How much image editing do you find acceptable?

[pendragon1998]

After many people take a digital photo of a coin, it is often subjected to some degree of alteration in an image editing program like photoshop. Photographers may choose to simply crop out the coin and put it on a solid background, or they may go deeper into the editing process, altering color balances, contrast, and other elements of the photo. Disreputable dealers may even go to the extreme of actually cloning over scratches or hairlines or altering dates or mint marks.

 

Some people on this board refuse to edit their photos at all, merely cropping them. My own opinion is that tweaking the image slightly to correct for problems the camera had capturing variables like color or brightness is okay, provided the goal is to present an image as close to life-like as possible. Anyone else want to chime in on the subject?

[HaydenTubbs]

I cannot think of one good coin photographer who does not tweak his images. It is only when the image of the coin is made to look better than it is hand,that it becomes ethically wrong.

[Regis44]

I think if you tweak it you should disclose that in your description. I'd rather change lighting or slightl angle of shot to get as close to "in-hand" as possible. I've used graphics software most every day for years so I could do most anyting to coin photo that I wanted. But, once you start, there is no end (adictive). I posted a "graphic softwear toning" a couple months ago for fun.

 

my

 

Regis

[Bruceswar]

Image tweaking to get the coin as close to hand is fine. Other than that, anything to make the coin look better than it is. NO!

[RGT]

I would say that about 98% of my pictures are simply cropped and resized. Occasionally I will have a particularly difficult time with a coin. On those I may just take the closest one of the bunch and adjust it a bit to try to make it look more like I see the coin in hand. That typically is just the brightness or contrast. I rarely ever touch the color balance or saturation since I color balance my camera before I shoot.

 

With my old camera I didn't have a decent color balance option. Then I would almost always have to mess with the color balance in software. I think making some slight adjustments to correct for camera deficiencies is fine as long as the image is being made to look more like the coin and not just trying to make it look better than it really is in hand.

[Brotherman]

Image tweaking to get the coin as close to hand is fine. Other than that, anything to make the coin look better than it is. NO!

 

I agree.

Any sort of alteration is fine as long as the purpose is to show what the coin

looks like in hand. Isn’t that the reason to take the photo in the first place?

You want to show someone else what the coin looks like. However, once

the tweaking becomes enhancing then the line as been crossed. That’s what

I think anyway.

 

Hays

[James_OldeTowne]

I of course crop and resize my images, but that doesn't affect the integrity of the image of the coin in the slightest. My software does have an "auto adjust" feature, and that's about the extent of tweaking that I do. I'd say maybe half my images have had the "auto adjust" applied, but most of the time, it hardly makes any noticeable change. The only thing it really seems to do is brighten the image, and I do not consider brightening an image as something that affects its integrity. After all, in-hand, you can always shine a brighter or dimmer light on a coin.

 

James

[TomB]

I crop the images and resize when needed. Aside from that, I have found that it is rare for me to do anything else to the image. I believe I increased the brightness on a coin image once when the image was too dark, but that has been it.

[James_OldeTowne]

Let me add an additional comment. If you do something to an image that would normally be done in-hand, then I would find that acceptable. In other words, you can make an image smaller or larger, which is equivalent to holding a coin in your hand closer or further from your eyes. You can make an image brighter, which is equivalent to moving the coin in your hand closer or further from a light source.

 

However, using image software to remove flaws is obviously not equivalent to anything normally done in your hand. Also, boosting the contrast to impart a cameo look to an image is not equivalent to anything you can do in your hand.

 

James

[Regis44]

If you do something to an image that would normally be done in-hand, then I would find that acceptable. In other words, you can make an image smaller or larger, which is equivalent to holding a coin in your hand closer or further from your eyes. You can make an image brighter, which is equivalent to moving the coin in your hand closer or further from a light source.

 

James

 

James,

That is about the best description of what I would consider legitiment software action. And, it is so clear.

 

Thank you,

Regis

[pendragon1998]

I of course crop and resize my images, but that doesn't affect the integrity of the image of the coin in the slightest. My software does have an "auto adjust" feature, and that's about the extent of tweaking that I do. I'd say maybe half my images have had the "auto adjust" applied, but most of the time, it hardly makes any noticeable change. The only thing it really seems to do is brighten the image, and I do not consider brightening an image as something that affects its integrity. After all, in-hand, you can always shine a brighter or dimmer light on a coin.

 

James

 

I've occasionally used that feature on some of my photos but I've noticed that if you've got the white balance and exposure more or less on the button, you won't see much of a change. I'll sometimes see autoadjust clean up the contrast slightly, but only by several points, not enough to create a cameo effect as someone else described. Generally, though, if you took a sufficiently proficient photo, auto adjust shouldn't have much to do.

 

One other note on that, though: I've noticed that if I auto adjust the entire image, prior to cropping, I get a much different result than if I crop and auto adjust the coin only. I'd suggest any use of auto-adjust only be done on the original image as a whole.

[Beijim]

Michael,

 

I agree precisely with your definition of acceptable.

 

Regards,

Beijim