anvilfire.com Anvil Gallery

We get a few very good images sent to us. But the vast majority, including those sent to us for advertising products are pretty miserable. Even the best require work. At a minimum every image is cropped and resized for the web. Photos of objects such as anvils, swageblocks, tools or work usually need distracting backgrounds removed. In some cases the subject dissapears into the background or is too similar to the background and must have the background made distant and the subject enhanced to bring it forward.

Many images we are provided are low resolution from old digital cameras or new cell phones. A few cell phone images are surprisingly good but are generally low resolution 640 x 480's or have bad focus which is aggravated by the low resolution. A well composed image this size often works well on the web but if the subject does not fill the area and must be cropped and enlarged it is very difficult. Higher resolution images can be cropped without losing clarity so are better to work with. Higher resolution images (3000 x 2000) are much better when cutting out backgrounds and making other corrections as the results are smoother when reduced.

The two image problems that cannot be fixed are out of focus and pixelation from low light or over compression when the image is saved. We ask people sending us images not to crop them or make any other adjustments to avoid compression errors. But many other serious defects such as parts of objects being cut off can often be repaired.

Besides removing backgrounds and repairing missing parts of subjects we also increase size (in steps), correct perspective and remove wide angle curvature distortion, enhance shading (lightening and darkening sections), enhance and correct color, make composites with multiple items OR use multiple images to composite a subject.

We now also save multiple versions of images in higher resolutions than displayed on our pages. This is for the future when display devices all become higher resolution than today or for possible print publication.

We do this all to provide you, the public, with an enjoyable experience viewing our pages.

About Illustrations for Publication Why there is no excuse for bad illustrations in published works. With examples of good illustrations and digital methods of producing illustrations with no artistic skill.

Andy Mason Collection Slideshow

Digitally composited groups of tools all photographed individually.