nbsp; Basically, light is reflected off a glass set at an angle. Part of the light passes through the glass, but the other part of the light is reflected directly downward at the coin.&nbsp; The camera shoots through the glass (no problem), and it appears as though the light is coming directly from the lens.</p><p><br /></p><p>For proof coins, a slight adjustment of the angle of the glass can take you from white fields to black fields.&nbsp; Watch through the camera as you adjust the angle of the glass.&nbsp; These were some early photos I took using my axial lighting device, perhaps two years ago. Today, I sometimes supplement the axial lighting with a bit of direct lighting or diffused lighting.&nbsp; It depends upon the coin and is not an exact science in my mind. Highly replicable exact positions for the glass might be desirable if photographing, many coins for item listings.&nbsp; It hs been several years since I sold any coins.&nbsp; ; )</p><p><br /></p><p>While digging through PhotoBucket for the coin images, I ran across this image sent to me by a friend.&nbsp; It shows how he set up the axial device I made for him.&nbsp; I have provided one to another friend as well.&nbsp; My first version was made from two frames which I hinged back to back.&nbsp; The version in the photo has a picture frame on top and a piece of 3/4&quot; curly maple for its base.</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g254/Larrymo123/JeffsAxialLightingSetupwithMyDevice.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g254/Larrymo123/JeffersonWhiteVersion.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g254/Larrymo123/JeffersonDollarwithCoolpix4500Co-1.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>NOTES:&nbsp; The little &#039;baton&#039; shown in&nbsp; the axial setup is a piece of dowel rod which has a gooey substance on its ends.&nbsp; That gooey stuff is made by Henley, but is sold by a variety of distributors and is called DAP™ Fun-Tak, or Loctite™ Mounting Putty, or similar.</p><p><br /></p><p>Sometimes I use intense lighting and must shield my eyes from the light.&nbsp; If shooting straight down at the coin (recommended, since a bubble level can be placed first on the surface where the coin will rest on a 3&quot; to 4&quot; piece of black velvet, the in the future only needing to place the bubble&nbsp; level on the back of the camera.&nbsp; Having both surfaces level is important and obviates the need for a copy stand.</p><p><br /></p><p>I sometimes use the device on the leaf of my desk where the light is located also, or in the top drawer or the second drawer of my desk.&nbsp; I&#039;d rather vary the setup to bring out the best in a coin, and being somewhat creative, I like to vary my approach. There are many &#039;correct&#039; ways to take good photos.</p><p><br /></p><p>I can adjust the settings on my Nikon D300 from my computer if I wish, and for the most controlled approach, it&#039;s wise not to touch the camera.&nbsp; But after the initial glee of having Live View and camera adjustments available on the computer, I don&#039;t use it much any more.&nbsp; If I were selling images to others, I might establish a set routine.&nbsp; But I usually &#039;shoot from the hip&#039; and get decent results.</p><p><br /></p><p>I buy pieces of glass to fit the 5x7 upper frame.&nbsp; I have the best float glass that I can find, and the glass shop is three blocks from home. I have the glass &#039;seamed and polished&#039; to eliminate all sharp edges.&nbsp; I am on Coumadin and wanted to reduce the chance of cutting myself, even though I am very familiar with glass.&nbsp; Dad was a glassblower for a neon sign company in his earlier years in Chicago, and I worked occasionally as a glazier, doing piecework on weekends, and glazed up to 200 lites/panes per day with window frames removed from their openings on a construction project, a subdivision .</p><p><br /></p><p>You&#039;ll want to cover the tripod upright with black velvet, too, since being brightly lit by the light which passes through the glass, the glass can reflect light from the tripod upright into the camera, so it should be covered prior to shooting with axial lighting.</p><p><br /></p><p>This is the &#039;short course.&#039;&nbsp; ; )</p><p><br /></p><p>Obviously high grade optical glass would be even better, but I have had no problems and photos do not appear to have been taken through an extra piece of glass, canted at an angle.&nbsp; It still amazes me.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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