Digital Coin Photography – H. Craig Hamling – October 2001

Making Pictures with Reflected and Side Lighting

Pictures made with reflected light are made such that the light bounces directly off the coin into the lens of the camera.  In order to achieve this situation the camera must be tilted with respect to the surface of the coin.

And the light must be positioned so that light bounces off of the coin back into the lens.

Here is that reflected light coin picture:

To make a side lighted picture the light is moved so that the light does not reflect directly off of the coin.

Here is that side lighted coin picture:

These two coin pictures were made without moving either the coin or the camera.  Only the light was moved.  It takes a little trial and error on the set up to get reasonable results with the camera tilted in this manner.  You want to tilt the camera enough so that the light can reflect off of the entire coin but not so much that the coin appears to be oblong.  The optimum set up will have a tiny bit of the shadow of the camera in the image.  In general, reflected light pictures are better for showing the detail while side lighted pictures are better for showing the color.  Note how obvious the pre-striking planchet flaws and the die crack are in the reflected light picture.  Reflected light pictures are preferred for black and white publication.

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