L.M. Miller & Son (Charton U.K. Variants)
Dec 25, 2013 23:24:26 GMT -5
Post by Defiant1 on Dec 25, 2013 23:24:26 GMT -5
I haven't found a lot of info on the Charlton UK price variants, but the images do pop up occasionally in my searches. This hasn't been a huge issue, because I only list them as I discover them. Today while processing scans for "Billy the Kid", I discovered a few unusable images. I don't like leaving placeholders and I know that getting high quality usable scans will be near impossible. This is forcing me to create the images I need.
For the sake of full disclosure, I'm revealing the steps and added work that the task involves.
Top Left: This is the image I located online. In the current state, the image is unusable. The image is skewed. It's a photo of a comic in a bag. There is a sticker on the bag.
Top Right: Although I have very little experience with Photoshop, I was able to define the four corners of the comic with the crop tool. Photoshop makes it into a nice rectangular image. Unfortunately, the image quality is still pretty poor. The label at the top still makes the image unusable. It's still helpful as a visual reference. It shows me which features are the same and how the UK price is positioned on the cover.
Bottom Left: I've already got a really nice scan of the American version. I've got some nice scans of the "LM 9D" logo. So, working with a larger copy of the American scan, I resize the price box on it to match the proportions of a UK price box. I use the clone tool to first clone the background color over the text so that the box on the US scan is entirely white (the background color). I then clone the UK price onto the scan of the US comic. I do some color matching to the pixels around the "LM 9D" to make sure it matches. In this case I had to rotate the UK price text because sometimes it's at an angle, sometime is isn't.
Bottom Right: This is the final product. I feel that it's a pretty close match to what the UK version would look like if you were a collector shopping at a store.
It's a tedious process. Comments or criticisms are welcome. The alternatives would be:
1) Post a low resolution crappy image
2) Post a placeholder and hope that a high quality scan will show up online in the next decade.
I prefer to recreate the best image I can make to give collectors a visual tool they can use right now.
Defiant1
For the sake of full disclosure, I'm revealing the steps and added work that the task involves.
Top Left: This is the image I located online. In the current state, the image is unusable. The image is skewed. It's a photo of a comic in a bag. There is a sticker on the bag.
Top Right: Although I have very little experience with Photoshop, I was able to define the four corners of the comic with the crop tool. Photoshop makes it into a nice rectangular image. Unfortunately, the image quality is still pretty poor. The label at the top still makes the image unusable. It's still helpful as a visual reference. It shows me which features are the same and how the UK price is positioned on the cover.
Bottom Left: I've already got a really nice scan of the American version. I've got some nice scans of the "LM 9D" logo. So, working with a larger copy of the American scan, I resize the price box on it to match the proportions of a UK price box. I use the clone tool to first clone the background color over the text so that the box on the US scan is entirely white (the background color). I then clone the UK price onto the scan of the US comic. I do some color matching to the pixels around the "LM 9D" to make sure it matches. In this case I had to rotate the UK price text because sometimes it's at an angle, sometime is isn't.
Bottom Right: This is the final product. I feel that it's a pretty close match to what the UK version would look like if you were a collector shopping at a store.
It's a tedious process. Comments or criticisms are welcome. The alternatives would be:
1) Post a low resolution crappy image
2) Post a placeholder and hope that a high quality scan will show up online in the next decade.
I prefer to recreate the best image I can make to give collectors a visual tool they can use right now.
Defiant1
