Fixing irregularity in background tone

[ROMA]

I finally decided to put some distance between the coin and the background. I took a piece of wood with black felt over it, then hammered a nail into it, which i could place a coin on top of. The coin appears much sharper then when I would just photograph with the coin on top of a piece of paper... i should have done this a long time ago! Im happy about how the coin looks, but the background is still iiregular. Doug Smith says "any irregularity in background tone can be removed in post-processing using an image manipulation program like Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro." So if someone can instruct me on how to do this id be thrilled. Im no expert using photo editing software. I've downloaded two free photoediting programs; "Gimp" and "Paint.net." I guess theres a 30 day trial of Paint Shop Pro I could DL too.

Here's my first attempt at utilizing this new method (new to me). Its not the best picture, i just took a couple quick snapshots so i could post this question. I want to get that background a nice solid black, or white.

[cmcdon0923]

I'm no photography expert, but I have a few suggestions:

Use a longer/taller riser (can't think of what else to call it) to place the coin on.  Your camera still seems to be getting the felt partially in focus.

If that's not possible, consider a smoother background material...black/colored paper for instance....something that presents a flatter surface with less texture/contrast  for the camera to pick up. 

Or, switch to the "frosted glass" type background.  I recently did, and while I'm still working on my technique, I've found it much easier to get repeatable results.

[ROMA]

So using frosted glass to set as the background would help? Is that something i can purchase at a hardware store?

[moonmoth]

The best black background is velvet, or velveteen.  I bought a metre of black velveteen about 20 years ago and I have only used a small amount.  It is very good at absorbing light, better than glass or paper.  You can have your coin three or four cm above this and it won't show.  This is my old setup that I used for black backgrounds:

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/moonmoth/photo_coins01.html

Bill

[rasielsuarez]

you can get frosted glass at an art shop of the sort that does framing. but it doesn't need to be frosted. you can suspend the glass over props on either side and then stick a sheet of paper underneath. in fact, you don't even need glass. just take an old cd jewel case. the plastic gets scratched after a while but that will at least get you by til you can get to a store to get glass ;-)

ras