Both Luster And Color In A Single Shot

Using the RSD set-up. Horizontal aluminum reflector mounted between bellows and lens. Homemade lens hood. Two Jansjo lamps at 11 and 1 o'clock. This is a PL MS64 and the RSD method seems to be picking up both color and luster all in one shot. Lighting looks to be even around the peripheries but I'm still getting some flares albeit not tooooo bad. Some slight tweaking of reflector angle or light placement might bring a better result although I spent grunches of time fiddling with it already. Not to worry though. Nice challenge. Not much luck with the pinpoint lighting to enhance the luster -- I had pinched off all but a pinpoint beam of light from a 3rd Jansjo lamp using 3x5 cards but it just seemed to overexpose things even with adjustments made to the camera. Needs more fiddling.

An interesting aside is that MWB was not giving me the results I was looking for. Went to tungsten pre-set and it popped right up. Dunno why MWB didn't want to cooperate. Anyway here's the result sans post processing other than resizing.



For comparison, here's same coin using conventional set-up.

Well Ray, am starting to get some better luster after managing to get that pinpoint light working. Ended up wrapping a Jansjo with tin foil and pinching it off. My set-up looks like some kind of tinker toy/erector set. Now if I could just get rid of those flares I might come up with a better result. Can't seem to eliminate them and have pretty much come to the conclusion it's probably the slab I'm shooting through. Have you had any MWB problems with those lamps? Can't get my to work properly for some reason. No problems though when using the CFL's. Had to run this one through gimp for some contrast.

Not sure why you are having issues with MWB with the LED's. They dial right in on my setup. I'm curious what you end up with when doing the MWB. What do you use for reference? You should take a pic of your ref before and after MWB, and after tungsten WB, and post those pics so we can see what's going on.

Odd. No Canon camera I've ever owned (and that's a few) provided a satisfactory "Tungsten" preset. All were equally happy with either white (a stack of printer paper in my case) or 18% gray (the platform of my copystand) and corrected perfectly.

Note, in my experience even shifting the angle of the lighting after you set White Balance can throw the setting off slightly. The Custom image you snap has to be identical to the circumstances of the coin shot, or you can plan on dialing back the "Yellow" in postprocessing a bit.

Here's what I get using horizontal aluminum foil reflector a 1883-CC Morgan with luster and color. Two Jansjo's with MWB.

I'll post the pics of the setup on my Coin Photo Setup thread...

I'm thinking Ray's images are a pretty accurate representation of the coin. It's not unheard-of to see toning on devices. If the white balance were off, the entire image would have the color cast, not just small areas.

Your coin, Sidekick, appears to be a little heavy on the blue end, as I'd expect from white balance that was skewed towards a color temperature lower than what the camera was actually seeing. Can you post a set from what you're seeing as the "wrong" white balance? I'm beginning to wonder if your monitor settings might be a factor.

I can't see the foil having any effect on white balance settings; all the camera does is correct for the exact color it sees when you do the "custom" shot, regardless of how the light is arriving at the surface you're shooting. When you snap the "custom" setting image, are you focused on an area the same size as the coin images? And it does need to be actually focused at the surface - when I set Custom white balance, I use a toothpick to achieve focus and then remove it for the actual shutter click.

The resolution and contrast blow me away. Yeah, I'm repeating myself.

Is it me, or is the color a bit green? It seems a bit "off" on both of my monitors, which are deliberately using differing color settings as a way of evaluating photographs.