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 Replies: 6 / Views: 1,756 |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10045 Posts |
So I'm getting back into photographing coins, and thought I'd try this ancient Greek coin. This is a good subject for lighting, because of its high relief and great patina. I used 2 Jansjo lights, one light hitting the front of the face, the other on the neck and hair. I'm also using some diffusion in front of each light, made from plastic that covers fluorescent lights. In this shot, I'm liking how the light brings out the profile and other details. Next time, I'm going to try some more diffusion to better model the figure. Like most of my macro shots, this one's hand-held f7.1, 1/500, ISO 400.   |
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Valued Member
440 Posts |
Pretty coin is that the actual color?
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Moderator
 United States
23522 Posts |
Staggering clarity. Is it possible, DVC, that your camera's internal settings are applying a little too much sharpening to the image? It could just be the irregular surface of the coin, but the image almost looks too sharp.
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Bedrock of the Community
 United States
10045 Posts |
Dave, I agree that details might be a little over-emphasized here--the Nikkor 60mm micro picks up everything. I think taking them back a notch would show off the lighting better--thanks for the critique.  I work with RAW files that aren't tweaked too much in the camera--I leave sharpening to post-processing. I have been mostly shooting natural subjects, where applying "smart sharpen" in PS usually improves the visual interest. But for coins, looks like I gotta go light.  Edited by DVCollector
07/05/2014 12:10 pm
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Moderator
United States
23522 Posts |
Gotcha. And the surface is pretty granular - direct lighting and digital imaging will tend to emphasize that, giving it the appearance of oversharpening.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10045 Posts |
Quote:
Pretty coin is that the actual color? It captures the spirit of the colors, although light source plays a large part too. Here's the same coin under overcast daylight, shot using my old Canon P&S: The shot below has a nice transition of tones and patina color, but real lack of highlight emphasis; I'll be trying to get a little more punch in future shots--which I'll post to this thread.  Edited by DVCollector
07/05/2014 5:05 pm
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10045 Posts |
Here's another picture from today. I think it better models the figure. Obviously, taking shots of ancients isn't an automated process--it involves a lot of tweaking of lights to best define details. Using diffusion and a (small) amount of sharpening--it's just how the lens picks out detail.  |
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Replies: 6 / Views: 1,756 |
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Posted 07/04/2014 8:10 pm
