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 Replies: 8 / Views: 2,070 |
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Valued Member
Denmark
69 Posts |
Hello I am new to this forum and it was my googling on axial lightning and coin photography that brought me to this forum. I'll show you tree pictures taken using axial lightning. The problem is that the background (white paper) becomes gray due to the weak light from the axial setup (not actually a setup yet). I want to end up with a well light coin on a white background. Dark gray background  A little lighter gray background but still not white (and yes - I have seen the ghosting on top of the coin  )  On this one I used a photo lamp with a white cloth. I put the coin on the cloth to create some back light. Then I overexposed the coin a lot avoid a black image of the coin. But it is just not a nice picture.  I know I could do some photoshopping but it is difficult to separate coin from background when the background more or les have teh same color as the coin. Any suggestions? |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
830 Posts |
First,  to the Forum! Now, the only way I know of to create the effect you're looking for is to use the elliptical marquee tool in Photoshop (or Photoshop Elements) to "cut out" the coin, and then move it onto a solid background. That's what I've done for the vast majority of my coins. Your pics #1 and #2 are quite nice as-is, in my opinion. Also, just my opinion, but I think silver and gold coins look best on a black background. Good luck with your efforts! And enjoy the Forums  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
860 Posts |
Hi,
Would be a little more revealing if the same coin was used in the tests. Also, is the "spot meter" size perhaps too small and only incorporates the coin surface and not the background. Not saying that it should, as the surface of the coin is more important by far than the background. Sometimes, changing the color balance setting in the camera for the background may also help equalize. I like the second setting best.
Jim
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Valued Member
 Denmark
69 Posts |
Hi - thanks for the comments. @ AuldFartte That's how I do it now, but most of the time it is difficult to make a clean selection between coin and background, because of the gray background that kind of melt in with the coin. It also takes a lot of time. I also prefer black background to my gold and silver coins but after starting to use the "Exact Change" program for my coins I think white background would be better for the reports. @ desertgem You are of cause right. It would have been better for the test to use the same coin. If I get the time this weekend I will do a little more experimenting with the lighting and camera settings. More comments and ideas are most welcome  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5318 Posts |
I like your first two photos a lot--very nice!  I would set shoot the photo for proper exposure and detail for the coin, and do the background in photoshop. Of course, cropping can be difficult with milled edges, but there are some tricks you can do. Sometimes it works shoot an object against a distinctly colored background (such as blue or green) and select it easily afterwards. There's a problem with doing this when the background color is reflected on the object. I haven't done axial lighting yet, so I'll have to experiment myself. Good luck. |
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Valued Member
Canada
122 Posts |
I just use my desk as the background. Depending on the lighting, it ends up looking between ebony and a light cherry colour, which contrasts the silver-(coloured  ) coins nicely. Other colours look fine on the desk too, generally having a light cherry colour. I leave the background the way it is, and just crop the image to the coin. I have to say your first picture looks the best, I don't know what to say about the background if there's so much variation between how the coin looks. Edited by rogers
12/02/2008 1:17 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7123 Posts |
your images are great , have you tried elevating the coin from the background so that your field of focus becomes the coin rather than the background ?
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Valued Member
Denmark
69 Posts |
Thank's again for the comments. I have been working a little more on my pictures and coins. First thanks to you all on the nice comments on my pictures. Yes Metalman I have tried to elevate the coin from the background. I saw some pictures on the net doing it that way. And it do create a nicer background. But I think that I have found the background that I'll work with at least for a while. I had some black cloth/velvet/felt ? and when I use that as background I get an even black color and the coins usually stands out from the blask so that it is fealy easy to change background if needed. I have some new examples that I would like to show you. 1 krone 1892 with the original black background  Same coin + a bucket of white on the background done in photoshop (for my Exact Change program)  20 kroner 1909 gold coin  IIII Marck / 1 kroner 1672 dark but looking nice I think.  I am shooting all pictures in RAW format with a canon EOS 400D and Canon EF-S 60mm The light source is 5000k 30w. I must say that there are some great coin photos in this CC forum and I am learning a lot from reading the forum. |
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Moderator
 United States
23522 Posts |
The background did the same thing to me with my DSLR setup, even when I'd just used it to set white balance and in direct instead of axial lighting.
If you shoot around f/8 or f/10 with that setup, DOF should be shallow enough to drop the background out anyways. Obviously, it's a matter of personal preference, but I like the grey backgrounds with silver better than white. Black works for everything, but for me white only works with copper and gold.
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Replies: 8 / Views: 2,070 |
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Posted 11/20/2008 3:13 pm
