Reflected Light

I thought of a better way of wording to describe what, I believe, is unique with the reflectors I am using. They are translucent, but obviously, having a white pigment, not as translucent as un-pigmented polypropylene. They are not "hard" reflectors like Aluminium foil. The best analogy I can think of is they are akin to using a cloud as a reflector, with the added advantage of constant absorbency, transmission and reflection of light.

With direct lighting my lights with snoots (a light funnel) are producing 3500K, with the reflectors that temperature drops( from the coins perspective) to 3000K. I would not be surprised if the white pigment in the boards is also fluorescing slightly with the lighting I am using ( LED warm white). I suspect the pigment is titanium dioxide ( a UV absorber) which does fluoresce at 410 nm.

These reflectors also perform well with ordinary coins...for example see the following picture. The lens Sony FE 90mm F 2.8 Macro G is new so I didn't hang that huge white reflector off its filter threads. Instead I used the earlier set up ( in the manner suggested by rmpsrmps) and you can see that I didn't quite get the lighting right for the obverse.

As an aside; The lens, designed to perform with high mega-pixel sensors( 42mp plus), is performing almost on par with my printing nikkor 105mm. The printing nikkor at 1-1 has a very slight edge on it. The advantage the printing nikkor has is so slight that for Sony E-mount owners the sony 90mm may actually be the better buy.

I not sure if I missed your point or was more focussed on pointing out what I like about this technique. My rig has been developed so I can switch from one lighting technique to another. So in that respect we are on the same wavelength, For the results I like the white reflectors but they are never going to be my only tool. You last response has now switched me to thinking about constructing some aluminium foil reflectors.... the effort is minimal and it will be interesting to try again after so many years of ignoring Aluminium foil. Our differences in approach and preferences can also be due to the coins we focus on.Copper is not my usual subject matter Old silver is what I am photographing the most.

Like you I use a ring light ( currently a Microscope ring light) or on axis lighting for other coins. Lenses with long working distances ( such as my oly 135) see a ring light giving results very close to those of on axis lighting. I have some preference for that lens when wanting to avoid the bending of the image light path by a beam splitter. { Even more preference since I have found it copes quite happily with the demands of a high resolution sensor} That said when it comes to rainbow tones, with my skills and techniques, on axis lighting works best. With gold, to date, on axis and ring lights are, for me the most successful lighting approaches. I have been experimenting with diffusion to see if I can develop another technique

Yes here is one take on that approach, of a number I use :



Its one of the small cutting boards with a circle cut in the middle which was then covered by nylon diffusion material. I direct the lights( using the snoots minus the honeycomb) to shine through the "window". One side of the board is left white the other is covered with camera flock. I have a variety of these boards, constructed in pairs, and I can mix and match boards according to how each coin responds to the lights. the board here has one hole I have another pair of boards with five smaller holes and I will be adding a pair of boards with two holes. Another pair has no holes just one side black the other white. I constructed these boards because the commercially available diffusers and reflectors were too large for coins ( as well as too expensive). As you can see from the photo it will be very simple task to construct a pair of Aluminium foil covered reflectors. The local supermarket staff must wonder why I buy so many of those boards (LOL)

I will try in a few weeks. I will make the aluminium reflectors this coming week... then I am off to Jordan for a couple of weeks( with some coin hunting planned) Then I will see if my hand is steady enough with the dremel

Looks like the majority of the light is coming in at a low angle rather than reflected from above. This might be why you don't like it as it's not presenting the coin in a natural way. Did you modify the 45-deg diffusers to have foil, or the horizontal diffuser? I found that the foil increases illumination so I would have expected a more vertical lighting presentation if the horizontal had been "foiled". Anyway, this image is also still showing too much diffusion, as indicated by the lack of surface luster. Couple problems to fix.

Here are the evening shots. The first combined picture shows two shots that were taken with the aluminium foil reflectors placed horizontally so that light is reflected down on the coin. I spent some time setting up both shots. I even used two boards covered with camera flock to block any side lighting with the aim of trying to maximize the amount of light being reflected down on the coins. I don't like the left picture that much it has some spectacular highlights but it just doesn't appeal to me.

The right hand picture, the one I like, was taken after the left, but I adjusted the angle of the two reflecting boards until I had the coin looking they way I liked.

a different approach with alumium foil:





the pyramid is foil lined and sits over the top of a medal light. Coin is placed on the medal light:

I am not looking for an in hand look but a look suitable for article and book illustrations. Hence my different approaches. Still not sure if I like aluminium. I had tried that pyramid was plain white and to be honest a polystyrene cup with the bottom cut out of it did the same job with a lot less hassle. I was planning to dump it and this thread made me think of one last attempt with sticking foil on the inside. It was fun trying it out not sure I will use it again but for now that pyramid won't be going in the Rubbish tin.