Sorry Phil, I guess it looks like that. The trouble is that the video uses a number of techniques using equipment I simply don't have. I do have a CPL filter - and a decent make one - but I have not been too successful with that on coins (those were deleted almost immediately) but did mean to try it again when I get a lightbox together.
I did also have a look in my library for the 'Light, Science and Magic' book referenced above after seeing how much it was going to set me back on Amazon.
On the upside, the sparkles on HM crown look good, its just the rest of it I need to get sorted. And keep the dust down.
All light behaves the same, a window is a large soft box (so long as the harsh sun isn't shining through it directly) a large reflector can be made out of anything you have to hand, pillowcase, t shirt, etc.
When it comes to manipulating light, the difference between pros and beginners is the opposite of the obvious. Beginners think they need to
buy a solution to all problems, experts will use whatever is hanging about, sticking a pillowcase to a broom handle with gaffer tape as a reflector, then using a black t shirt to kill reflections from another direction.
Watch the video again, and instead of seeing 'studio flash' see 'large light source'. Remember light reflects like a snooker ball bounces off a cushion, and that your polarising filter will have no effect on light coming off a coin as it's not polarised light.
At a wedding I might get asked to shoot a small impromptu group, with the assumption that if I shoot it with my 'pro' camera, it'll be better than they'd get with a camera phone. I proceed to move the group to where the background and light is better and they get the nice shot. The moral of the story being that it's not the gear, it's the application of knowledge and the attitude that gets the shot. The result is that they get their 'nice' shot, but it's not because I'm using a £700 lens.