Photo suggestions, please.

rsdoug81

I discovered the wonders of diffused lighting yesterday. If I could capture the luster of this coin and its color at the same time, I'd be a lot happier with it. I have the whole week off to try... I also messed with my white balance a little bit, but I still have some work to do. Comments are welcome!

mgoodm3

You won't get as much luster with diffused at an angle but you can catch the color. Glare is the biggest problem that you deal with with the angled shots. Tough technique to get right with a slab involved.

messydesk

Go to a camera shop and buy a grey card to use with your white balance override. Also, turn off the flash before setting the white balance. Some cameras (mine) fire the flash when setting white balance if exposure and camera settings indicate the flash is needed.

Unfortunately, luster is best captured with hard lighting and color with diffuse. It's tough to maximize both, therefore you need to use two lights, one diffuse and one harder, and pick which part of the coin you want to show luster while the rest shows color. 'Tain't easy, and the slab will make it more difficult. Have fun!