Hi friends. With so many new (and young) people joining the community of late, I thought that it might be helpful to share some photo editing ideas that have helped me with my coin presentations here on Coin Talk. It doesn't take a big budget or lots of fancy camera equipment and expensive software to make decent presentations of your coin pictures. The camera that I employ is a Cannon Photoshot SD 1200 IS. It's a basic point and shoot photo platform that has "macro" capabilities, something you want to have in a camera if you're going to take closeup pictures of your coins. It was not terribly expensive and I'm sure that it's well within the budget constraints of more than a few folks on this forum. Even you YN's. Heck, it would make a terrific Birthday Present for any deserving YN. OK, you've got that camera in hand, you take a few shots, and low and behold, you want to present them....but how? Photoscape Childrens.....a terrific editing software program for the ever thrifty (and sometimes cheap ) photographer 'cause it's free. Download it here...... Next step: Once the program is installed you can load your saved pics into Photoscape and start the editing process. I typically save anything I want to edit to the desktop of my computer, that way I can find my pics with a minimum of aggravation. So, you've got your pics on the desktop. Fire up the Photoscape program and hit the editor tab up on the toolbar. You can drag and drop your picture into the program display area or you can search for it over on the left side menu area. After the pic is in the program I'll play with the lighting a bit. See "bright, color" down there at the bottom? Click that and bring up a variety of options. usually the only thing I do is add some brightness to my coins by sliding the indicator thingy. After that, I'll hit "auto contrast". In the case of the above pic I felt that I didn't have to add any brightness. See the little magnifier off to the right? I click that to make the picture larger Next I want to crop my picture. Photoscape allows you to crop "in the round so to speak. Drag the lines around your image, choose a background color, and hit "crop" It should look something like this. Next, you're going to want to resize your photograph to a size that's compatible with this (CT) site. Click on the "home" tab at the bottom and choose a size, or if you're like me, you'll just type 800 in the top (Length) box and let the software determine the other setting (height). At this point you're finished with phase one and will want to save the photo to your desktop. You'll get a message that "the photo already exists and do you want to replace it"? Click yup, and you've got your finished product back on the desktop. Employ the same procedures with the reverse of the coin. Now to combine your obverse and reverse photos..... Look at the toolbar at the very top.....you'll see "combine". Click that and you get any empty area ready to fill with your picks. Make sure you have "side" checked (tab off to the right) and that the little slider bar at the bottom is set below 50%, otherwise, when you drag your coins into the open area they will be humongous. OK. Drag your desktop photos into the program and you should get something like this....... Click "save" and save the combined photo to the desktop. Next, on the top toolbar, click "edit" and drag your photo into the open area. One thing I should mention.....if a photo is already in the editing area don't sweat it. Just drag and drop your new photo and the previous one will disappear. OK, drag the photo. The first thing I like to do is add a little reflection at the bottom of the coin. If you click on "filter" (bottom) up will pop a bunch of options. Choose "reflection" and you'll get something like this.... You can see my settings but you might just want to play with 'em a bit to achieve your own personal effect. Next, click on "frame" and pull up "black line 8". You'll get something like this.... Next click on "margin" and assign how much room you want to add at the bottom of the reflection. This is where you might want to add some writing (next step). These are my settings but you may want to add your own...... OK, now to personalize Dr. Franklin. Click on "object" (right next to home at the bottom) and observe this...... See the "T"? Click that and you get a dialog box. Something like this: Click "ok" and then take your mouse pointer and position the writing at the bottom of your photo. When it's where you want it to be click in any area of the picture and the lettering becomes permanently placed. Don't like it's positioning? Just click "undo". For that matter, anything that you've done with the photo (considering you haven't already saved it) can be easily undone by clicking "undo". The last thing I do is add the "frame line"...... Save the pic back to your desktop and you're done..... Finished product folks....... Hope my post has helped some of you and not been offensive or off colour to anyone.....
The key is playing with the program and getting yourself aquainted to what can actually be accomplished with it. Above all, have fun......
My second attempt! I actually took these photos with my Super Macro Dig Fuji Cam. today for this project.
Great presentation and wonderful information. I've been using PhotoScape for several years now for simpler photo effects. I just wasn't aware of the possibilities of manipulating coin photos.
Nice write-up, dude. I'll give this a shot at work on Wednesday, or maybe tomorrow if I get excessively bored and want to start having fun.
In all honesty, I think this should be pinned permanently somewhere for easy access especially for new users. This, coupled with some of the best photography-strategy threads we've had in the past year, and you get an ultimate guide for creating a professional presentation of a personal collection.
Greenie, your Photoscape thread is terrific. Thanks a lot. You and members like you are what makes CoinTalk the best numistmatic and paper currency forum. Bar none! zeke
Excellent tutorial green! Thank you for spending the time and energy to do this. I know it's not easy and quick.
Highest Commendation! Great service to this forum green18, you deserve the highest commendation! Bravo, job well done. :thumb::thumb::thumb: