Just Starting Out - The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

SD...such blasphemy, and on Christmas Eve! Not really of course. Kleenex (or perhaps Scotties?) are great for diffusers on the Jansjos, but (to remind everyone!) don't try that technique on anything else (like halogens) or you'll start a fire! However, I can't get behind your advice on Aperture Priority or Exposure Compensation. I couldn't live without them! But every photographer ends up with their own "best practices" techniques, and if you can work more directly with the camera, histograms, etc then no worries at all. I just want the camera to figure out the shutter speed for me, so I use Av and EV settings extensively.

I have been working at my coin photography off and on for the past month or so and feel I am making some progress. I have been experimenting with axial lighting on the problem coins and that is helping on some but not others.

I am shooting through a piece of glass with a single 60 watt incandescent bulb at anywhere from 10 o'clock to 2 o'clock at a very low angle from the coin. I am not sure about the angle of the glass. I have it propped up with soup cans on either side. On some of the shots I block the light from directly hitting the coin and others I do not. I have found that I like the direct light better as the outlines of the devices are quite dark otherwise. All of the coins below were shot with the light hitting the coins directly.

The problems I've had with using axial lighting are primarily difficulties in getting the light at the correct angle to coin while also covering the entire coin with ambient light, very slow shutter speeds and getting the white balance correct. I also find that there is usually a hot spot on the coin that I can't get rid of no matter where I move the light. Diffusion in this instance does not seem to work well because it flattens the contrast too much for my liking and leaves the image too dark. Does anyone ever use two large lights when axial lighting?

Here are some examples of coins I have previously posted here:


Of all the coins I posted previously this one looked about the worst. With the axial lighting this coin looks much more like it does in hand, plus I love the way the devices are brought to life.





I like the way this one turned out, but I'm not entirely sure it accurately portrays the coin. This is a circulated coin and this photo makes it look like those circulated coins you see on E-bay under titles screaming: BU Mint State GEM. I am still trying to figure out how to strike a balance between photographing the coin looking like it does under a 20x loupe and one where the photo has clearly been manipulated. (This is a great learning tool for spotting manipulated photos on E-Bay.)




This is one of the few well-circulated coins that came out nicely with axial lighting that I have shot over the past few weeks. It is certainly much better than the previous image I posted in this thread. Again I like how the devices stand out. It seems to me that the Standing Liberty quarters are very difficult to get looking like they do in hand.




This one I do not like so much. It has sort of a surreal look to it. I am still having trouble shooting gold coins. In that regard I suppose it is good that I don't have many of them.

In general I had trouble getting good shots of smaller coins because as my lens got closer to the glass I was getting a reflection off of it and if I shot the coins from farther away I was not filling the sensor. Anyone have ideas on correcting this?




I want to share a three more I have not previously posted here.

These two are highly reflective coins and I generally like the way they came out. They do have some minor lighting issues, but these are very difficult for me to get right. Again the surfaces are probably look a little better in the photos than they are in hand.







And this is probably my favorite shot of the bunch. I was able to get some of the luster and toning and the devices really pop as well.