A little experiment: a video of my coin with a rotating light to enhance the reliefs!

[AncientCoinnoisseur]

This is an experiment I made not too long ago, although it is still a proof of concept. I will need to find a way to make the source of light rotate steadily and at the same height, so that I can take individual pictures instead of a video, thus obtaining a much higher resolution! So far I think it’s cool though 🙂 I did it with my Septimius Severus too, I’ll post it as a reply to this thread! Let me know what you think!

 

 

[AncientCoinnoisseur]

Septimius Severus:

 

 

[kirispupis]

For all of my photos these days I use axial lighting.

However, similar to what you're finding, I've found that the light varies significantly depending on slight tilts in the glass. It's on my TODO list to place my camera on a stage with a servo to move it up and down (already have the servo but not the stage) and then have a controlled way to change the tilt of the plate, along with the subject as well. 

The subject can be manipulated using Thorlabs stages. For example this one could control yaw, pitch, and roll. Others can do x,y, and z, but that will cover only the subject (and will be pricy). I'd still need something that can control the glass plate without getting in the way of either the camera or the light.

[AncientCoinnoisseur]

PSA: If the video of the second coin doesn’t work for you, here a link to a Reddit post with the video.