Axial Lighting Canon EOS 70d. Tethered Plus Micro Focus Er

MontCollector I am still not seeing what I want to see. you are right. axial lighting takes contrast away. I have purchased a light cube. mark goodman. photographs coins like they are in your hand. I find I can get close. I think you are doing great. I think you are well on your way to where I want to be. I find copper. silver and bass not difficult. but the nickel coins they are tough. I think that all boils down to lighting. I have been thinking about shooting horizontally. I know I would have to build amount for the coin and the camera from a solid base. what I mean is a slide pipe setup. then I could take more advantage of different lighting. your idea of getting the camera away from the coin is a good one. have a great one

Shooting coins horizontally has been a challenge for me. Getting the coin to stand up straight safely can be tough. My temporary solution is to use a coin stand with a quarter and dime sitting under back to compensate for the natural lean the stand has. I use tripod that has a level on it that sits on floor in front of box on table. Also keep a small torpedo level handy.

Not very mechanically inclined and not sure I want to invest in stand as coin pics are a small part of what I use my camera for. When you live in Montana you carry your camera everywhere. I have a med size bag of lenses and filters for outdoor wildlife pics, and 4 tripods of different sizes.

Having said that if you build an inexpensive(easy to build) horizontal stand I would love a "how to" guide.

I added a sheet of white studio board next. to the enlarger stand. so I placed it at the front of the box. see how the light reflects off the white board.still not bad I like the effect.
austrokiwi yes that is SK it is the 80mm F4. here is the results.

Rocky, your pics look good. I like your latest pics best. You can see the luster and can still see the details as well. The marks in the field are showing through better as well.

i took 2 images the first one was with a 3500k bulb added to the ottlite. the second one is with the ottlite lamp and a second screw in ottlite bulb added. here are the results.

burton that dowel is wood. I purchased it at a home depot. it is and 1 inch an a quarter. set the rip fence on my table saw. dropped the blade. cut it dead center half the depth. I just slide the glass into the dowel. by using wood screws I can set what ever angle I want. I am finding that by changing. the angle on the glass. the lights has different effects on the coins. I am proably getting close to this pseudo-axial lighting. I think this is how RMC is lighting his coins. he has his Technic mastered. when it comes to lighting his coins. I think one can get there or close

so far what I have observed with axial lighting. black has one effect on a coin. while white has another effect. changing the angle of your light source. the angle of your light. the effects vary on the surface of your coin. I am going to pick up some drawing paper of various colors. see the differences. I will post the results with the various colors. have a great one