Halogen lights for photgraphing coins?

northcoin

Anyone have success using halogen lights when photographing coins?

coppercoins

Only if they are properly diffused. Straight light from any bulb, especially halogen, will create "burn spots" on the photo, areas of highlight that are pure white. Diffusing the light (like a lamp shade) will "flood" the light, getting rid of that problem.

Another problem I have heard of with halogen light is that it tends to give a yellow or brown cast to the coin. There's not much of a way to get rid of that, just the nature of the light.

northcoin

Thanks for the quick response. Sometime back I "invested" in a close-up 3-D camera and at some point in time have a goal of taking 3-D photos of my coins which can then be looked at in a 3-D viewer. Wonder if anyone else has gone this route?

TomB

You can try to eliminate the yellow cast by buying a spectrum corrected blue filter. For my 35mm camera that means I use a number 80A blue filter over the lens.

nwcs

I use halogen lights all the time without any problems. The key to any light source is to set up your camera with the right light source indicator. Most digital cameras have easy controls for this. Set it for incandescent and most of the odd colorations go away without reveal bulbs. I diffuse my light with a sheet of xerox paper. No problems with it. Here is an example: