Do the pics look highly edited?

[eqbal9947]

Corals for Sale in Canada – SPS, LPS, Zoanthids & More | GTA Reef

Shop premium live corals in Canada, including SPS, LPS, Zoanthids, and Softies. GTA Reef offers handpicked frags with vibrant colour and pest-free quality—local pickup in Toronto & Canada-wide shipping available.

gtareef.ca

Im thinking of buying a few Zoas but their pictures look very manipulated and im nervous about getting something unexpected

 

[davidcalgary29]

Corals for Sale in Canada – SPS, LPS, Zoanthids & More | GTA Reef

Shop premium live corals in Canada, including SPS, LPS, Zoanthids, and Softies. GTA Reef offers handpicked frags with vibrant colour and pest-free quality—local pickup in Toronto & Canada-wide shipping available.

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Im thinking of buying a few Zoas but their pictures look very manipulated and im nervous about getting something unexpected

They're not "very manipulated"; they're photographed under actinic lighting so that the colours really pop. A lot of reefers keep their lighting heavily in the UV-violet-blue end of the spectrum, so it's not unfair marketing.

If you're worried at all, ask them to photograph the polyps under white lighting or -- better yet -- the spectrum at which you'll be keeping your coral. This will give you a more representative look.

Compare with here; even where Fragbox's corals aren't WYSIWYG, the picture tends to be a close match to the actual shipped product. And since you're a fellow Albertan, you should be looking here as well.

 

[czoolander]

For what its worth I bought 4 frags off this vendor a few months back under the WYSISWYG category. They arrived well packaged and exactly as appeared in the pictures

I would buy from them again 100%

 

[eqbal9947]

They're not "very manipulated"; they're photographed under actinic lighting so that the colours really pop. A lot of reefers keep their lighting heavily in the UV-violet-blue end of the spectrum, so it's not unfair marketing.

If you're worried at all, ask them to photograph the polyps under white lighting or -- better yet -- the spectrum at which you'll be keeping your coral. This will give you a more representative look.

Compare with here; even where Fragbox's corals aren't WYSIWYG, the picture tends to be a close match to the actual shipped product. And since you're a fellow Albertan, you should be looking here as well.

If you look at the seduction zoas for example. looking nothing like normal seducations and there are a few more,

 

[eqbal9947]

For what its worth I bought 4 frags off this vendor a few months back under the WYSISWYG category. They arrived well packaged and exactly as appeared in the pictures

I would buy from them again 100%

Appreciate the input, i feel better about buying

 

[davidcalgary29]

If you look at the seduction zoas for example. looking nothing like normal seducations and there are a few more,

Keep in mind that online aquaculture businesses are highly sensitive to critiques on social media, and it is not in their interest to engage in false advertising: one, or a couple of bad reviews, could really damage their bottom lines, so few established businesses (as this is) really try to deceive their customers. Again, I'd simply ask them to photograph the polyps you want under your current lighting regime so that you can see what they'll probably look like in your tank.

 

[Roli's Reef Ranch]

Corals for Sale in Canada – SPS, LPS, Zoanthids & More | GTA Reef

Shop premium live corals in Canada, including SPS, LPS, Zoanthids, and Softies. GTA Reef offers handpicked frags with vibrant colour and pest-free quality—local pickup in Toronto & Canada-wide shipping available.

gtareef.ca

Im thinking of buying a few Zoas but their pictures look very manipulated and im nervous about getting something unexpected

Just look at the color of the plug...

 

[3429810]

Personally I haven’t bought anything from them because some of the pictures are really bad and clearly edited. Was going to but majority of the photos are taken under very heavy blues with orange lenses or they are that but the saturation is edited. Looks like they have nice stuff and haven’t heard anything bad about them so I’m interested to see what others chime in with.

 

[davidcalgary29]

Personally I haven’t bought anything from them because some of the pictures are really bad and clearly edited.

You should have a chat some time with the vendors about how photographs are taken. I did this myself with a local vendor (very reputable, and a great guy), and I was quite surprised to learn that it's a very lengthy process for him: it takes quite a while to set up lighting, make sure there's a decent contrast with the background (and this is why so many pictures are shot with a dark backdrop), and to make sure that the colouring doesn't appear to be unnaturally amplified. Some might call this "editing", but I think it's more of a product of having to photograph an object under water, from above the waterline, while that object's being illuminated by a reduced spectrum of lighting. No one wants an angry customer, so aside from the few scammers out there who want to pull a fast one, who would deliberately try to deceive a customer with "editing"? I just haven't seen this with any established, online coral vendor in Canada.

 

[czoolander]

Typically if you are buying online corals that are not WYSIWYG then every single time from every online vendor they will look different then the pictures.

This is why if i buy online corals i only buy WYSIWYG . its no surprise they all edit and mislead on what the corals actually look like in the water .

I did purchase 4 frags from this vendor as WYSIWYG and they were exactly in my tank as was listed on the website .

Hope this helps

 

[3429810]

You should have a chat some time with the vendors about how photographs are taken. I did this myself with a local vendor (very reputable, and a great guy), and I was quite surprised to learn that it's a very lengthy process for him: it takes quite a while to set up lighting, make sure there's a decent contrast with the background (and this is why so many pictures are shot with a dark backdrop), and to make sure that the colouring doesn't appear to be unnaturally amplified. Some might call this "editing", but I think it's more of a product of having to photograph an object under water, from above the waterline, while that object's being illuminated by a reduced spectrum of lighting. No one wants an angry customer, so aside from the few scammers out there who want to pull a fast one, who would deliberately try to deceive a customer with "editing"? I just haven't seen this with any established, online coral vendor in Canada.

I’m well aware of how to take good pictures of coral. That is not what he is doing. He cranks his blues to 100, probably slaps on 3 orange filters then ends it with a bit of editing. Here is an example of him taking a photo then cranking the saturation slider from the home page with the zoas. There are multiple examples usually in the lps section of him doing this with saturation. His wysiwyg pictures normally aren’t bad it’s the colony shots. That hammer is popping a little to much. We have all seen these corals irl it’s obvious there is something going on with his photos. On the second hammer it looks ok until you see part of the torch beside it then it’s obvious. I will say that back in the spring he had some that were hilariously bad and that’s when I decided not to buy from him.

 

[3429810]

Anyone want to defend this photo? lol I was wrong his acro section is the biggest offender currently.

 

[eqbal9947]

Yeah... im going to stay away i think

 

[3429810]

Yeah... im going to stay away i think

Good call. Hopefully he sees this and cleans his pics up a bit. Wouldn’t be the first time it’s been mentioned on here though. Pretty sure around 6 months ago there was a thread like this it seems like it may have been deleted now though. Can’t find it anywhere. They are a sponsor on here though so who knows.