Animals on coins

[Charles Krebs]

Was archiving some old shots from this past winter and came across a few shots I made with low power microscope optics. I did something similar about 6 years ago, and always find it interesting to look at this subject. I know we have some very serious coin photographers in the group... I don't pretend to be one! These were in circulation coins (nothing special) that had made it onto the pile of change on my dresser after travels. They were illuminated very quickly and simply.

[carlos.uruguay]

Beautiful! Thanks for sharing

[Litonotus]

They were illuminated very quickly and simply.

How did you menage to acheive perfect tone scale (no black or white "holes") using that simple and quick illumination? (: Love that, I find metal photography as very technical demanding.

[Marek Mis]

Beautiful lighting, perfect images !

Marek

[Jacek]

Very nice

[steveminchington]

Nice set of images Charles. How did you illuminate them?

[Charles Krebs]

Thanks for the comments!

How did you illuminate them?

How did you menage to acheive perfect tone scale (no black or white "holes") using that simple and quick illumination?

Very simply. A few years back I purchased some "extra large" ping-pong balls. I cut some into hemispheres, and some into curved "rings" (a hemisphere with the top cut off them). Several rings were made with sides of different heights. Often the ring with fairly low sides (like picture below) works really nicely for subjects where you really don't want the overall diffuse light provided by a hemisphere (or the "white" reflection off of the subject). I position the lights low and to the side, and move them closer and farther until I get the appearance I like. Then pay close attention to the histogram when I set the exposure.

[piermicro]

Beautiful.

[soldevilla]

great lighting! maybe easy, but it no need nothing more.