Photographing Bright Polished Borders ?????

[sdcoxx]

Hello Cafe Members,
Since taking Jeremiah Watt's Western Silver class, I have been in love with Bright polished borders.
I have found them to be VERY difficult to photograph....
Sadly, I have spent hours experimenting to acheive the two examples posted....
Your suggests would be welcome.....
Thank you,
Stephen

 

[Jim Sackett]

The sail boats look pretty good. I wonder if a guy could dull the boarder with modeling clay and then remove a little of it with say a paper match stick. Would this highlighting give the effect you want? It might worth a try. Or try moving your light source around. And angle the camera. I'm sure you've tried these. Good luck.

Jim Sackett

 

[pilkguns]

Take some modeling clay and push it around on the highly polished areas. You can get an even dull finish that looks shiny in the photograph and be able to wipe it away when you are done.

 

[CJ Allan]

I've been using the modeling clay trick for about 25 years, and it's worked for me......

and i've taken a ton of pics of shiney metal..........

Just roll the clay across the piece .try to shoot it outside on an overcast day.....Simple, and works.............


.

 

[Jim Sackett]

I didn't use clay on these. Learned a little about lighting.

Jim

 

[sdcoxx]

Jim, CJ & Scott,
Attached are photos with the modeling clay as suggested... Check it out...
What a COOL trick....
As you may know, I sell my coins on eBay and photos are everything to a sale....

Thank you,
Stephen

 

[monk]

nothing short of a remarkable change, on coins as remarkable as well !

 

[Keith]

Stephen,
Not to be picky but I liked the high polished look on the photos. They look like they have highly polished surfaces..... Top shelf work....I saw the coins on ebay and said to myself.... Wow he really polished the borders on the coin and it looks good. Nice contrast.
With the clay trick they just look like regular old buffalos.. Just my 5 cents worth.
Keith

 

[Jim Sackett]

My 2 1/2 cents worth. Just dull the boarder with clay that way you don't loos the sharpness of the boats and flower.

Jim

 

[vilts]

That clay trick is clever, I must remember that. But I'm also on the second camp and think that when applying clay like this, this doesn't give the correct result of what you've done. If it is mirror finished, then I think it should look like this too.

Maybe shooting in white box with even lighting or covering the light with translucent paper will give better result.

One thing that I could suggest to anyone who does some kind of photography, especially shooting tricky things. Buy a book called Light: Science and Magic. It starts from basic light principles and covers things like how to shoot shiny metal balls etc. Worth every penny, even when shipping to Europe with customs .

Viljo

 

[KCSteve]

First, those are nice!

Second, as everyone has said, with shiny things light control is the key. Using modeling clay in place of dulling spray is a nifty trick - thanks! I never bothered with the spray but I've got clay...

To get a decent shot of something shiny you have to control the light. Some sort of light tent is your best choice. For something as small as a nickel you could cut off the top portion of a milk jug and set a (small) camera's lens in the hole at the top. Experiment to see about how far from the nickel your camera likes to be and cut it at that height. The jug will not only be your light control, it will also be your 'tripod'. Put a nice piece of paper from the craft store under the coin as a background and arrange some good bright light (outside in the Sun tends to be good) and you should get a pretty good shot.

You'll probably have to adjust the exposure to get things to look right - mirror finished stuff tends to go black if you're not careful.

A while back either in a thread or as a result of a thread I read about what's supposed to be the method for photographing coins. You set up indoors on a copy stand (a widget that mounts the camera on a vertical track looking straight down). The coin goes on your background directly under the camera. To one side of the camera you need a fixed bit of wood that a pane of glass rests against. You use a support on the other side of the coin to hold the glass at a 45 degree angle to the surface - kind of like this: /

Your light comes in from the 'bottom' side of the glass and you use either the block holding the bottom of the glass or another one to block the light from hitting the coin directly. This is supposed to give you the best lighting for showing the detail of the coin. By adjusting the angle of the glass you adjust the effect of the lighting.

It's kind of an elaborate setup but since you do a fair number of coins it might be worth it for you.


Found it! This is either the article I read last time or one very similar. It has diagrams and examples. Turns out I was wrong on one bit I wrote so I've gone back up and corrected myself.

 

[Doc Mark]

Steve,

Here is another site with great info. on coin photography. It has the most complete explanations of the various techniques available.

http://www.sigma-2.com/camerajim/cjgcoins.htm


Enjoy,

Mark

 

[KCSteve]

Doc Mark

That's the one I saw before - you probably posted that link in an earlier discussion. Thanks for posting it again - it's much better than the one I found on a quick look.

 

[piper]

I wonder sometimes...just when you need something.

Neat trick...ran right over to the drawer and got mine out and tried it on my foolish watch which wouldn't photograph...made an improvement but nothing I will plague you with. I will though, store the trick for future reference...it's a good trick..it is...it is...thanks.

 

[ghoving]

As one of the new kids on the block, I can offer an alternative to the clay. The preference is to provide a bright shiny reflection rather than the dull satin appearance after using clay. With many years of service in the Sheriff's Crime Lab, I would use a longer lens to get your camer farther from the object as the first step. Then use a white card or paper and cut a lens size hole in the paper and attach to the lens with tape. Finally, use a white opaque tent (or light box as suggested above.) The photo box is easy to make or buy a collapsable photo tent from ebay. If there is still a hot spot, use a 5" square white card and move it around by hand until your spot finally reflects the white. The goal is to reflect the white color onto the object to make it pop. It can definately be challenging but practice will solve it, especially on smaller objects.

 

[richard purcell]

Try placing the objects in the freezer for a few minutes. When very cold the polish is clouded with moisture. like you blow onto a cold window. but don't touch the area you are going to photograph

 

[finn]

nice flower coin i like the 3d look