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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Lehigh96, post: 432904, member: 15309&quot;]I know that several of the forum members have been interested in my photographic technique.&nbsp; I will state very plainly that my photographic skills are not anything special and that for photography tips, I suggest buying Mark Goodman&#039;s new book.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>I use a Canon Powershot SD870 IS (8.0 megapixel) camera with two OTT adjustable neck desk lamps.&nbsp; I don&#039;t even use a copy stand or any manual settings.&nbsp; However, once I get a half decent photo, I use Adobe Photoshop to make my photos look great.&nbsp; I will list ten easy steps below to help anyone create professional looking coin images.</p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center"><u><font size="4"><span style="color: Blue">Take and crop your photo</span></font><font size="4"></font></u></p> <p style="text-align: center"><u><font size="4"><br /></font></u></p><p><br /></p><p>Find a lighting set up that works for you and take a photo with adequate detail and focus, don&#039;t worry so much about brightness or color.&nbsp; Use the crop tool in photoshop to crop the holder of the coin.&nbsp; I like to have a photo of the coin in its holder as well as a photo of just the obverse and reverse.</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o59/ACPitBoss/Photoshop/PhotoshopStep1CropHolder.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center"> <font size="4"><span style="color: Blue">Crop Again</span></font><span style="color: Blue"></span></p> <p style="text-align: center"><span style="color: Blue"><br /></span></p><p><br /></p><p>This time just crop the obverse of the coin but leave some space between the edges of the coin and the cropped area.</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o59/ACPitBoss/Photoshop/PhotoshopStep2Crop.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center"> <font size="4"><span style="color: Blue">The Final Crop</span></font></p> <p style="text-align: center"><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Now zoom in on the image so that it is rather large on the screen but still fits without scrolling.&nbsp; Then crop the coin by getting as close to the edges of the actual coin as possible.&nbsp; This may take some trial and error but with some practice, you can get quite good at it.</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o59/ACPitBoss/Photoshop/PhotoshopStep3CloseCrop.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center"> <font size="4"><span style="color: Blue">Re-Size your image</span></font></p> <p style="text-align: center"><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>What size photo you end up with will depend greatly on the camera that you use.&nbsp; I use an 8.0 megapixel camera so my images are usually pretty large especially for dollar coins.&nbsp; I like to re size my images down to 500 X 500 pixels.&nbsp; If your image is already smaller than this, re-size it down to the closest multiple of 50 (e.g. 418 to 400).&nbsp; Keep in mind that if you took the coin at a slight angle, re-sizing the coin to a square will help make the coin look more circular.</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o59/ACPitBoss/Photoshop/PhotoshopStep4Re-Size.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center"> <font size="4"><span style="color: Blue">Cut your image</span></font></p> <p style="text-align: center"><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>In order to cut your image, you will need to find your elliptical marquee tool.&nbsp; This can be found by clicking and holding on the rectangular marquee tool.&nbsp; It should give you four options:&nbsp; rectangular marquee, elliptical marquee, single row marquee, and single column marquee.&nbsp; Select the elliptical marquee tool.&nbsp; On the tool bar you will find a STYLE box with three options:&nbsp; Normal, fixed ratio, and fixed size.&nbsp; Select fixed size.&nbsp; Now change the Width and Height boxes to the same value as your image size.&nbsp; In this case it will be 500px by 500px.&nbsp; Once you have your settings correct, you can cut my moving your cursor (cross hairs) to the top left corner of the image and clicking once.&nbsp; You will now see a moving dotted circular line.&nbsp; Move the circle so that it is in the same position as the coin and click EDIT, CUT.&nbsp; If you have done it correctly your screen should look like this.</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o59/ACPitBoss/Photoshop/PhotoshopStep5EllipticalMarqueeCut.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center"> <font size="4"><span style="color: Blue">Create a New File</span></font></p> <p style="text-align: center"><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Go to the File menu and click new.&nbsp; Make sure that the size of your new file is the same (e.g. 500 px by 500 px).&nbsp; You should now have a white box on your screen.&nbsp; I like the white background for my coin photos, but I understand that others like either black or color.&nbsp; To change the color, click the Layer Menu, New Fill Layer, Solid Color, then pick your color.&nbsp; If you have selected a white background, you should see just a white box.&nbsp; I have added a red border so that you can see it on this page.</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o59/ACPitBoss/Photoshop/PhotoshopStep6OpenNewFile.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center"> <font size="4"><span style="color: Blue">Paste your photo</span></font></p> <p style="text-align: center"><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Go to the Edit menu and click paste.&nbsp; It is starting to look good and we are almost done.</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o59/ACPitBoss/Photoshop/PhotoshopStep7Paste.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center"> <font size="4"><span style="color: Blue">Adjust your Brightness</span></font></p> <p style="text-align: center"><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Now we need to adjust the brightness of the photo because we did not worry about this when taking the photo.&nbsp; In my photo, you will notice that it is rather dark.&nbsp; Go to Image, Adjustments, Brightness/Contrast.&nbsp; Adjust the brightness of the image only (don&#039;t touch the contrast) until you are happy with the lighting level.</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o59/ACPitBoss/Photoshop/PhotoshopStep8AdjustBrightness.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center"> <font size="4"><span style="color: Blue">Adjust your Color &amp; Contrast</span></font><font size="4"></font></p> <p style="text-align: center"><font size="4"><br /></font></p><p><br /></p><p>This is our last step and you will see a dramatic difference after this little click.&nbsp; Go to Image, Adjustments, Auto Levels.&nbsp; Now take a look at your finished product.</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o59/ACPitBoss/Photoshop/PhotoshopStep9AutoLevels.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><span style="color: Blue"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: Blue"></span><p style="text-align: center"><font size="4"><span style="color: Blue"> Comparison</span></font><font size="4"></font></p> <p style="text-align: center"><font size="4"><br /></font></p><p><br /></p><p>You want your coin photo to look as much like the actual appearance of the coin as possible.&nbsp; This method is not meant to juice your photos, rather to help fix photographic ineptitude.&nbsp; If your photo does not look like the actual coin, I apologize, but you have to take another photo and start over.&nbsp; This process works very well on silver mint state coins.&nbsp; The performance on copper, gold, and proof coins is much less reliable and is basically hit or miss.&nbsp; Take a look at the coin photo before and after the image adjustments.&nbsp; Not bad huh!</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o59/ACPitBoss/Photoshop/PhotoshopStep10Comparison.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>Now that you have completed the obverse you will need to repeat this process for the reverse.&nbsp; Please remember that this is a method that works for me but I am not an expert by any means.&nbsp; Give it a try and see if it works for you.&nbsp; Let me know what you think.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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