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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Denis Richard, post: 4519588, member: 112673&quot;]As a professional numismatic photographer, might I offer a few additions and clarifications to the comments above. </p><p><br /></p><p>First thing, <span style="font-size: 16px"><font face="Verdana"><span style="color: rgb(20, 20, 20)">a black piece of felt (?) absorbs most of the light, but black velvet is&nbsp; the best material. Perhaps that&#039;s what was intended and &quot;velt&quot; was an auto corrected issue.</span></font></span></p><p><br /></p><p>More importantly, unless you want a dark and moody coin shot, don&#039;t photograph your coin on a black background. As Roerbakmix mentioned, t<span style="font-size: 16px"><font face="Verdana"><span style="color: rgb(20, 20, 20)">hat black background absorbs all the light, including the light you need to illuminate the edges and face of your coin. </span></font></span></p><p>Instead, photograph it on a white background and in post production, your editing software, cut it out and place it on a black background, or any background of your choice.&nbsp; Shoot it on white and place it on black, like the images below.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1119651[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1119648[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1119649[/ATTACH]</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><br /></p><p>Next, axial lighting in a static form, like all of the YouTube videos show, is only the beginning. To shoot&nbsp; images like mine, you need to rotate the glass in 2 directions, in small increments for maximum effect. If the glass were a plane, it needs to rotate it in the pitch and yaw positions. You also need to rotate the coins while looking at them thought the view finder.</p><p><br /></p><p>Which way is up?&nbsp; Everyone seems to think you need to place the coin upright, as you&#039;d look at it in the final image, and shoot it that way.&nbsp; Not the case at all...&nbsp; I rotate the coin, and the glass until the light falls on it the way I want to see it. Sometimes that&#039;s upside down.&nbsp; In post production, my editing software, I cut it out you also rotate it to the final view position.</p><p><br /></p><p>I agree with placing the coin above the background. More than anything, it defocus&#039; the background, which is important when selecting / isolating the coin image. I use the clear plastic cap from one of my wife&#039;s pump hairspray bottles. I have several sizes, depending on the size of the coin. The clear plastic lets light pass through it and doesn&#039;t cast a shadow. My coins sit about an inch above the rotator top.</p><p><br /></p><p>I understand many people aren&#039;t handy with photo editing software. It does have a big learning curve, but the unfortunate fact is, it is essential to quality coin images. Every image, no matter how perfect in camera, still needs some editing.</p><p><br /></p><p>oh.. I assume you are shooting raw files and not jpgs. If not, that&#039;s a topic for a different discussion.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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