Paul, I still stand by your photos, even the newest 'juiced' one. I think you are more conservative and cautious in representation of the image than was Anaconda who were more liberal in their application of intensifying the color. I think it's better to err on underplaying these key elements of eye appeal in a digital image than to over-deliver by giving the colors such vivacity that viewers are just swayed by colorful eye candy. Another thing we all must come to terms with is that everyone of us is seeing things immensely differently. Mainly all of us have differently calibrated monitors and no two are likely the same. Also all individuals have different degrees of color perception. For instance, the male gender suffers from greater degrees of color blindness than do females. Just somethings to keep in mind.
He asked for opinion,s and i gave him mine and as of right now there are 6 other people That agree that the last coin look,s the best!
I have to go with the your new one. Your's takes from the luster, but brings out tonnig and detail. On the anaconda photo, a spot of unatractive brown toning is very obvious. On your's it is visible, but not quite as much as on the anaconda.
I was only remarking on your comment that what swayed you about my photo was the luster. The consensus in the thread, even from those who chose my photo, is that the Anaconda does a better job capturing the luster. No offense intended your honor.
Either way... you take absolutely superb photos! Beautiful! It was tough for me, but I went for the Anaconda; I like how it captures the cartwheel, whereas your latest photo highlights its blast-white features. In that sense, my choice is purely deriving from my preferences in coins in general. Awesome coin.
Sorry to digress, but this is turning into an interesting thread. Photography is an insidious medium: it can never deliver authenticity, only interpretations of it. Its capacity to render things more real than real has, over time, blurred the threshold between reality and representation (or the natural and the artificial). Famous essays have been written about this as early as 1937. Photography, as it saturated our culture with images, launched a trajectory wherein we aren't satisfied with the merely real anymore, we continually crave a "better" version—whether it's a picture on a frozen entree (ever see the food inside come close to resembling it?) or an airbrushed centerfold model. And now this dilemma plays out in pictures of coins on this thread: we wrestle between accuracy (honesty) and the seduction of pumped-up color. Again, pardon the diatribe but I think it's absolutely relevant to this thread and coin photography (and e-commerce) in general. Having said that, I agree with krispy:
Paul, I am in awe of your photography skills when it comes to coins. You are one of the best on this forum and one of the better I have ever seen, PERIOD. While you have captured the luster and the toning on the coin, the color seems richer in the Anaconda photo. Your photos of this coin rock, but IMHO the Anaconda photos edge it out simply due to the richness of the color of the coin (not the toning).
I have to go with Anaconda's picture - but the only reason is because I think it shows alittle more detail. Your pic's are nice, but too blast white for me. Speedy