How Easy it is to Mislead w/ Photo Color Enhancement (AKA "Juicing")

A recent conversation with a forum member ATS got me thinking how often eBay images could be "enhanced" without any of us even realizing until after we've purchased the coin. Today's photo-editing programs are so advanced that we're able to select just portions of an image we'd like to enhance (juice), i.e. the coin., without making it look terribly unnatural.

For veteran toned-coin collectors, it's usually pretty easy to tell when a photo's color has been enhanced, either by obvious quality distortion and/or discoloration (that "pink tint" you might see on the slab label from the saturation of colors used in an editing program), but there are ways to eliminate this "tint" altogether. With a little crop selecting, it's easy to enhance just the coin's color, avoiding the discoloration of any other portion of the image.

Examples;

Case 1) Here is a completely original, unedited version of a Morgan dollar in a slab. Note the color is rather dull and luster looks subdued.



Case 2) Here is the same photo but I've now ellipse selected (crop selected) just the coin via a free online photo editing program. Notice the color is now exaggerated, luster is bright, and the coin has much more eye-appeal.



Case 3) In this example I have now "juiced" the entire image (coin, slab, background). Notice the discoloration of the background (granular surface of copy stand). The background is lighter and has a blue-ish pink hue to it. To veterans, it is easy to tell the color of the label is abnormal and the "pink tint" is evident.



Now, here is a side-by-side example of both Case 1 and Case 3 images. The misleading differences are obvious.



All this being said, many would still find all the images I've provided above to be perfectly acceptable and would never be suspicious of them having been juiced (Case 2 & Case 3) if they had not seen the original image in Case 1. More so, notice how deceptive the image in Case 2 could be to the buyer - no discoloration or distortion has occurred.

Unethical? Yes. But this is the reality of eBay, so it is paramount that we beware of cases like these and know how to spot when an image may have been juiced. Personally, for the very reasons I mentioned, I avoid purchasing toned coins on eBay altogether.
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Additional comparisons between original and "juiced" photos;


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Just as I said ATS... Great Thread Here! Very Impressive and Informative indeed :yes:

 

As long as the ones who sale coins are not standing face to face with you this will always happen..
Most have learned after they buy a coin thats pictured in not so great photos they will most likely always juce up the photos and hope once you get the coin you will feel its too much trouble to send it back or fight for the owner to refund the cash you paid for it.
There are a few ive seen post here say they bought a coin that had bad photos but had hoped it would look better in hand.
Its funny how we all have that problem because i think we just want the coin so badly we will think it will look better after we have it in hand.
It makes you wonder when a coin is graded that maybe if it had been done another day the grade may have been given a lower or higher grade.
We as humans while smarter than most that we live among are sure stupied at times when we want something so bad we can picture even the picture we see better than it looks.
Maybe thats why we see a lot of threads like this one.Prehaps we are as a hungry animal that almost always takes a chance to get food and we know this may be the one that will bite us back.

 

thank you.. this is very informative..

 

Yes, but rainbow-toned coins like that Morgan can look like the juiced picture, if you view them under the proper light, at the right angles. In fact, you could probably take half-a-dozen different pics of that coin, and they'd all be honest representations of what it could look like under different conditions. So juicing, and other photo-editing adjustments aren't necessarily dishonest. Frequently, photos need to be edited in order to properly represent the coin.

 

Here's a coin I recently sold on eBay. The first pic is totally unedited, except for combining the slab sides. It looks pretty drab...



Here it is with the saturation and contrast tweaked to bring out the colors...






I posted all of those images in the auction, and even mentioned that I had tweaked the last two pics to accurately portray the eye-appeal. The buyer's feedback said it looked even better in hand.

So dishonesty is in the heart, not in the photo-editing technique.

 

This thread is a case study in why I only buy online from dealers who have a solid return policy.

 

No software needed to take glamor shots. The angle of the coin to the lens and or lighting is all you need.
I agree with showing several images when selling on online auctions.