Photo Help

Boosibri

No matter what I try I cannot seem to bring the color out on this piece. The straight on shot shows the ancient color on this piece however my shots done with two halogen bulbs at high angle cannot bring out the color.



Any thoughts?

astrorat

How about rotating the coin to determine the best angle to view the surface color and then try and replicate the angle under the camera? You can then use software, like Photoshop, to adjust the "roundness" back to normal.

ricko

Of course, I have no suggestions (being photographically incompetent)... That picture

looks awesome to me - though I realize that experienced individuals look for much more

than I can see. Cheers, RickO

Flatwoods

Diffusion may help. It would certainly give a different look.

Halogens are tough to diffuse though.

I like halogen lights. They produce great images.

I quit using them because they just get so hot and are hard to work with.



If I was going to shoot with halogens I would keep some Jansjo led's as backups for coins like this.

drwstr123

There's always a shot at axial lighting...

Desert Moon

Nikor T/S Lens





Buy the lens in the attached, read Goodman's section on what they can do - essentially you can tilt the coin strongly toward the light and then with the T/S lens bring it into focus. Brings out the color and luster.



Best, SH

derryb

lights have to be angled so that there is no reflection. This calls for decreasing the angle. I use three janscos with diffusing material taped over them. Careful when attaching diffusing material directly to lamps. If they are not LED they will burn the material.

commoncents05

Send it to Phil.



-Paul

Boosibri

Originally posted by: commoncents05

Send it to Phil.



-Paul

I had that thought

AUandAG

Originally posted by: commoncents05

Send it to Phil.



-Paul

Or Todd

Boosibri

Or John B

lkeigwin

What you want is going to be difficult but not impossible, if you're okay with small compromises.



Axial lighting is what you need (as illustrated by drwstr123) but the problem is the slab will reflect so much light the photo will be very washed out. If you use diffusion (tissue paper, e.g.) to correct light and dark spots on the image, and then post-process with lots of contrast you can overcome a lot of this.



An alternative to axial lighting is to tilt the slab and move the halogen light until you get similar direct lighting to the lens. That is what I did below for a customer who wanted a shot revealing all the color. Again, diffuse and post-process with contrast. Of course you're going to have focus issues because of the slab tilt. So raise the aperture very high to get the best possible depth of field.



Were the coin raw you wouldn't have to dance around like this. The slab is very limiting.

Lance.

rmpsrpms

Look on the web for my posts describing "smile directors" and how to calibrate them for maximum color definition and minimal direct reflection glare. You still won't get as much color compared to a raw coin with axial or pseudo-axial lighting but you will get a lot more than in the second photo.