My Extremely Low Budget Setup

Perhaps the graininess can be reduced if you increase the diffusion in front of the LED lamps. Of course, too much diffusion will reduce the luster, so experimentation with light placement and diffusion is needed to get the best results.

hello ham I have not been doing any coin photography. took an interest in this thread. 2 janso lamps 1 swing lamp, with a bulb from Walmart direct light. the coin is slabbed. I am using a canon camera with a macro lens. tethering is with capture one.

I just got a new Canon this weekend, so I'd like to know which settings work best as well.

Or, maybe this will help.

rmpsrpms, have I given the information you wanted? Most likely too much? Ham

Ham...work was busy last 2 days and I missed your inputs on settings...

First, I should say that the image looks very lustrous to me! So IMO you have a good starting point.

The graininess may be due to the high level of sharpening being done in camera. You are using "Standard" style, with a sharpening level of "3". This is the camera default, and generally produces decent but not great results. Any level of sharpening in post processing will make the graininess worse.

I see you're doing exposure compensation, and this has eliminated most blown-out highlights. You have this setting correct for the shot. But with this level of compensation, the pic coming out of the camera must be pretty dark, and you're doing a lot of adjustment in post processing to brighten it, correct?

Your ISO, WB, metering, etc all look fine.

I'd recommend trying a couple different things:

1) Change the contrast subsetting to -2, -3, or even -4. This will balance the image a little better, and give you room for adjustments without blowing out highlights or crushing shadows.

2) Change to Neutral style. This turns off the aggressive contrast enhancements present in the Standard Style. Keep the default subsettings (0,0,0,0). This will give you a completely new starting point for the image, and may give you more flexibility in post processing to get what you are looking for. You may need to change the exposure compensation to -2/3 or -1/3 to keep the same level of highlights.

Usually, fewer lights is better for luster presentation. 2 lights at 90-deg (1:30 and 11:30) will excite a luster X on the coin. Fill-in with a well-diffused light somewhere between 3 and 9 depending on what areas are darkest.

Jansjos always need some level of diffusion to avoid "graininess" or "sparklies", so you should be diffusing the lights with tissue or vellum. For the fill-in light, use multiple layers.

Hope this helps and let's see any results!

hamm that is and excellent photo fix the sharping. you will see a big difference.