Capturing Paper / Gum Type Images

I made an mostly unsuccessful attempt to capture images of paper/gum types. I tinkered with the contrast some to make it more obvious which has upside and downsides.

The following were taken with a USB microscope using supplemental side lighting. For surface variation you obviously need light from a low angle. The USB microscope has a shallow depth of field and unable to capture the whole stamp back.




Any suggestions would be appreciated. One of my next experiments is to use my DSLR with a macro and try to make a little pivoting platform so I can adjust stamp angle easily and set up a better light source.

Angore, I tried the DSLR and macro route a few years ago, without success. However, I think I didn't have a good enough light source. A good high intensity LED source which gives plenty of incident light may be the way forward, maybe even two light sources which provide both vertical and incident illumination independently. The digital microscope route was a bit of a failure all round, because of the need for extensive processing and because of the same lighting issue.