Luster Lights and Angles

lilolme

Just to let you know this post has no point to it. Just some observations from my twisted mind.

Luster Lights and Angles started about 20 years ago when I got my first and only digital camera (okay so there is one on the phone also now) to take some scenery shots when out walking / hiking. Later I thought maybe I could use it to take some coin pic's. So just started trying different things (seems I didn't want to read and learn) until I got close enough for me. Much of this is basic but I thought it might be a little fun to try to put some of them together visually. It is luster, lights and angles.

Again no purpose here and certainly not about quality photos. The first pictures here I did not crop to get a feel of what I am talking about but after that I cropped them and combined them for shortness. This could be a mess.

The setup for most of this is the camera on a short tripod, slab/coin tilted and resting on a slab stand and of course one light overhead somewhere as noted.

One of the things to notice is when the coin or light is moved the luster on the side closest to the light rotates away from the light source.

The first photo everything is centered with the light at 12 o/c and the luster goes straight across from 3 to 9. Next I move the coin over to the right but keep the light and camera in the same position and the luster rotates to 1 to 7.
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This next picture I moved the camera to the right so that it was in front of the coin and the luster rotated to about 2 to 8. This due to the camera now seeing the luster viewed directly in front of the coin and not off to the side.
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And of course it does the opposite rotation when moved to the left side.
You can do this, just hold a coin under a lamp and move it left to right and back. Or hold the coin in one place and move your head side to side (this is like moving the camera).
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The next one the coin is laying flat on the table with the light overhead at the position (clock position) noted. I don't have any setup for taking photos looking down so I just got directly above the slab as best I could and took the photo. This shows the luster moving around the coin as the light position moves.
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For this next one it is back to the original setup with the slab on the stand and the camera centered in front of it but the light is on the side at 3 o/c. However, the luster is not from 6 to 12 like the above example. It is rotated to 5 to 11 o/c. So what is happening? It might be easier to go to the center picture where the light is noted as being over the camera at 3 o/c. Here the luster is 6 to 12 o/c like the above flat slab 3 o/c photo. This is because it closely resembles the flat 3 o/c with the light next to the camera. When the light is moved to 3 o/c but over the coin the luster rotates because the top of the slab/coin is closer to the light so it rotates away as noted above.

I then moved the light well behind the camera. The luster continues to rotate but is now 1 to 7 o/c. I believe here it is no longer the vertical top to bottom distance being critical but the horizontal top to bottom since the light is much further away. The bottom of the slab being closer to the light the luster moves away, to 7 o/c, as noted above.
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How about tilting the slab on the stand. This is very similar to what many do when viewing a coin under a light. Below the photo shows how the luster rotates when the coin is tilted up on the left and then up on the right (I put some nickels between the slab and the slab stand on one side to rotate it). With the light at 12 o/c when the side that is tilted up the luster rotates down and away, again.
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Next one is somewhat similar but the slab stand is rotated left and then right. Again something similar to what some may do when viewing a coin under a lamp.
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And there is more. This time tilting the slab stand up on the backside and/or forward. The camera is not moved and not looking straight at the slab/coin when it is tilted.

Maybe the most interesting thing is how the pcgs logo hologram changes with the tilting.

I put nickels under the back of the slab stand to do the tilting. So a 4 nickel tilt has 4 nickels stacked. With the 6 nickel tilt the slab is only slightly tilted back (almost vertical). Even though the light is above there is not sufficient angle between the light and the coin surface for the camera (or your eyes) to pick up any luster and the coin appears dull. As the nickels are removed the angle to the light increase and the luster starts to reflect back at the camera. Note it stays at 3 to 9 o/c.
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This one is somewhat similar except the slab stand and slab are tilted backward by placing nickels on the front side of the slab stand. I left the nickels in the crop. The one picture with the 6 nickels below it, the slab is tilted backward so that it is flat to the table or looking straight up at the light. But it is at to steep of an angle with the camera for any luster to be seen and appears kind of dull even though the light is shining directly down on it. The others show how the luster is getting 'wider' until glare takes over.
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Yea, last one.
This is just the same normal photo but with different light bulbs.

It was interesting how much the white balance appeared off between some bulbs. It was roughly set for each bulb (for the CFL I forgot to let it warm up and WB a little different from others).

I did a focus test and wrote down what my automatic camera was using for each bulb. It varied somewhat. The fluorescent buib (long tube bulb) was in the garage and I could not get directly under it without moving the car so it is a little offset. I think it would have lit more of the coin more evenly otherwise. I use the first 3 bulb types (first photo) but not the second 3, except the halogen occasionally. I have noticed in the past with two bulbs that there is a little more difference between bulbs. Also some difference on tone color. Might need to test that out.
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I warned that there was no point to this thread.

DelawareDoons

Got some free time on your hands eh?

lilolme

@DelawareDoons said:
Got some free time on your hands eh?

Yeah, as noted it was kind of fun. Put on some music and cruised along.

DelawareDoons

@lilolme said:

@DelawareDoons said:
Got some free time on your hands eh?

Yeah, as noted it was kind of fun. Put on some music and cruised along.

Just giving you a hard time... Its neat to see the actual results of your experiment, I've never really thought to mess around like this too much, just stuck with what I learned and added wrinkles to make my own look.

FlyingAl

@lilolme said:

I warned that there was no point to this thread.

I'm afraid I'm going to have to disagree. I got a few lighting tricks from this and this may help me out with future pictures. One man's trash is another man's treasure!

jesbroken

I enjoyed the read. Thanks @lilolme
Jim

TomB

Buy Mark Goodman's book on numismatic photography. He has already done all this work for you and has images and analysis in there to help you with everything.

LanceNewmanOCC

@TomB said:
Buy Mark Goodman's book on numismatic photography. He has already done all this work for you and has images and analysis in there to help you with everything.

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many a time did i have the 2nd? edition open STRIVING to imitate his results!

emeraldATV

Very, very cool.
Great job and I admire your patience.
Just me,
If out of plastic, it could shed a better analysis.
Good job, Bubba

davewesen

that is great, have you considered a movie on a lazy susan?

lilolme

@DelawareDoons Just giving you a hard time...

Yes I got it and gave you a LOL. Thanks for the chuckle.

@FlyingAl Cool glad it worked for you.

@TomB said:
Buy Mark Goodman's book on numismatic photography. He has already done all this work for you and has images and analysis in there to help you with everything.

Totally get it and if I ever decide try to become at least an amateur photographer I am going to take that advice and get the book. But for now I am just a snap O'matic type. I do like to experiment some. For this it was just an idea in my head of past stuff and one night I got the photo junk out of the closet, set it up and then turned on the stereo so the speakers could sing to me. Then started the 'photo shoot' but I had to stop a few times as the stereo started to really talk to me so to say. So it was more about having a little fun with it.

Others thanks for the comments.