A follow up to spoon's thread, photo editing

ajaan

Is the camera the key to good images or does the editing program play as big a role in getting quality shots? I often wonder if the fantastic images I see posted here are 'straight out of the camera' shots, or if they have been edited using some sort of software (PhotoShop or similar).

newbiecollector

A bit of both.

I good camera is necessary, but, a great photo editing program will not save a true image from a bad photo.

Of course you need the right lighting with even a good camera

spoon

I think, as others mentioned in the camera thread, that a good camera that can get the white balance right on the shot itself takes a lot of the need for editing out. But even then I think it's possible (and common!) to over do it on tweaking the color. Sometimes it can result in making the coin appear wholly different than it actually is.

I think the primary use of editing is giving your final product (picture) a more aesthetic touch. A good job cropping and giving it a complimentary background can boost confidence in a seller it seems on ebay. And then also look at the awesome background TwoKopiecki uses! Relatedly, though for banknotes, cropping can be a severe turn off in sales--the note's edges are important!

That said, having good photo editing software opens up many more options for your shooting style too. Remember Darkhorse's technique of shooting at an angle and fixing the skew in the editor?

Daltonista

Just inspired by the last entry, not to mention my own ignorance, what function in my photo editor would be used to bring the skewed image back to round? Thanks!
Tom

spoon

DH made up a long, illustrated tutorial on it back in the day.. can't seem to find the thread just now, but the pics are long gone now anyway. What follows is a rough summary of the process:


1. Download and print this template ((C) Phil Arnold)

2. Center your coin nicely on the circle that fits it best.

3. Shoot at any angle making sure that (1) the full square is within the bounds of the shot, and (2) you don't have too much distortion/blur at the far end of the coin. If there is toning, find the angle that captures it best, that's a big part of what this process is for!

4. Load the pic into Photoshop and rotate it so that one edge of the square is perfectly horizontal or vertical. (Optional: Create a square with each side the length of your axis out of guides (View > New Guide).)

5. Using the Polygonal Lasso Tool, create a Selection by tracing the square on the template.

6. With your selection highlighted, right click it, choose Free Transform from the menu that pops up. Right click again and choose Distort from this menu.

7. Drag the corners around until the square on the template is of the proper proportions. May require additional tweaking.

8. Once it looks decent click the checkmark at the top of the screen to exit Free Transform mode, Deselect and you're done!


Here's a coin I used this technique on, though I didn't really have the best lighting to fully bring out the colors.

Pics before trying this:


Raw pic of the coin on the template:


Pic after the steps above, cropping and applying Auto Contrast:

Daltonista

What a phenomenal set of before-and-after shots that is!
Thanks for going to all that trouble to reply.
And now I know what that "lasso" thingie is for.
I guess it's true what my tech support guys at work like to say: RTFM!
Thanks again, spoon!
Tom

mojoman

I use microsoft picture it 7 free download