what is the best photographic technique to capture toning?

my3cents

I have several nicely toned Barber's with beautiful irradessant(sp?) toning. The problem is, I can see the colors when I hold and rotate the coin but I have tried at least 50 or 60 times to capture those colors with a camera and have yet to meet with success.

PLEASE offer any suggestions.

airplanenut

white paper between the bulb and coin

mgoodm3

slabbed? or not?

my3cents

raw

my3cents

with the paper:

Peaceman

Ever try in front of your computer monitor with the lights off......

mgoodm3

A couple ways.

1)Lots of light. Light directly over the coin (90 degrees) take your picture at an angle with the camera as close to the light as you can get.

2)Lots of light. put the camera and the light at the same angle on opposites sides of the coin so that you see the brightest of the light when you look at the coin through the camera. (use the coin as a mirror to see the light).

my3cents

direct angle with no paper - same coin:

Casey

Nice looking Barber!

MacCrimmon

Try this

You will need to use an OTT-Light or a natural type of white light or adjust the white balance of your camera. Some have said the Reveal bulbs work well but I've never used them.

I do get very true colors with this technique and the OTT. What you may or may not pick up well is the combo of lustre and color in the same shot. Although this can be compensated somewhat by using Photoshop Elements or a similar image editing software.

Usually, increasing or decreasing the brightness of the coin and increasing the contrast just a few steps will bring out some of the lustre, but of course, nothing like the naked eye perceives. Good luck.

CarlWohlforth

Looks like the paper helped. I find holding the coin at a large angle to the camera helps. I get the best colors when I use indirect natural light.