Jeff,

I can't answer your question about all of the little details. I will not say that the photo people at Antiquorum "doctored" the image or at least that they altered details. I will say that there are different ways to render a digital image. This can be done with lighting and exposure and it can be done in post processing. When I first saw the Antiquorum Seafarer photo I said to myself that they seemed to have gotten rid of a lot of the midtones. Again, this can be done in the way you light and expose the subject and/or it can be done in Photoshop. The mid-tones contain most of the details be they defects/scratches/splotches. I copied on of the images in your last post and worked on it in Photoshop for about two minutes. I basically did a curves adjustment. I took some care that I did not take away from the saturation of the blue when I did this. Had I taken a bit more time I could easily have done more to preserve or accentuate not only the blue but the lume color and the detail of the ridges in the subs...or whatever else. Below is the curves adjusted image on the right and your original on the left. Again, if you take away the mid-tones you take away a lot of the gory details.

Good photographers make photos to show a product in a flattering way. Everyone including photographers and auctioneers draw their moral lines in different places.

JohnCote