Posting Enhance Photos

In my view, enhanced photos of stamps posted by dealers are tantamount to false advertising. This practice is becoming rampant on Hipstamp and ought to be declared out of bounds for all dealers. In my experience, requests for un-doctored photos from individual dealers are not answered.

Comments

  • 9 Comments sorted by Votes Date Added
  • What do you consider to be "doctored"?
  • Ron would be amazed even the stamps these days are enhanced on botox or viagra
  • If, by enhanced, you mean any post-scan image editing of color and brightness levels, then I am guilty, and freely admit it. Scanners, like automatic exposure cameras, are not perfect, and often deliver images that in no way resemble the actual item scanned. Look at all the listings that have scans with ash-gray backgrounds. I have never seen stock sheets of that color. If the scanner is not getting the black level correct on the background, it is certain that the levels on the stamp are not accurate either. Would it please you more to see a raw unedited scan of the item, such as this one?

    43e77aad3f2c71e04170adb4a3fd464b

    Any editing I do on my images is solely for the purpose of providing an accurate depiction of the listed stamps, which sometimes includes providing *additional scans* with exaggerated contrast in order to make a light crease, thin, gum disturbance, or tear visible. The flat straight-on lighting of the scanner does not provide for shadows that bring out surface irregularities,

    While it's true, some dealers go overboard with the sharpening and color and levels correction, that is not justification for banning all image editing. Be careful what you wish for; you may end up with 90% of the listings looking like my example.
  • Actually the hagner pages do vary on what color the cards are. (At the moment I have 5 different shades of black cards ranging from ash grey to black. And that's from a stack that's about a foot high and those are the top 5 cards)

  • I will brighten an image of a stamp if it appears too dark. Sometimes the reds or blues come out shaded wrong from the computer interpretation as i try to make the stamp look more correct. I don't do this too often, but sometimes I believe it is necessary to provide a more accurate image.
  • edited April 2020 2 LikesVote Down
    The problem with color correcting any image (not just stamps) is that screens and monitors vary in what the manufacturer deems acceptable. HP monitors seem to like extra blue. I have 5 different monitors in my house all
    5 show a slightly different looking image. All of them are acceptable, but are obviously different from the density of particular colors to brightness and Gamma.
    The only way to truly post a "perfect" likeness is to look at the curves and density numbers in the editing program. Each color (RGB or CMYK) should be within acceptable ranges and the whitest white should be less than 5% and the blackest black should be close to 100% dot density. Even doing that it is a crap shoot as to what other people will see when they look at the image on their computer.
    Having said that, I am also guilty of doing some "number crunching" on images, especially to show the flaws that I mention in the description but are invisible in the raw scan. Given the fact that there is no such thing as a "color corrected" monitor (i doubt any home computer user would see the high price as worth the effort) and that the human eye sees reflected and transmitted color differently: presenting a perfect image on the internet is close to impossible. That's why using the best scanner you cam afford is important. Sorry, but 25 years in the printing industry has made me jaded...
  • The unenhanched Ted images-2

    Ted's enhanced version: dbk8rh2-d6a2c29c-ea97-46c7-b3f1-c99e407b646b
  • Actually, the first one is enhanced :(
    The 2nd one is my wife’s fantasy. LOL
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