Experiments with light

[Numerianus]

I am enjoying my new acquisition: he is photogenical, Gordi!
One shot was done under bright sun, the other under my worktable lamp.
What pic do you prefer?

[Pep]

The first one.  The second one looks "cold".

Great coin!

Kevin 

[moonmoth]

The first one has fewer blown-out highlights, so gives you more information; but it looks a little unrealistic, perhaps with the reds too saturated.  For a colour tone I would personally go for something in between the two.

That's a coin that I would enjoy practicing with!

[black-prophet]

Definitely the first one, much warmer and richer.If slightly unrealistic ,maybe knockdown the saturation with photoshop or a paint program.I know I always try to make the coin look like it does in hand under natural light.

[slokind]

For veritas, I tend to check those copper greens.  So I must agree with moonmoth.  One of our TV stations where I live has the café au lait brown African-American newscaster wear a sort of apricot-colored gel for make-up.  Sometimes these nice warm photos of Rome aes, and nobody denies it's a nice color, remind me of our newscaster.
But the highlights on the second one are a bit too much and too obtrusive, as if Neptune's body were greased up for show.
Yet the resolution of fine detail in the ribbons of the laurel and in the excellent letters of the legend is finer in the second; it is the lighting, too harsh under the chin for example and where the cheek meets the nose, the seems to be an unhappy by-product.
New lens?  New lamps?
Pat L.
Sorry!  Jupiter's body.

[Cleisthenes]

The first one (seems like consensus) .

Jim

[moonmoth]

Parts of the second one are sharper than all of the first, but there are also parts which are a little out of focus, in particular the lettering at the top on both the obverse and reverse.  This suggests that you should work on the depth of field. 

This coin is large and irregular in shape, but there's nothing about it that suggests it would be tilted that way specifically when photographing the obverse, so maybe the camera wasn't square on to the coin. 

But if the coin is tilting, it might be possible to prop it to a more level position using little bits of paper or matchstick, which in fact is a very fiddly and awkward thing to do, so best of luck!  It's easier to prop one side of the whole of the stage, if the stage is small enough.  I use a small sandwich box lined with white paper, and place pound coins under it to level the coin.  Or it might be possible to change the angle of the camera.

[Numerianus]

Very precise observation! Indeed, the camera was not parallel to the coin because my intention was to get a reflection
of the light source rather then that of camera. Of course, this effect is not so dramatic as for bright silver but it is noticeable
for bronze also. By the way, the reverse due to the camera inclination the reverse is shorter than in reality.

 Unfortunately, the lightflow was at the limit of the captor sensitivity and the upper part of the coin is out of focus.
Sometmes I add a brighter lamp. Then, of course, there is no problem with focus but there is a loss of attractvity of the image.

I manipulate with Photoshop to adjust contrast and brightness but did not use color saturation function (I never get something
acceptable with this function). In both cases white balance was "measured".  The difference in color palette, probably, should be explained not only by the light composition and its intensity but also the environment. 
In fact, a static photo cannot transmit all the richness of an object.  We should try to make movies...

[Numerianus]

It is a pleasure to work with coins in high grades of conservation. This one is mutilated but the
portrait of Gordian is quite nice. I used the light from behind. Nonconventional but it gives some
charm: the boy is romantic. 

[Numerianus]

This month  provided me good chances to increase  the Gordian III section.
I like my new sestertius. Technically, it is aEF. Unfortunately, it has some colored
concretions on the surface. I am afraid to touch them. What is your opinion? 

[Numerianus]

Though it is not directly related with the subject, I do ot resist to show here  another recent purchase.
The coin is in a lower grade but still rather pleasant at hand. There is difficulty to have a good pic by a fundamental reason:
black patina!

[black-prophet]

Numerianus some beautiful coins.I generally like the way these are being lit,but it seems that you may have to increase your depth of field setting to increase the sharpness in certain parts of the coins.