Seems like my best pictures are when

JimTyler

I turn the coin upside down. What’s up with that ?

crazyhounddog

Move your lights.

abcde12345

Your choice of background also makes a difference.

asheland

Indeed the color in the backround can make a huge difference!

TurtleCat

You could use more lights positioned more around the coin. Also center weighted metering can help ensure your background doesn’t impact the exposure calculation as much.

airplanenut

Two common reasons I see:

1- If the coin is slightly angled in the holder

2- The design of the coin enables more lustre to be illuminated with lighting from one side over the other. This is especially true if you use a copy stand or other setup which prevents your ability to light the coin from around 4-8:00. You may have found that lighting to be best if you could move your lights there, but since your lights can't be put there, turning the coin upside down means the bottom is lit when the lights are at 10-2:00.

yosclimber

@asheland said:
Indeed the color in the backround can make a huge difference!

If you are using Automatic White Balance.
The background won't matter if you have White Balance set correctly.

Eagleguy

Turn your camera upside down to compensate

golden

Seems like my best pictures are when I let Todd take them.

joeykoins

"It seems like my best pictures of toned coins are..." when that dreaded glare has to be right smack dead center of the coin. Sometimes this is the only solution to bring out the colors.

ike126

It Sure looks like a nice buff though even if it's upside down lol