Why Your Background Matters

EXIF data is still embedded in those images, and it's identical for all of them; Cygnus obviously did this carefully. I'm therefore at a bit of a loss to understand why the black background image is lighter than the grey, unless they were shot in .jpg rather than RAW and the camera's conversion engine chose to process them differently.

Perhaps it had something to do with the texture of the background. If he was using a very smooth paper it could still reflect ambient light. If the gray was a rougher texture, it would not....but I am guessing...

I am also going to go buy a package of colored construction paper (one of these days).

No, the images were not switched, altered, edited or anything else. I'm am a commercial photographer, it is what I do for a living. I have demonstrated this many times over the years for beginner photographers and in workshops around the country and it is always the same.

The distance between the camera did not change, the lights did not change, the camera was fired remotely (tethered) with me being six feet away, so I am relatively sure that I (my hands) didn't cast any color onto it.

I can only post the results. If you do not agree with the results, I can only suggest that you try it for yourself.

My setup is pretty simple.

Nikon D3 mounted on tripod and tethered to my computer.
2 Sb 900 Flashes set on either side of the coin with white shoot through umbrellas (about 2 feet away). The flashes were set to manual power 1/32 and fired with pocket wizards.

The exif info is in the images so you can see that no settings within the camera were changed.

Has any one ever tried shoot the coin with the back round being a MIRROR? My point is, as I have done this in the past, there is no color absorbancy due to the back round color..and as far as lighting is concerned, the angles of the lighting bouncing off the mirror fill the lens but seams to leave the overall coin itself well lit, but the angle of the lighting bounces off the mirror and leaves the field around the coin some what black....
Crisp..for the back round VS the field have you ever tried it? I'm on a new computer so I don't have pic's right now to present you, just wonder if any one else has tried this?....G

What I use is one incondescent bulb and one fluorescent bulb to get a wide color spectrum, then try several different picture modes that my camera takes, until I get the coin color that is very close to the coin's true color.

Any other ideas, please keep them coming