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Message:: [QUOTE="Denis Richard, post: 25959154, member: 112673"]Like Lord Marcovan, I prefer coin images with some personality and style. To me, and I'm heavily biased, an eBay image is like a coin's mugshot, and a PCGS or NGC image is like a coin's passport shot. I take a coin's business headshot or go a little further and make coin portraits. My passion is images with depth. Here's my headshot of a Lucanian silver stater (540-510 BCE) I photographed recently. It's pretty straightforward, but you can't appreciate its relief in this image. [ATTACH=full]1651955[/ATTACH] And here's my portrait version of the same coin. [ATTACH=full]1651956[/ATTACH] Of course, I can present them side by side, similar to PCGS, but I think they look much better alone. [ATTACH=full]1651959[/ATTACH] Another headshot example is this Abderian silver octodrachm (500-480 BCE) that's been seriously damaged by a chisel.[ATTACH=full]1651957[/ATTACH] And here is my more dramatic portrait view. [ATTACH=full]1651958[/ATTACH] At the end of the day, coin photography is not the core business of PCGS or NGC. They are relatively inexpensive add-on services. From Phil Arnold himself, when we chatted at the ANA in Pittsburgh, PCGS allows only seconds per coin for photography, so it stands to reason that at such a pace, they would not produce the best images of your coins, and I don't think they're trying to. Don't get me wrong, they do a good job for the price, and you get what you pay for.[/QUOTE]