Santa's Gold&Silverporn: What's in the candy bowl? (+photo tricks)

Hey SSG!

Christmas is over but the holiday season is far from finished and I wanted to do some more silverporn while all the fun decos are still out. I'm not much of a Christmas person so @silvergingerman calls me the Grinch who stole Christmas because every year on boxing day I start saying that tree is coming down and make the usual threats of just putting a garbage bag over it and throwing it down in the basement, not that I ever followed thru but it would be hilarious if I did. Nonetheless it didn't stop me from tearing down piece by piece as he watched in horror. I needed "spare parts" for my photo shoot...Turns out I am the Grinch who stole Christmas after all. Don't worry, it was just candy canes and the tree skirt @silvergingerman, rest assured I'm going for the lights next. 😈😈😈

Shot 1/60 sec. f/4 40 mm, ISO 400

One of my favorite coins to work with is this fine RCM hologram 1/4oz gold maple I got a few months back, I seem to always find them at the same price as the regular maple so I keep getting them, I have a few of by now. This coin is tricky at first because of the way the coin reflects the light but once I got the hang of it again it was pretty fun to test it in different lighting. Many people hate photographing coins because of the reflections and too much glare but there are a few tricks to eliminate these issues and I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to share a few tips. It's all about light manipulation.

Shot 1/50 sec. f/3.5 40 mm, ISO 800

First of all, precious metals are shiny...no shit Sherlock...If you are like me, you keep the shiny ones in a capsule and never open it again, adding yet another reflective surface and if that's not challenging enough, buying second hand coins and handling them means scratches on the capsule and that much harder to deal with like this maple. We all want our precious metals to appear shiny but it can end up with blinding glare in some sections instead. The first trick is, DON'T USE A FLASH! Operating in a well lit area, the more, the better so the pictures don't appear dull and it will help the camera to capture the finest of details. One thing I see often is laying your coin down to photograph, that will most likely not work that well. Try standing it up leaning against something towards the light, play with it until you get the right amount of glare and position it where the light hits the edge of the details instead of the front of the coin. You can fine tune by taking the picture on a slight angle instead of from directly in front positioning your back to the light also blocking some the excess light with your body or arm as you need only leaving a fraction of the coin where you want the slight reflection. This technique should also be able to camouflage the scratches on the case where taking the picture head on would make them extremely visible. Be careful not to reflect yourself into the coin!

Shot 1/60 sec. f/4 40 mm, ISO 800

If you notice the camera settings, both of the last pictures were taken on the exact same ISO setting at 800, How do they look so different? The first technique is great to get the gold color to pop in pictures, now the hologram. Using background objects and candies on the sides help fill the extra empty spaces or add visual pleasure. In reality, they serve a much more important purpose, more light manipulation! See a trend yet? For the photo above, I leaned the coin against a Christmas centerpiece away from the light and covered the top and arranged the candies strategically on the sides to block extra light and create a sorta light tunnel to reflect the hologram (while still camouflaging the scratched up capsule...lol) but not enough light for the camera to process the surroundings leaving the background blurry or also called Aperture. An other way of making your background fade even more is creating a dept of field by placing your background at a greater distance, placing different colored items at different distances creates interesting effects and just about anything can be used to create different shapes or color play. In other words, the more light you block , the crisper the closest object will be but there won't be enough light to capture a crisp background. (To be honest with you, I have used socks and old t-shirts as a background) you can do anything with photography once you start to understand how to manipulate lighting or lack-there-of to your advantage, I assure you, every picture I have ever posted is as is, the most processing they might get is a slight crop from time to time.

Shot 1/60 sec. f/4 40 mm, ISO 640

Every time we went to the LCS, @silvergingerman was eyeballin the silver fractional set above so I got it for him for Christmas, I have to admit, I'm a little jealous of him, it's a beauty! At the end of the day what's his is mine right?!? lol...Don't worry @silvergingerman, I'm just buggin, your set is safe but not from my camera... such beauty needs to be captured. For this picture, I went back to the first technique, where it's getting lots of free light, lean the coin so the light is pointing on the edges of the details and it will create shadows around the details and helps highlight every little curve. Now note the ISO is lower on this image...In simpler words, the lower the ISO number the least the camera has to work to get the proper lighting into the picture. Ample light is used when you want a crisper background and have the picture as part of a display instead of the close up or 3D type image of the second technique. Depending on how you center your subject to your camera, by not having it fully centered but close, you can chose if you want a blurry background or foreground to create a visual dept of field. In my Image I chose to have my subject slightly more towards the bottom half to blur the bold candy stripes but to get a clearer image of the finer details visible in the background. If you want a full clear image then I recommend not using a macro lens but close-up photography like my versatile 18-200mm lens.

Shot 1/160 sec. f/6.3 40 mm, ISO 200

This one I only recommend if you are more daring and have experienced the first 2 techniques with a moderate level of success or it will have you cursing...by the way, you need to be as steady as a surgeon or have a tripod for this, tripods are too much work for me, as a welder I have control over it anyway. I don't know why but I like these type of pictures, it looks more dramatic. For this I blocked most of the light with the centerpiece and the candies and keeping a low ISO to cut out as much light as possible while having just enough peeking thru to shine and highlight all the tiny veins going thru the maple leaf. The downside to this, if you shake slightly the shot will NOT work at all. There isn't enough lighting to get a crisp image of the lettering and it becomes the background but you can see details that wasn't visible before. Long story short, the more you focus the light in a specific area, the finer the details you can capture. By removing most of the light around the coin, It is possible to take a picture of it head on and only the capsule edges are visible but is nearly invisible from the front.

Shot 1/40 sec. f/3.2 40 mm, ISO 800

For all pictures in this shoot I used a wreath centerpiece with a red candle, a small bowl of candy, a handful of candy canes, the tree skirt from the Christmas tree and a couple of clip-on ornaments in the background to add elements. All done on my hallway-size kitchen on a 2 foot wide counter...there you have it, no special equipment, all used on the same red tree skirt, but by manipulating light, it looks completely different. I hope this can be helpful to some of you, if you are the type that takes pictures because you have a cool smartphone with a great camera without really knowing why some shots are successful while others not so much, that could help you maximize the chances of positive results by understanding how to manipulate any type of lighting to your advantage by using your surroundings. Note, the color of walls affect the lighting as well, I use my kitchen because the walls are a slight off-white and it reflects fairly neutral light for a clean shoot. Colored walls changes the tone of the light, hard to explain, but long story short, the colors of your background can also be used to your advantage when trying to display different moods. for example, Silver photographs well in both warm or colder colored light (Typical to the new led and blue tones) vs gold prefers warmer lighting (Typical to candle or incandescent bulb or yellow tones) and will appear dull and colorless in a colder colored lighting. I will leave you with the rest of the pictures from the shoot. Be safe my friends!

Shot 1/60 sec. f/4 40 mm, ISO 800

Shot 1/60 sec. f/4 40 mm, ISO 560

Shot 1/60 sec. f/4 40 mm, ISO 400

Shot 1/40 sec. f/3.2 40 mm, ISO 800

All images shot with Nikon D7000 and Nikkor 40mm micro lens.

Cheers! X🐞X