Take great pictures on a low budget.

Photoscape is an excellent program and it's also freeware...

 

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Good to know! Thanks I will look at that also.

 

Just an update. I will be making the tutorial video. Just got camtasia installed.
On another note, although I seem to take some decent pictures, I have come to the realization that I cannot get colors (toning) to show nearly as bright as they are, if at all. Its very frustrating.
Anyway, the video will be more about working with the picture after you take it.

 

I recommend photoscape also, great free program. http://download.cnet.com/PhotoScape/3000-2192_4-10703122.html?part=dl-6295843&subj=dl&tag=button

 

GIMP for me. cause well I'm gimpy!! It is also Free. I really really like. it feel more intuitive than PS. you can access your tool from what seems like 4 different directions. It remembers 50 or so of your last settings in each tool - 100 undos. preferences seem endless. PS probably has all that too. anyways.


I tried to tackle reflecting the coins and gave up. So I would love to know how you are doing the reflects. I talk the talk so, you can shorten the path to keep the describing the process simple. I have problems find an easy to use gradient tool, I can flip and rotate easy enough. GIMP must have a 100 different gradients to select from . thats where I get lost.

I load a lot of my coins into a template. not sure its suitable for reflections... Click on these twice for full resolution.

 

Coincidently I shot these tonight


Axial is the really the only way to consistently get the colors. However Im not sure a Point shoot has the reflex that allows the refraction of light to show the colors. I can't see why it wont work..

This first pic is axial shot - spot light at 90 degrees to camera and coin with camera shooting through a clear piece of glass at 45 degrees to the coin...




This one is shot with my typical set up with lighting at 10,12 and 2 o'clock position about 10 degrees to the coin.

 

hard to believe that that is the same coin... lighting is everything IMO of course!

 

Looking forward to the tutorial! Thank you in advance.

 

I just downloaded Photoscape based on another thread and some assistance from tmoneyeagles. It looks very simple and robust. I will start playing more with it. I may take a look at this other program.

 

The toning comes out nice in these.

I will let you guys fight it out on the best way to actually take the picture. I will mention briefly in the video about my setup. I was able to capture toning, but I really had to shoot the coin at an angle. Anyway, the script is done and I will shoot the video tonight. Actually a couple videos, one with some more advanced options like reflection etc.. blah blah...

 

I have a good camera and decent software but the files on my high-res pics are too large to upload. What are your settings to get such good pics and still be able to upload?

 

Re-size your images and see what happens. Always promising when you can get images too large. Better than images that are too small.

 

This will be addressed in my video. --Resizing and Exporting a web friendly version.

 

With the right program and a lot of imagination you can edit photo's to look like this:

Not my image, but I edited it to make the photographer proud.

Larger image?
http://imgs.inkfrog.com/pix/coop49/1937-D_Three_Legged_Buffalo_reverse_EyeEatWheaties.jpg

 

how do you do that

 

The photo editing software that came with your camera should have an option in it for picture re-sizing. No photo editing software? Download something like photoscape or gimp. It's freeware. I use photoscape and find it an excellent program indeed.

http://www.photoscape.org/ps/main/index.php

You could also get an account with photobucket and upload your pics to that site. You can resize your photos there as well.

http://photobucket.com/

There is also a image resizer program available from Microsoft (free as well) known as "Powertoys" but I'm not sure if it's compatible with OS's above XP.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx

 

GOOGLE Microsoft Resize Power Tool - you can right click on any image and select from a drop down the most popluar sizes plus custom.

 

really does it work well?? YOU BET! I am surprised how many don't know about it. It's FREE

 

seriously.....this is easier than any tool in any program You can do whole batches. I did a 2 gig folder recently.

 

Yeah, but I don't think it runs in "Vista" or "7"......