I Just Need to Vent A Little - re: Bad Photos

I'm a member of several forums and I see the same problem on all of them. Members will post an interesting query regarding one of their coins and then to illustrate, will post the most atrocious photograph. It'll be either too dark, too blurred, or too small and expect an intelligent answer based on that pic.

We are in the digital age. Instant photography. If the pic isn't acceptable (which is evident on the screen in front of you), delete it and take another one! Why would you post a picture that you can see is obviously of such poor quality when in a minute or two you can take another that would be 100% better?

It is frustrating and time wasting to the viewer and everyone gets annoyed. The poster has the coin in hand and can refer to it whereas the viewer has only a sub-standard image on their computer screen to go by. The viewer gets upset because they can't tell what it is the OP is referring to and the OP gets annoyed because he isn't getting the answers he wants.

All I am saying is if the picture doesn't look close to the coin you have in hand or if the detail you are asking about isn't apparent, take a few minutes and redo the photo.

Also, crop your photos. It isn't necessary to have so much blank space around the subject. Scanned photos are the worst for this.

Another thing is posting over-sized photos. When you are in editing mode, use "image size" and reduce your photo to around 600 pixels in width. You get a nice sized image that fits nicely on the screen.

Thanks for letting me vent.

 

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lol Well think about it this way. People here are doing it for fun and enjoyment. But sellers on ebay still do it and they are trying to get profit. Seems a little worse on the bay now eh?

 

On ebay, there are seller's who use bad photos as a deception which makes one leary of buying anything there. If the photo is bad, regardless of how good the item or price might be, I skip that auction. It's as bad as trying to sell something without a pic.

 

True but I was referring to the sellers that take bad photo's and post them that way when it's a great coin. The coin then gets less then they should because of the photo.

 

Yes, that happens. I would be one of those that avoided bidding on the auction.

As I get older, I get more suspicious and less trusting.

 

Yeah, feel free to vent about that subject all you want! I can't believe some of the pics that have been posted right here on CT! The posters of the lame pics need to hear this as it may help them out. Also, is the post with questions and no pics! Unbelievable!!

 

Good luck getting anyone to change. Humans are a stubborn bunch.

I agree with you about editing the photos. It gets annoying when we have to scroll over to see a HUGE image that is mostly background with a tiny coin in the center. It's like looking at a photo of a dinner plate against the backdrop of a huge yard. CROP YOUR PHOTOS, PEOPLE!

 

LOL... yelling in the rain guys... those crummy photos are going to keep coming regardless of this thread.

 

i was going to be smart and get a badly done photo off google, but after typing in "bad coin photograph" i found the first picture is from this site! so i didn't want to upset anyone.

its a really bad picture and even worse crop job..

 

Bad photos are one thing, but broken links to photos are even worse in my opinion. I have been using Photobucket for years and have still only used about 25% of my (free) bandwidth.

 

and even if you do run out of space, just make a new one! just spend ten minutes and make a new email(if you already don't have a few), sign up photobucket or whatever site you want, done! i am being generous with the ten minutes as well, shouldn't take anywhere close to that.

 

I can understand the frustration, but I believe many, but not all, of those photos and questions are from new members with little or no experience posting in this forum. As we all should understand taking photos of coins is not always easy nor should we expect them to understand that asking questions of a coin without photos is not going to allow us to help them.

Think about it, it is sometime diffcult to do the right thing. when you have no experince in the matter. That mostly why they come here looking for advice and some even to learn.

 

I bet I have taken more than a hundred pictures of 4 different coins I have posted pictures of here. I am in this boat and still for the life of me can't figure out how to get my stupid camera to take a good picture of a coin. But, I completely understand the frustration of the OP. I get just as frustrated trying to get a good picture.

 

Well, since this is the "let it all hang out" thread, I'd like to add my 2c worth.

I agree with ikandiggit! Too many people post lousy, oversized photos and I usually ignore those threads. It's a pain in the "southern parts" when I have to scroll back and forth (which seems like it is more often now!), and it is made even worse when the photo is so blurry and small that I'm unable to make out any detail.

FYI
> I've got news for some of you folks. Camera phones do not take photos of coins that are adequate for anyone to view. If you say you can't afford a decent camera, then maybe you should stop buying coins for a while and save the money to purchase a decent camera and accessories.

> Close-ups using a loupe aren't very good either. How can you expect anyone to determine with any degree of accuracy if a coin has hub doubling or machine doubling from these photos?

> Why do some of you just provide a link to Photobucket (or other hosting service)? Why don't you go ahead and post the photos since you're already there? If you're just too lazy to do it, why should I even bother to look at it. If you don't know how to post photos, here, then you should learn.

That's it for me! Has anyone got change for a dollar?

Chris

 

My frustration comes from the advancement of the technology.

I was a professional photographer for over 25 years. In the early days (1960's to 1990's) the only instant photography we had was Polaroid and for a period, Kodak) otherwise if you used Kodachrome slide film, you had to send your film in to get processed and it would take a week or two before you saw your results. If you shot black and white or color print film and had a darkroom, you would develop your film which would take a couple of hours, then print the pictures from the film which took another few hours. If you didn't get the results you wanted or if the image was blurred or beyond correcting, you had to re-shoot and do the whole process all over again.

With digital, it takes minutes for the entire process. Minutes! Not hours or days or weeks! Minutes!

Almost everybody today has or has access to a digital camera or scanner. They have access to free editing software, in fact when you buy your equipment it comes free and is adequate to produce acceptable results. Even if you can't read, they put icons with pictures on them for the step by step process. My neighbour's four year old daughter takes family photos and does all the editing herself. Most of it she figured out herself without anyone's help and her pics are incredible!

I'm not asking for professional quality pics, just the basic picture that is relatively in focus, bright enough to see, and large enough to identify what it is.

 

I can understand your point of view. Luckily, there are several experienced members here who will gladly assist anyone that is having problems with their picture taking. There are several threads that are for members at all levels of expertise. Don't give up, it can be done. I'm sure that if you started a "Can you help me?" thread, you will get all the answers you need. We are a patient lot. Just look at all the repetitive threads regarding Machine doubling, RPM's and "is this an error?"

Don't be afraid to post, you will get the help required.

 

You know, I am probably as guilty of this as anyone. What looks good on my monitor sometimes isn't that clear on others. But I have a new HD display that really is a lot more clear than my older ones. Also, I really can't see the lcd on my camera that well. Even with the camera rig I made, it still takes 20-30 pics to get the lighting right. Then I can only see it after I upload and view them on the larger screen. When using the scanner, I don't adjust the settings at all, but leave them at default. Many of the guys just don't seem to like the scans ?

I read that to sell a coin, use a pic, but to study details, use a scan ? Honestly, without purchasing some very expensive equipment, I don't know what else to do ?

I am sure that I am better equipped than many. The photography is an art that many of us just cannot seem to master. Especially when very tiny details need to be shown with clarity. The Duke said it pretty well. But it must be truly frustrating when you have such a great love and knowledge
and cannot help the person making the query because of the lousy pics.

I would like to take the opportunity to thank you for your patience.

gary

 

For those that don't know, if you are posting the link to photobucket, all you have to do is- [*IMG]www.photobucket.com/yourimageinfohere[*/IMG] (wihtout the *'s). 10 extra keystrokes (the IMG part at the beginning and end of your link) and folks can see your pic without having to click on the link and navigate through photobucket and you don't have to mess with navigating through managing attachments.

 

I've posted up before and got a lot of generic "use the macro function" responses without any real specific help or offers. It is no big deal, though. I think the bigger issue is that it is a 5 year old camera. What is even funnier is that I can get a pic that is a million times clearer, closer, and crisper with my old school film SLR.

 

The only real thing I agree with is cropping. Other than that you just form the best opinion you can off what the poster provided. I have not figured it out yet - but one time I get into the RLM Guess the grades the pictures will fit the screen nicely, next time I have to scroll(if I want). Instead of scrolling I just double click, open them up and expand them to the full size provided. And yes I use photobucket, but I can understand if others have limited space. And not I won't create another photobucket account - I will clean out the one I have eventually when it is needed. So it is okay to vent, but most of the one time posters with that one of kind coin are not going to take the time to do it decently.