If somebody could make a video tutorial on how to make cool backgrounds from scans in GIMP, I’d add it to my YouTube favorites!
Nothing beats some natural sunlight.
Troy:
Nice guide to different lightings. I disagree with you when you say scans are dull – they don’t have to be. Recently I’ve been doing something that I believe I first saw done by either Barracuda or PFM on Discord. Once you take your scan (making sure color settings are adjusted; you can really get the card to pop with appropriate settings), you can put whatever background you want behind the card. It’s a little more work, but the knowledge of PS/GIMP you need is pretty basic (far from my area of expertise but I can get it to look decent in 10 minutes or so). The best part about doing it digitally is that you can choose whatever background you want; I usually try several before deciding on one to post.
The only part I agree with you on is that scans are generally fairly flat. This is a good thing for non-holo cards, but cards with crazy holo (Japanese Shinings and Crystals, Scroll, Pokekyun, etc) and texture (any full art) can really pop with an angled photo.
Here are some examples of what I’m talking about:
Very Clean! I wish I could get scans of my graded cards then I could do some fancy PS work but my scanner only works for paper. You are right. Dull may have been too unforgiving. But like you say: natural light and angling makes holo patterns and texture pop and scanning can only represent that to a certain extent
wooltchi:
Now do one for binders
I would love to have a go. I am going to guess now that sunlight will be the best looking. However, not everyone will want to lug their precious binders out into the open air to do that. We shall see
2 Likes
davie
November 22, 2021, 12:18am
26
What’s that background? I know the GS Greninja is one of the more popular cards for the 25th, but man, I still feel like it’s underrated. Amazing art.
Not only you can, but you should.
1 Like
Nice!! Thanks for sharing.
Good recommendations. I’ve tried and tested a ton of methods with the limited gear I have as well and came to the same conclusion as you. For some cards, like non-holos, it won’t really matter if you’re doing a scan vs. an outside photo. For ones that really need to shine, though, controlling the angle, light, etc. really makes a difference. I love my scanner to death but nothing beats natural sunlight.
Here’s a great example I recently did:
Great write up! Thanks for the contribution.
2 Likes
cinnaminhbun:
Good recommendations. I’ve tried and tested a ton of methods with the limited gear I have as well and came to the same conclusion as you. For some cards, like non-holos, it won’t really matter if you’re doing a scan vs. an outside photo. For ones that really need to shine, though, controlling the angle, light, etc. really makes a difference. I love my scanner to death but nothing beats natural sunlight.
Here’s a great example I recently did:
Great write up! Thanks for the contribution.
Yeah the rainbow holo on the photo does a much better job of showing the card for all its worth
davie
December 11, 2021, 3:57am
32
@miraclegro , I just picked up an Epson V600 for a heck of a steal. I think I’m going to start scanning some of my cards and slabs, and it’d be neat to put the scans on a background image.
Any tips or resources that you’d recommend for someone who’s not very Photoshop savvy? (I’m actually still trying to figure out how to get the scanner to only output the area of the object being scanned if that’s any indicator of my skill level, lol)
Troy
December 11, 2021, 6:05am
33
davie:
@miraclegro , I just picked up an Epson V600 for a heck of a steal. I think I’m going to start scanning some of my cards and slabs, and it’d be neat to put the scans on a background image.
Any tips or resources that you’d recommend for someone who’s not very Photoshop savvy? (I’m actually still trying to figure out how to get the scanner to only output the area of the object being scanned if that’s any indicator of my skill level, lol)
This is the thread I based my scan settings on: www.elitefourum.com/t/im-about-to-lose-my-mind-help-on-v37-settings/28112/13
In terms of Photoshop I can’t help you as much as Google; I basically said all I know in the previous post
davie
December 12, 2021, 2:51am
34
Troy:
davie:
@Troy , I just picked up an Epson V600 for a heck of a steal. I think I’m going to start scanning some of my cards and slabs, and it’d be neat to put the scans on a background image.
Any tips or resources that you’d recommend for someone who’s not very Photoshop savvy? (I’m actually still trying to figure out how to get the scanner to only output the area of the object being scanned if that’s any indicator of my skill level, lol)
This is the thread I based my scan settings on: www.elitefourum.com/t/im-about-to-lose-my-mind-help-on-v37-settings/28112/13
In terms of Photoshop I can’t help you as much as Google; I basically said all I know in the previous post
Thanks! This is super helpful. I’ll look into the PS stuff as well
All you really need to use ps for is the wand tool to select the background and delete. Or a select tool to select the card and invert the selection and delete that. Then put whatever image you want in the background
Troy:
Nice guide to different lightings. I disagree with you when you say scans are dull – they don’t have to be. Recently I’ve been doing something that I believe I first saw done by either Barracuda or PFM on Discord. Once you take your scan (making sure color settings are adjusted; you can really get the card to pop with appropriate settings), you can put whatever background you want behind the card. It’s a little more work, but the knowledge of PS/GIMP you need is pretty basic (far from my area of expertise but I can get it to look decent in 10 minutes or so). The best part about doing it digitally is that you can choose whatever background you want; I usually try several before deciding on one to post.
The only part I agree with you on is that scans are generally fairly flat. This is a good thing for non-holo cards, but cards with crazy holo (Japanese Shinings and Crystals, Scroll, Pokekyun, etc) and texture (any full art) can really pop with an angled photo.
Here are some examples of what I’m talking about:
I need to get to these standards, awesome work
