Making progress with camera (nice rainbow toners)

RGL

Once I get my lighting set up finalized, I think I will be OK ... need to diffuse the light and get some Reveal bulbs, I figure...

SUPERCARCOINS

.more powere to you man.................these look pretty good !
Those reveal bulbs - you heard they are worth a try ? Itried that glass pane @ 45 degrees and had little luck , but am still trying. Some of the pix these guy's get are really stunning !

stev32k

One thing you can try is using a white lamp shade as a diffusion dome. If you are using a single flash put a piece of aluminum foil on the outside of the shade opposite the flash. Position the camera square and level over top of the shade and set the flash about even with the coin on the outside of the shade. You normally have play with the distance between the flash and shade to get just the right lighting. This set-up also works pretty well with a copy stand and fixed lights. If you don't happen to have a white lamp shade a circle of plain white paper can do a fairly good job also.

airplanenut

Paper works fine to diffuse the light--white paper. Here's a similar coin:

stev32k

I've found it is very hard to get an accurate image of a coin, and there are no cookie cutter methods. Every coin is different in terms of surface reflectance, hue, tone, and amount of detail. I have several home made "light boxes" that are just cardboard boxes lined with white paper, or aluminum foil, and one that has aluminum foil covered with wax paper. Each gives a slightly different color temperature which can made a huge difference in the image. Just takes practice and a little trial and error.

RGL

Thanks, indeed sounds like a lot of experimentation ...