Lighting angle effect on variety images
I often experiment with lighting angles to get the right "look" to the photograph. This is especially important with variety images, since often the shadow detail is what allows you to see the particular variety characteristics best. Below is an animation showing a 1944-D RPM#5, which is a difficult to see RPM due to its shallow repunching. The animation is a composite of photos taken at different lighting angles, from very low (<10-deg from horizontal) to very high (>80-deg from horizontal). The coin has been sitting around on my desk for a while, so has a bunch of dust on it, but notice that only the low angle lights show the dust clearly. The high angle lights show the color better, with good contrast on the features.

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Comments
I like that!
Single photos are just too static. Anything someone can do to make a photograph more dynamic adds to the presentation.
That being said....I can barely take a single photo that I like. I can't imagine the difficulty in getting something this good.
@rmpsrpms
The way that's being done is very interesting... is it done with a app?
Nice! But, buy a really good sable brush....
I agree, and simple animations like this help make things much clearer than single pictures.
You mean, with a cellphone? No. But I did use an online animation tool, ezgif.com, to merge the images and create the animated gif.
So true, but then my point about the dust only showing up using low-angle lighting could not be made.
http://macrocoins.com
Also to pick up the surfaces of a proof coin behind plastic. Lighting is everything. Great topic. The coin illustrated is a proof 68 in a pcgs rattler.

Cool! And oh so true...
so I read your write up and starred at the quarter. It been a long Monday
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@rmpsrpms
Thanks for the info.
Yes, proofs are super-sensitive to lighting style: "Low" angles give a darkfield look; "High" angles give brightfield; and "Middle" angles give the mixed-field look shown on your 1956.
http://macrocoins.com
How many photos did you have to take to create a contrasting image like this?
It took 9 photos for this animation.
http://macrocoins.com
Neat animation. Thanks for sharing.
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It looks like frosted with the tinniest snowflakes....
Great effects with the lighting... The effects of lighting has long been discussed here and your 'animated' sequence clearly shows these effects. Cheers, RickO
Very nice lighting angle transition!
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