They often say that photography is all just smoke and mirrors. And, in this case, they’re half right. Mirror-like reflections certainly are involved. This is lighting setup that never would’ve occurred to me had I not stumbled across it on a friend’s Facebook post. UK based photographer Dougie Smith typically brings people into his studio, but he also shoots photographs for Chards, a dealer of rare and collectable coins.

Dougie’s been a friend of mine for years, so when I saw him post a couple of setup shots to his Facebook profile, I had to send him a message asking if I could share them here with you guys. He and Chards agreed, so here we are. It’s a fascinating setup called axial lighting, and it overcomes some of the problems you see with typical macro ringflash setups.[Read More…]