Coin Photography: how do you take photos of coins with reflective surfaces?

I need some advice on how to take pictures of coins with reflective surfaces, such as proofs. How do you stop the coin from reflecting the camera? Thank you.

 

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It really depends on your set up. I tend to blast the coin with too much light and then change the settings.

 

I’ve never had an issue with the camera/phone reflecting on the coin. What I have issues with is finding the right angle and placement of the lights so the coin is lit but the lights aren’t reflected.

 

A diffusing filter should help. Try a sheet of the the thinnest sheet of toilet tissue to see if it helps and if it does, there are photography filters.

 

As @desertgem said, you can use a diffused light. Alternatively you can experiment with reflected light. A piece or pieces of white paper bouncing the light toward the coin. This was taken that way with more success than other types of lighting. Even then, you can see that the reflected light needed to be adjusted. This was taken while the coin is still inside the original packaging so it is quite effective.

 

I am a simple photo guy. I use a small black box as a background to set the coins on and take my photo. If there is glare, I simply stick something under the box and tilt more and more taking successive photos until the glare is gone.... But then I just take cell phone photos.

 

@green18 might help. He has posted some great images of proofs.

 

Try an axial lighting setup

 

Most kind of you to say, Larry. My humble achievements pale in comparison to your many fine photo works........but I shall attempt to lend a hand.

The one thing that I do is to attach a square piece of white cardstock between the lens hood and the lens, and then to shine the lighting array up into the the cardstock.


And take lots of pics......only then you'll be half satisfied. I think Bob (@robec) needs to check in. His work is exquisite and very much admired by all here on these forums.

 

@green18, I very much appreciate the too kind words. I basically do what you did in regards to the reverse proofs. Instead of card stock I used a regular piece of white typing paper to achieve a softer look of the device (in this case Miss Liberty's head). Without some sort of diffusion for the lights hot spots and glare will be all over the reflective area.

In my case I'm using warm toned LED lights. Even though the color temperature is more on the amber side (3000˚K) with the correct white balance the color will be correct. I cover the light head with ping pong balls cut in half. This spreads the light a little more evenly. Without the diffusion the light head puts out a strong, narrow beam of light, resulting in hot spots or white outs. I'm using 3 lights, so that's a bunch of hot spots.

With the reverse proof I went even further and added another step, basically the same step @green18 used with his card stock. For me, I used white paper and watched on live view through the computer monitor as I moved it around the lights, careful not to block the lens, until I saw the look I was going for.

Without the white paper deflecting the light on to the coin, the bright areas on the coin looked OK, but it wasn't the watery, molten metal look I was hoping for. The lighting was still too harsh.



Using the white paper as a deflector soften the lighting and gave Miss Liberty's head a much more appealing look, though it did make the overall coin look darker. With more practice that aspect could probably be rectified.

With the added deflector you have a choice of a couple of different looks, one like the above with more watery features or one that looks like shiny ebony.





There is no set placement of the new diffuser. It's all trial and error. Move it around until you see what you like. The lights also can't be straight up and down. They need to be at around a 45º angle and fairly high, but not above the lens itself.

Of course this only works if the coin is raw. If the coin is slabbed there are too many obstacles to overcome. If the coin glare doesn't get you the slab glare will.

As for regular proofs, the same thing applies with slabbed versus raw, especially if you have any color to capture. It is next to impossible to capture colorful fields from brilliant proof coins if they are slabbed. It is a little easier if the coin is raw, but still difficult.

You could give the coin a little tilt, but too much will leave most of the coin out of focus. I put a tiny tilt on colorful proofs and move the lights around until you light the fields the way you want them. Just moving the lights up or down or change the angle of the light head will give several different looks.




If you are just working with a silver proof, such as the latest Peace and Morgan with all the white frosted cameo, don't even worry about the fields. Just put the coin flat with the lens flat and the lights at a bit of an angle. You will come out with a nice black and white shot.. Easier if done raw, but this kind of a proof shot is fairly easy if slabbed as well.



To be clear, this isn't a bible for everyone. This is what works for me.

 

While I agree it is impossible to capture the same range of colors in a single image with a slabbed coin that you can with a raw coin, it is, however, quite possible to capture almost all of the toning with properly placed lights. The images below are slabbed coins shot in my studio using two studio lights, with 40-degree grids, pointed almost straight down on the coin.



To put the images above in perspective, below is the PCGS True View image of the same coin, photographed raw by PCGS.



As others here have pointed out, the angle of the light is critical. Below is the raw file, right out of the camera, and you can see the edges of the light reflection just off the edges of the coin face. This is as close as you can get to axial lighting without glare from the plastic.



Also worth noting is that it's impossible to get the best lighting for both the case and the coin in a single image. I always shoot them separately and combine them.

 

You can shoot a mirrored coin straight down and not see the camera if you're using axial lighting. To demonstrate, I found the image below on eBay, and it illustrates the perils of shooting a mirror finish coin straight down in regular light. You can see the reflected skin tones of the hand of the guy who took the picture.



The secret is it's not about moving the camera, tilting the coin, or moving the lights because photographers don't light a mirror, they light what it is reflecting, and that should inform your lighting and camera placement decisions. If you photographed a mirror on a wall, the only light you'd see hitting it would be on the mirror frame, the rest would bounce away. If you were in a dark room the mirror in the photograph would be black. You have to light what the mirror is reflecting to make the image work. Same thing with a mirror coin. For this reason, I often place a white card in the path of the coin reflection to add texture and a gradient across its surface.

Below are two angles of the same left coin as in the eBay photo above.
This one is straight down with axial lighting and next is the rest of the set.



The image below is also shot straight down (without axial lighting) but the coin is slightly angled. The light is to the left and a carefully placed light diffuser is acting as a white card in the light of the reflection. A white reflector is placed behind the coin to light the rim. The light gradient on the mirror background, and the texture in the rest of the coin, is a result of the distance the diffuser is placed between the light and the coin.

 

You quoted me where I was talking about the difficulty in capturing color from brilliant proofs the proceed in showing your results with colorful MS. While some MS coins can prove difficult colorful brilliant proofs are a different animal. Black and white brilliant proofs are the easiest unless you are trying to capture the watery fields, which can be as challenging as capturing color. Axial will capture color but fails in most cases in giving the coin a natural look and muted any luster.

 

I noticed a few references to axial illumination. I am not a photographer. I know nothing about the intricacies of shutter speed, aperture, depth of field, or lighting.

What I can offer is this short video of axial illumination that simplified the lighting problems we encounter photographing proof coins. I was amazed at how simplified this guy made the process. Hope it helps....

 

He knows his business for sure. Hopefully someone will try this technique with a colorful proof still in the slab and post their results.

 

I use a cell.

 

I understood your comment "It is next to impossible to capture colorful fields from brilliant proof coins if they are slabbed" as a limitation of color capture caused by the coin being slabbed. My point was that slabs only limit straight-down direct lighting, the kind provided by static axial lighting, and I don't use axial lighting on slabs for this reason. Still, for some coins in slabs, controlled, almost perpendicular light beams - not diffused but with a honeycomb grid to keep the beam straight - can bring out almost an equal amount of color as direct axial light, without any glare. My examples intended to compare the PCGS true view image - taken of the coin out of the slab- to one taken in the slab with near perpendicular controlled lighting to show the similarities.

 

This video and technique is a great starting point. It was one of the first I watched. I'm an enthusiastic supporter of dynamic axial lighting and the techniques in the video above for static axial lighting will give you the groundwork you need to get started.