Tricky Coin, How Is It Done? - Coin Community Forum

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Author	Replies: 6 / Views: 1,848
Teresa61 New Member United States 11 Posts	Posted 09/09/2018 1:49 pm I have a coin that runs the gamet of being extra shiny in places and yet very dull in others. I suspect possibly coin wrapper damage? Anyway, I would really like to get a good photo of it. I am new to all this and trying to learn coin photography. I have a Cannon T2i and a Tamron zoom lense with macro 5.6 AF. I also have a good sturdy tripod and other good professional equipment (I was a sports photographer in another life). I also have umbrellas and various flashes and hot shoes and etc etc. I am not interested in dragging all this stuff out though and am looking to cheat lol. I have my camera set up next to my recliner and a metal table with an adjustable tungsten light (using white balance on my camera). I also have general room lighting of daylight shade and florescent that I can use. Back to the coin, to take this kind of a photo is lighting and settings adjusted for the shine and then another photo taken for the dull and then finally both photos put through an editor to combine into one photo? Report this Post to the Staff

westernsky Pillar of the Community United States 7618 Posts	Posted 09/09/2018 1:56 pm Post a couple of shots of what you have and let's see how it goes. Report this Post to the Staff
Crazyb0 Rest in Peace 10197 Posts	Posted 09/09/2018 2:30 pm Just watch for too much glare on the shiny areas. Report this Post to the Staff
rmpsrpms Pillar of the Community United States 4037 Posts	Posted 09/09/2018 11:20 pm You can do a combination shot but it's probably more work than needed. Here is what I'd recommend: 1) make sure your lights are very diffuse. The tungsten light is out unless you can use one of your umbrellas with it. Also, better to have two lights, one coming from ~10 and one coming from ~2, than a single light. Essentially gives more diffusion and more natural directionality 2) turn the contrast down within the camera. Also, use the Neutral or Faithful style, not Standard, which is too contrasty. Contrast set to -4. 3) Go into Live View and place the white zoom box over the brightest (most reflective) area. This ensures proper metering 4) Use Aperture Priority Mode. Set the aperture to f8. 5) Adjust exposure compensation to -2/3 EV. This will help to minimize over-exposure 6) This should give you a good "raw material" shot to work with in post processing. Post the raw material shot here for comment. It might not look that great without adjustments, but if it doesn't start out good it will never be great. Contact me for photographic equipment or visit my home page at: http://macrocoins.com Report this Post to the Staff
Errers and Varietys Bedrock of the Community United States 73988 Posts	Posted 09/10/2018 01:41 am Take some picture shots, and post them here. We'll tell you if it needs improvement or not. Errers and Varietys. Report this Post to the Staff
pepactonius Pillar of the Community United States 9395 Posts	Posted 09/10/2018 2:09 pm Besides the "maximum diffusion" approach mentioned earlier, you could also try very diffuse axial lighting. This approach avoids the dark spot near the center where the image of the lens is reflected by the shiny coin. For certain brilliant proofs, this is the only approach that gives me acceptable (but strange-looking) results. An alternative would be to use a shift bellows with the coin off-center, reflecting a diffuse (and uniform) light source off the coin, without the dark spot from the lens reflection. It would be better to see an actual picture, to see how shiny your coin really is. Report this Post to the Staff
Dar Pillar of the Community United States 1476 Posts	Posted 09/18/2018 1:29 pm Report this Post to the Staff
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