Australia 1942 halfpenny, die variety

[KurtS]

Here's an interesting coin that I found in a local shop. This 1942 Half penny happens to have the "rare" type D reverse, which is discussed here:

[Dick]

Kurt, that is one pretty pgoto. That coin has all the light it needs in every part, and no glare. Beautiful! Nice find!
Dick

[KurtS]

Thanks! I used just a single halogen light with a diffuser. Sometime my lighting will get more sophisticated, but this works for now. This was one of 6 of this variety I found in a single cache!

[coop]

KurtS: That will work for full image shots. I used to get nice ones with a ring light. NBut on close up shots where you want light and dark to show the devices, I found the ring light to be a too much light in that it flooded everything. With too intense light, even thought there is no glare the shades disappear and all you start to see if the little shimmer on the coin. That is why I like the directional light better than the flood that the ring light drowns an image with. At first I thought it was OK, but now, I find it was a mistake, except for full image photos.

[KurtS]

Yes, and a nice thing about directional lighting is you can control exactly where the highlights fall. Of course, in a professional setting, a photographer often sets up a multitude of lights, diffusers, and even reflectors to fine-tune every surface nuance. But that's the complex world of product photography, which I don't aspire to...

That said, if you notice in the above pic, the shadows have a slightly greener cast. That's because they were being filled with indirect light from the sky. Here I should use a reflector to reduce the color imbalance.

[coop]

Not an expensive adventure Kurt. It just takes a facial tissue and a piece of tape to block that sunlight from reaching the coin your shooting. Pretty simple.

[KurtS]

Coop,
Yes, perhaps that will do it! It's the indirect, scattered light I'm concerned about, so my next approach will be to fill the shadows with scattered light from the halogen.

[coop]

The only thing wrong when filling the shadows is that you've made the coin the entire same color. The light and dark areas show the devices. One color will removed the differences.

[KurtS]

Coop,
I realize we may be "splitting hairs" on two different beasts.
When I refer to color and shadow fill, I was talking about filling the shadows with the same color temperature range, not washing out the shadows.

For instance, when I shoot coins in my office, I'm dealing with two light sources--and two distinctly different color ranges. If the outside light is indirect, it's decidedly bluer than my halogen spot. What often happens is directly lit areas look warm, and any shadows turn towards blue/green. So the solution will be--block any indirect light and perhaps use a diffuse reflector to bounce some warm light into the shadows. Sure, it might flatten the shadows a bit, but that's easy to fix in photoshop using the curves function. I'd rather have a slightly flat photo any day over one that's clipped in the shadows or highlights.

There, I've taken this to the nth detail, and perhaps what I'm doing makes better sense? If I'm off-base here, shoot me an email, thanks.