Agreed. I've always up photos of both obverse and reverse (unless it was a lot). Buyers can get a good look at both sides and it can save you trouble later.
...for ebay. For those of you that sell, you know the first picture you post is free, and the others are 15 cents each. Does anybody know how to take two photos and combine them into one. I've seen it done. I don't know if photobucket will let you do that. I use Iphoto. I'm still looking for a way.:desk:
I remember think the exact same thing when I first started to take coin photos. Here is a link to a photoshop help page that tells you to use layer masking to accomplish the task. http://www.photoshop911.com/masking_channels/layer_masking.html Personally, I think that method is really complicated. Here is what I do. Make sure the obverse & reverse photo are the same size (eg 500 pixels) Open a new file that is 1000 X 500 pixels Using the rectangular marquee tool, select the entire obverse photo Click Edit, Cut, and close the obverse photo file Click Edit, Paste, and use the move tool to move it to the right of the new file Repeat the process for the reverse photo. Save the file Having said that, you should be aware that because you only have one photo with both obverse and reverse, your prospective customers will be limited to viewing the coin at half size. You will find that the 15 cents you pay for the second photo allowing both photos to be of normal size will more than pay for itself in the long run.
I use PhotoShop, and in most cases for simple image combining, this is basically the way that I do it.
GIMP will let you do it. It is free. So will photoshop. I am told there is a free version out there. Basically, all you do is crop photo #1 so your coin is centered and close cut. Copy it. Crop photo #2 so you coin is offset to one side and then paste #1 to the other side.Alternatively, you can crop them both centered and close, enlarge the frame (double the width) and paste the other in the new space. Relatively speaking, it is not a particularly difficult task, but the photo programs can be a bit daunting.
I concur. Photo programs can indeed be a bit daunting. PhotoShop isn't exactly the most user-friendly application. But once a bit of it's learned, it's very powerful.
It's not particularly difficult to merge multiple photos into one. I have Paint Shop Pro which is similar to Photoshop. As others have said, learning how to use the s/w is the difficult part. But I want to suggest a different (and I think better) way. Make good images of your coin including the slab if appropriate. Insert the one freebie (generally the obverse). Then insert the rest of the images into your description area (not into the eBay picture area in the seller's form) using HTML. This requires that you have your images loaded into some place like Photobucket. Sound a bit daunting BUT it only takes one line of code per image. And you keep using the code line over and over (copy and paste) just changing the filename as appropriate. This is the way I do my eBay listings and using this method I can put as many images as I want into my listings. If requested I'll try to put together a little tutorial. I won't direct you to my listings (I've got 10 up at the moment) since I don't want any hint that I'm advertising.
Kanga, that's exactly how I post pictures on Ebay. There is no sense at all paying Ebay 15 cents a pic if I can host them perfectly fine on a free photobucket account.
Pilkenton- If you sell enough to justify it check out Auctiva.com. For about $10/month you can use there service, create and post your listings to Ebay with as many photos as you want for no additional charge. It works seamlessly with Ebay.
Photoshop Elements lets you merge photos and it's fairly easy to learn. And it doesn't cost an arm and a leg, just a few fingers. Here's a example of one photo flipped horizontally and merged with the normal version...
May options We are blessed with many options. (Esp with PhotoShop!) But sometimes I find using PS like using a 747 as a babycarrage just to get the baby across the street. GIMP is great, and priced just right. As is my FAV swiss Army knife for graphics, IrfanView. It's also FREE, supported and a small program that is always the 1st program I put on any new laptop I use. BTW HiHo~Your Avatar looks funny in 3D now.:secret: :mouth:hya:
I would listen to Kanga. The outside hosting and html inserting allows you to put in multiple, large high quality images at no cost. I find the images that eBay hosts and posts are pretty much uniformly poor. Even the enlarged images are usually not good and I frequently wish I could enlarge them even more. In contrast I find that most pictures that have been inserted using html are usually much better and if I need them further enlarged they are easy to copy into a photo program and blow up. Ebay's images are much more difficult to do that with.
