Please Critique My Setup.

I see your point. Actually when I talk about axial lighting, it is always a combination of axial lighting with direct lighting. In my experience, axial lighting alone is very limited in use, because it may leave too many dark areas along the edge of high relief designs:



It is inadequate in highlighting the cameo designs on a proof coin:



And it is too flat, leading to the loss of the 3D effect on the photo. So in real life shooting, I always use one or two more direct lighting sources in addition to the axial lighting.

There is no doubt that axial lighting was used in the proof coin in my original post. Proof coins typically have a black field as the light is reflected to elsewhere instead of into the lens, like this one:



As far as I know, there are two easy ways to light up the field (in addition to tilting the coin to reflect the light into the lens): axial light and lens shift.Following is the result of adding axial lighting to light up the field:



(Coin photos with bright fields have become a fashion on ebay, especially from Germany.)

Even in this combination of direct lighting with axial lighting, the reflection of the slab is still a problem.My friend and I discussed all the details when he made the adjustments. The final configuration was a slightly tilted slab, to avoid head-on reflection from the slab, while still keeping the field lighted up. Even in this configuration, there is often a light haze on the slab, which can be more or less removed by increasing contrast in post processing.

Hey guys,
I did want to check back in. I have not drove off a cliff, the Covid19 did not get me.

I have, as promised, immersed myself in this. I feel that the more I learn, the more I realize how much more is needed to learn.

I started with the lights. I have tried every configuration of Jansjos. Moving them as Ray suggested did indeed improve the shots esthetically. Thank you for that Ray, but I never felt like I was capturing luster and color (in the toning) well.

I never posted any of those shots, as I kept thinking I could do better, and learn better on my own. I dove off into the RGB aspect, white balance, grey cards, white cards, tungsten setting, ping pong balls, Lumilux (?), contrast, exp compensation, and about 100 things that I can't remember right now.

If I had known this, I would have just studied dark matter and got a Nobel.

So all of this was getting better, but I couldn't shake the feeling that the lights were just not right.

I got a ring light (I know, they suck) and sure enough it sucked. The ring light just blew the coin up. I taped off individual LEDs until there were only a few left and it became manageable, but still no love. I put the ring light in the desk drawer. It was cheap.

Then a friend on another board posted a stunning photo of a Seated dime that was just spectacular. Not that I have not seen spectacular shots on this board, from Ray and Dave and many others.

But I asked that guy about his lights and he showed me his desk lights. I will attach a photo. They are adjustable for temperature and brightness, and I am currently trying to figure out how they might best be utilized.

Or maybe I go back to the Jansjos . . .

I have the program installed to tether my camera to my computer. I need some magic cord that I am supposed to get Tuesday.

So, I have dove in WAY over my head. I never was the sharpest tool in the shed, what I did have was relentlessness. I am going to need it.

But it is fun.

Below are the lights if I pushed the right buttons.

Edit: Heh heh. You can see my stockpile of Jansjos in the back.

In my opinion, it is still a lighting issue. You mentioned color and luster. These require different lighting setups. To bring out color, you need a wide light source (like the Taotronics desk lamp) close to the lens, i.e. at a high angle. To focus on luster, you need a narrow light source (like the Jansjo) at a low angle. This picture was taken with one Taotronics at 10 o'clock:



The whole coin is reasonably lit, but the luster band is too wide to be attractive.

You can use a high angle Taotronics and a low angle Jansjo at the same time. The following picture was taken with this setup:



The luster band here is much narrower than in the first picture.

You can combine weak axial lighting with a low angle Janjo, too. The cart wheel band in the picture below is highlighted, both narrow and bright:



Watch out for and experiment with the width, angle and position of the light source. Over time, you will learn what lights to use with which coins, at what position and angle.

Well, maybe I am a bit closer. Not much, but a tiny bit.

I got those hot rod LED Taotronics adjustable lights and have them set with the left one bright, and the right one is a little dimmer and farther away.

I snuck a Jansjo in there from the left to get a luster band. I have a resulting photo below.

I have a photo of the light setup below as well.

F-8 (should I try different F-stops?)
ISO 100

Post editing, I lightened it up a bit with exposure compensation, pulled a little red out (thank you Ray!) and hit the contrast a few clicks.

Please let me know what you think.

Easy enough to get the other Tao to match. Just push a button. Actually I had never considered that dimming them would change the temperature.

I really do light these Tao lights. If they don't crap out on me. They weren't exactly cheap, and the wife is gonna wonder what the heck is this $50 on the credit card bill. I had to use the card, my secret PayPal account had run out of fundage!

But I got light. Maybe instead of brightening the right one I will dim the left to keep hot spots at bay.

Indeed, now that you point I out, I see exactly what you are saying. The luster band is off quite a bit. I never would have seen it . . . .

If you recall, I indeed had trouble early on with temperature differences with the Jansjos. I paid $40 or so and hated them, as my old ones were nice and white, the new ones were a sickly yellow. You got me closer to "on point" by pointing out a few things, I got better white balance going on, but still was not happy, is why I got the Tau lights.

They are nice and white. Indeed that Jansjo is not, I should have one that is closer, still not going to be exactly right.

Thank you so much. For all of your help. I have had a ton of fun (mostly) finding all the buttons to tweak the RGB values, and learned a little about the editing program. Still lots more to learn. I appreciate all the time you have spent with this.

I will tweak a few things and get back.

First, I have not thanked CoinPhotoFan for those most excellent shots and the explanations behind them. Indeed, I used a Jansjo along with the Taotronics as you described. Funny, the results were not quite the same.

In my feeble defense (other than being an idiot) my poor old Washington is not exactly a stunning coin.

Ray, I found one of my old Jansjos that was nice and white. I feel it matches pretty well.

The Taos were overwhelming the Jansjo, so I turned them down to the lowest intensity. Better.

I pulled a little red out of it, hit the contrast a few clicks and called it.

Please, you sages, can you see what I might do differently?

Edit. There is sort of a grainy texture that is not at all present in hand. Indeed, this piece is quite bright, it has good surfaces. Any thoughts on the aspect?

Well, I crawled out from under my rock and tried a few more things. This time with a more attractive subject.

About the only thing that I did different was to lose the Jansjo (I was using is to try to get a luster band) and raised the Tao lights quite a bit higher.

I had them level with the camera so I could see the dang screen.

Oh, and I found a way to diffuse the light on those Taos. See photo below. Easy to make and easy to remove. A 2.5" cylinder of Opalux. All of my efforts with diffusion up to this point had been a disaster. I tried ping-pong balls, Opalux Cones, Opalux Smile Directors (to the best of my understanding) and all just washed the details right out of the coin. Not these, indeed, I feel that this diffuse light and maybe lighting them higher (also seen in the photo) has gotten me closer.

Still, I can't capture the "aura" that this coin exhibits in hand. It is spectacular. Trying to capture both the color and the luster is slippery. I feel I am closer than I have ever been.

Oh, and I am starting to understand a tiny bit about post editing and color balancing (the RGB stuff) the Ray was speaking of.

So, my last two shots below. The diffusers below that. Any suggestions?