Too Much Glare? - Coin Community Forum

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Author	Replies: 5 / Views: 1,805
christian_cyclist Valued Member United States 284 Posts	Posted 01/06/2009 6:24 pm It looks like it's my turn to join the chorus of first time coin shot critique requests. Well, actually, this is like my fifth coin shot but my first serious one. I'd like to photograph my coins as I work on cataloging them and I'd like to develop a good method. I'm having problems with too much reflective glare. If I reduce the shutter speed then I get a dark picture. Here's a cropped photograph of my attempt. http://www.geocities.com/christian_...diffuser.jpg It's a circulated Washington quarter. Nothing special. My camera is a Fuji E550 and I run in manual mode so I can control the shutter speed and aperture settings. The ISO is set to 200 and I use a 2 second delay timer so I don't capture the shutter-button wobble. The picture was originally 12M in "fine" mode. I cropped it down to what you see and saved it with a 95% quality setting using Paint.NET. I had two fluorescent lamps, one on the left and one on the right of the coin. The coin is covered with an opaque, but somewhat see-thru, tupperware bowl. A hole at the top of the bowl was cut for the camera to see the coin. The intent of the tupperware bowl was to diffuse the light from the lamps so I don't get any hot spots. How can get rid of this glare and capture more detail? Thanks! -- Boris Report this Post to the Staff

Tim Stroud Pillar of the Community United States 2661 Posts	Posted 01/06/2009 6:58 pm Try covering your lamps with a couple of sheets of copy paper. This may help diffuse the light a little more. Report this Post to the Staff
Learjet Pillar of the Community Australia 655 Posts	Posted 01/08/2009 2:11 pm A long narrow tube painted matt black on the inside (like an extra long lens hood) should take care of glare. Report this Post to the Staff
mAnD New Member Canada 18 Posts	Posted 02/08/2009 1:53 pm or use a PL/PLC lens that's also work Report this Post to the Staff
phdezra Valued Member United States 60 Posts	Posted 02/09/2009 8:53 pm cyclist - have you tried another shot with more diffusing? I'd be curious to see a second photo. Report this Post to the Staff
christian_cyclist Valued Member United States 284 Posts	Posted 02/10/2009 01:31 am Yep, I have been taking plenty of pictures! :-) I have roughed up the translucent Tupperware bowl with some course sand paper and I have moved the lights further out. Depending on the coin, I can get some beautiful shots. Depending on the coin's material, the surface details get washed out and I have to play around with dimming the light that makes it to the outside of the Tupperware bowl. Sometimes I'll use my hands. Other times I'll put a stack of unused flips to the side of the bowl to block some light. -- Boris Report this Post to the Staff
	Replies: 5 / Views: 1,805

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