Coin Photo Setup

It's still notable how subjectively "nice" the MZ7 shot is - people here would gush over it had you posted it to show off the coin. Even pushed past its' limit, color and resolution (where it still has any) are wonderful. All the same, the image is save-worthy as a poster child for the terms "vignetting" and "diffraction." In fact, with your permission, I'd like to save that image for future discussions of those two variables in this forum.

The Rodenstock, of course, simply leaves me weak. It can encompass a 40mm FOV, I assume?

To say the least.

There is a non-zero chance that I will be leaving the Canon camp with my next camera, and the Rodenstock has the additional advantage of being camera-independent. Rumor has it that Sony is soon to pull the trigger on an A900 successor, and the A850 has been pulled from production, indicating the new camera may slot more in that direction....if they can add Live View, solve the high-ISO noise and give me a few more fps, I may have to go that direction.

I found an old thread called "Guess the light source" where member Learjet used a flashlight to reflect off the ceiling for his light source, and it gave a very even and hotspot-free illumination. What is happening there is the reflection off the ceiling is making the source look "infinite" in size, like it's coming from everywhere, similar to natural light in a room with no direct sunlight. I decided to try to mimic the effect with the Jansjo LED lights and large reflectors. I believe the key ingredient to make this ultra-diffuse technique work is eliminating any direct illumination, so I put a horizontal reflector above the lens and shined the LEDs onto the reflector. Here's what it looks like:



Here's the same 57-D cent using this technique


For reference, here's the 57-D using a 12-source ringlight


And here's the 57-D using "Ray's Super Diffusion" (RSD) setup

I 2nd that motion. How'd you put that reflector together? The hood lens? You know I suffer from "lackapatience" Thanks...

could you take a few more pictures with that setup using some nice silver? some circulated vs, UNC? I am very curious as to see how it captures cartwheel luster

The RSD setup is the end result of countless hours spent trying to perfect my lighting. It starts with the basic Jansjo LED lights, and then I add a combination of reflectors and diffusers to concentrate the light into a horizontal, diffused slit a few mm wide and about 1-1/2 inches long. I also add a vertical black paper absorber in front of the assembly so that no light goes up into the lens. This allows me to put the setup under the lens without causing flare, and thus lets me get the light right up to the edge of the coin. Works best for raw coins, since being that close for slabs causes unwanted reflections. If you guys are interested, I'll take a couple pics. I'm thinking about building a better one soon, as this one is essentially a "tape and scraps" looking contraption, but it works well.





The reflector is just a couple of pieces of notepad paper. I cut a half-circle the diameter of the bellows from one edge, then taped them together at the front. I folded the front lip at a 90-deg angle to stiffen it so it would not sag so much.

Yep, that's why I thought it worthwhile posting. The technique as pictured gives little to no luster, but is good at showing the coin surfaces and color. One thing I didn't mention about the technique is that I think you can play a lot of games with it. Bring the lights closer to the reflectors and the source looks "smaller" and starts to produce some luster. Add a small piece of aluminum foil at a strategic point and even more luster will appear. The presentation I showed is the most diffuse the setup can produce, other than if you used a larger piece of paper and moved the lights lower so they looked even bigger...

Aluminum foil is fairly easy to work with, though I admit I have been working with a thick version of it that I got via military surplus and it's quite nice stuff, but still not thick enough to work on its own. My recommendation is to lay the foil on a flat and smooth surface, rough side down (aluminum foils have a shiny side and a rough side) and put a piece of smooth printer paper (photo paper works well...) on top of it, then burnish the foil with finger pressure until all the wrinkles are gone. Then turn the foil and paper over so the foil is shiny side down, apply a tacky glue to the rough surface, then apply another piece of photo paper or thin cardboard stock while again lightly burnishing it to make sure all the wrinkles and voids are worked out before the glue dries. Now you have a stable piece of reflector material to work with.

I have had good luck with two of these, trimmed to 3x5 card size, one at 6:00 and one at 12:00, separated by the LED light spacing, LED's at 3:00 and 9:00, with the foil pieces held about 1 to 1-1/2 inches above the coin surface. Gives a relatively even illumination but with a lot of direct incident light from the LEDs to emphasize luster. Maybe I'll put that setup back together and see how it performs with that '35 Merc.