Coin Lighting - a few alternative ways to do it.

[PhotosGuy]

In my quest for absurdly simple lighting examples, I thought I'd try my droplight as a source along with the "well known to be crappy" Kit lens. I'd considered also tying both hands behind my back, but since Clint taught me that "a man's got to know his limitations", I decided to give that option a pass.

The first picture:
I decided to try out a GE Energy-Saver Soft White light. If you use them, wait 'till just before you shoot to color balance, as it changes as they warm up.
Set 1: Front card only. Window light on the background (forgot) ;)
Pic 1: CU from Set 1.
Set 2: Front card + added a reflector to continue the rimlight on the top-left of the coin. Probably should have moved it in closer.
Pic 2: CU from Set 2. ( Remembered to kill the window light - a bit filtered through anyway.)
Set 3: Front card + a "tent". ;) Just a white piece of paper.

The 2nd picture:
Left pic: CU resulting from Set 3. Kit lens @ f/11

Right pic: CU w/105mm Nikkor + extention tube @ f/11 I had to move the coin away to get room to use the 105. The greater distance to subject helps to reduce the distortion resulting from using a shorter lens closer. I made no attempt to shoot these head-on. The more square to the face of the coin the lens is, the more round it will look.
I also moved the front card & tent around a bit to get a slightly different look in the reflections on the face of the coin. While it would look to be the exact same set-up, a very slight adjustment can make a huge difference. Play with it, & have fun. ;)

Again, I'm not saying that this is the best/only way to do this type of subject. I'm sure that collectors will have specific ideas of what they want to see & how they want to see them. I remember other lighting examples for coins have been talked about in this forum. Hopefully the authors will put their link to them here in "Lighting", but until then, try a search for coins & see what you can come up with.
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[am_pitbull_terrier]

Cool.... I like the one on the bottom left. Nice

[PacAce]

Those are great shots, Frank. Great lighting, too. Question: How'd you get the coins to stand like that without falling over ?

[Edit]Frank, in the 2nd picture, I like the coin on the right (or maybe something halfway between the two coins) but the darker background on the left. Would it be possible to do that just by moving the tent around?

[PhotosGuy]

How'd you get the coins to stand like that without falling over? Superglue! :D The coin is on a smoked glass surface, so clean up was easy. I wouldn't recommend it for a valuable coin. Any cleaning of them destroys the value.
Bloo Dog uses a special wax for his ring shots which would probably work well if there was no residue. Darkhorse seems to have a lot of experience with coins & might have a much better recommendation.

Frank, in the 2nd picture, I like the coin on the right (or maybe something halfway between the two coins) but the darker background on the left. Would it be possible to do that just by moving the tent around?I'm not sure what happened there. I may have moved the light a bit & it spilled on the background. More likely is that I had less light on the coin which would make the background lighter as I changed the overall exposure. EDIT: Got it! The front card was farther from the coin as I used the 105mm & extention tube = less intensity on the coin!
The 'tent' was an afterthought to provide a better rimlight. Most of the lighting effect on the face of the coin comes from the front card in this case. The tent will have some effect there as it projects past the coin towards the camera. The dark areas in the coin face come from the gap between the tent & the front card.
As I said, "a very slight adjustment can make a huge difference." A slight change in the way the front card (just white paper) hangs over at the top, or it's angle to the light or the coin, will all show up in a big difference. I'd suggest using a real card & more stable tent if you need to reproduce a series of results.
I'm glad you both liked them. Let's see some of your results! ;-)

[PacAce]

Thanks for the info, Frank. I'm really eager to give a try myself. Errr, do you have a gold coin I can borrow? ;)

[PhotosGuy]

:D:D Too late! I spent it on the 28-70 from CDS!