Commercial Sites using Photoshop?

Paintguru · May 8, 2008

Russellaqua said:
I'm sure some people do it. How prevalent it is we'll never know because those vendors don't tell you. The only "good" uses of Photoshop are white balance (many cameras do not allow manual white balance at 20000K color temps that some corals are kept under), cropping, and any other adjustments to give a more accurate representation of the coral. I use it only for white balance and cropping.

I agree with this. The use of Photoshop is not wrong if it is used honestly. Using it to make something look like something it is not is wrong though.

reefcleaners · May 16, 2008

Wow, never thought people would do that. Bad move I think. If you can't sell the product for what it is don't stock it. Products come and go, a customer's loyalty is priceless in getting not only return business, but word of mouth. I must get about 90% of my business through word of mouth.

rudylbj · May 17, 2008

rocko918 said:
Like these? From a well known site.

Its sad, but it happens all the time. You just have to know what you are buying.

Those don't look shopped at all. I have seen Acans in person look 10x brighter than these, those pics don't look enhanced at all. There are plenty of sites that need to shop their pics a bit, when you see a totally blue background then that is due to actinics and then the coral is not going to look like it is in the photo unless you use mostly actinics on your tank. For the most part I have had excellent experiences with most all online vendors with the coral looking like the photo. RM was the worst offender, not a single coral I got looked anywhere as bright as their pics.

Russellaqua · May 17, 2008

reefcleaners said:
Wow, never thought people would do that. Bad move I think. If you can't sell the product for what it is don't stock it. Products come and go, a customer's loyalty is priceless in getting not only return business, but word of mouth. I must get about 90% of my business through word of mouth.

100% agree. There are only so many reef keepers out there. Return business is vital to any business. Sell something that doesn't look like the pic and that customer will never shop with you again. Sell something that looks better than the pic and you'll get such great word of mouth people will be knocking down the door.

scp443 · May 23, 2008

you've also got to think about color diffrences in computer monitors. A guy selling his coral might have an ageing monitor that is dark and dim. When he corects the colors on his monitor they might be spot on but when you look at the same pic on your brand new, bright as hell, monitor they look super saturated.

I can say that i've been pretty dissapointed with a piece i recieved from divers den. it was the piece pictured no question but it wasnt wysiwyg.... neon pink Z. gigantus with green mouths turn out to be greyish-pink bland grey mouth and skirt. decent looking polyps but if i had seen them in person i wouldve scoffed at the price.

turbois300 · May 23, 2008

I have noticed this a ton. Was actually on a sponsors site and saw a pict with a hand in it and the skin is all splotchy and pink and blue where someone either forgot to silo the coral for correction only or just didn't care. It was really bad IMO.

mpoletti · May 23, 2008

Leishman said:
agreed, but I have NEVER been anything but 100% satisfied with corals from Chris @ RM (I have ordered 10+ colonies from them over the years)

Chris Wray no longer works there. Their new site is not very good either. I at least liked looking at all the shopped eye candy.

JuniorMC8704 · May 24, 2008

The comment on monitors is true to an extent...however you can tell when people are using very high end cameras/lenses, and to handle those size files, their computers are likely to be pretty up to date.

Its not to say a retailer doesn't have the best of intentions and still posts ridiculously inaccurate pictures.

What drives me crazy is when someone/some shop posts "these photos are straight from my camera, they are shopped like so many others" and they are to most obscene pictures out there. Not even taking the time to learn that if you take a JPG under actinics and dont adjust the white balance the coral and everything around are going to be dark blue, or look 5x more saturated than normal.

Its one thing to post pics, and not know any better, but when statements like the one mentioned above are made, and than those type of pictures are posted it tells me to run far and fast.

***TIP***

IF PICS SHOW EGG CRATE, AND THERE IS A BLUE GLOWING EDGE AROUND IT, ITS HEAVY SATURATED, AND NOT AN ACURATE PHOTO. UNLESS OFCOARSE THEY STATE THAT IS AN ACTINIC ONLY PICTURE.

If anyone ever comes across a picture of a coral, and is questioning its accuracy, please feel free to PM a link, and i SHOULD be able to verify it one way or another for you.

shred5 · May 25, 2008

Russellaqua said:
I'm sure some people do it. How prevalent it is we'll never know because those vendors don't tell you. The only "good" uses of Photoshop are white balance (many cameras do not allow manual white balance at 20000K color temps that some corals are kept under), cropping, and any other adjustments to give a more accurate representation of the coral. I use it only for white balance and cropping.

Photoshop has something in it to adjust for whate ballance? Just wondering because I do not have white ballance on my new camera and my pics are always real blue?

Dave

bluegrass · May 25, 2008

RM was hard to figure. I ordered a ton from Chris and I didn't think he needed to do all of that PP. I always thought the pieces were amazing in person. And yes, he is no longer there.

Russellaqua · May 25, 2008

shred5 said:
Photoshop has something in it to adjust for whate ballance? Just wondering because I do not have white ballance on my new camera and my pics are always real blue?

Dave

If you have PS Elements (all you need) go to Enhance--->Adjust Lighting--->Levels. Then click on the white eyedropper and click on something white in your pic. Fortunately there's usually lots of eggcrate around. Sometimes it takes some fiddling to get it exactly right, but that's really all it takes. BTW, PS Elements is waaaaay cheaper than regular Photoshop and can be bought for around $100. This and cropping is my extent of PS know-how.

tbaquatics · May 25, 2008

My opinion is more sites do it than do not, which is amazing to me, since if a customer gets something that looks nothing like the picture because of photoshopping, it's going to result in a lot of bad press.

On the other hand, there are a lot of true differences caused by different lighting, monitor calibration, etc.

Russellaqua · May 25, 2008

I agree that probably most sites use PS to some extent. Used properly it provides a more accurate representation of the product. Recently I have noticed more and more sites that are using it properly. I haven't seen a camera that can white balance itself to 20000K color temps, so PS is the only way to provide an accurate picture of the coral.

scp443 · May 25, 2008

adjusting colors isnt terribly wrong. they can play even more games with camera settings. i feel if they are going for an accurate representation of the coral than its ok in my book to shop the heck out of it to make it as accurate as possible. that said i dont believe thats what they're doing all the time and its pretty futile, anyway, because colors change depending on the lighting. i think sellers should take thier pics under 10K, crop and auto adjust in PS and post. If they didnt get the corals true colors, reshoot. besides, why actively try to dissapoint your customers? doesnt make any sense.

Russellaqua · May 25, 2008

I agree some places actively try to play up what their corals look like. I've seen some pics that without even seeing the coral in person you can tell are wrong. Then you get the coral and it looks nothing like what the pic was. I don't get why people do it either. Repeat customers are the foundation of any successful business.