Opinion When Buying Online

[ThatPhillyReefer]

Hello All,
I just wanted to put this out there and my opinion on buying corals online. So yes I have bought corals online but nothing aggravates me more when buying something online and it looking different in person. A lot of online vendors edit the pictures to make the coral look more bright and vibrant when they aren’t. I did a little editing which took me 30 seconds to show how big of a difference it makes

The first pics are the original and the second pics are the edited. (I am no expert with editing but i just wanted to see how easy it is to make corals look different from what they really are)

At the end of the day, I am not saying all online vendors edit their pictures but I want people to be aware that what you order is not always what you get!

Whats your opinion on online vendors?

 

[VintageReefer]

Lol tell me about it

 

[VintageReefer]

Vendor photo

Actual coral

Vendor vs Actual coral

Torch got bjd and bailed both polyps in the first 2 weeks.

The hammer I still have. Still not orange

 

[jezreef]

yeah, i've been burned by edited pics before too. it's frustrating when you get all excited for a coral and it shows up looking totally different. nowadays i try to stick to local shops or ask for unedited pics before buying online.

 

[VintageReefer]

yeah, i've been burned by edited pics before too. it's frustrating when you get all excited for a coral and it shows up looking totally different. nowadays i try to stick to local shops or ask for unedited pics before buying online.

In my above post, I was promised my pic was unedited. I told them I almost don’t believe the pic (politely - I didn’t want to be rude) and they promised me in person It looks exactly like the photo. I said I’ll buy it but if I get a yellow or gold torch I’m going to be upset. They then promised it wasn’t gold torch. I bought it.

Then they bagged up a regular Indo gold and sent it off to me as if it wasn’t going to be an issue.

When I complained they told me it’s still a nice torch…

 

[ThatPhillyReefer]

Vendor photo

Actual coral

Vendor vs Actual coral

Torch got bjd and bailed both polyps in the first 2 weeks.

The hammer I still have. Still not orange

wow that torch would tick me off so much haha. i love the one they gave you but its not what was shown

 

[Dburr1014]

Blue light also makes everything pop.
When I go to shows I bring a flashlight with me so I can see it in daylight.
It's extremely rare I buy coral online.

 

[ThatPhillyReefer]

Blue light also makes everything pop.
When I go to shows I bring a flashlight with me so I can see it in daylight.
It's extremely rare I buy coral online.

yes i take all my pics under blue light with orange filter

 

[GARRIGA]

Been selling Boas since early 90s. Went online in 2006. Went out of my way to replicate what I see. Custom white balance based on grey card. When possible bounce flash off white surface or use studio lights all at 5500 kelvin. Don't even know how to use Photoshop although use Lightroom to crop.

Then I see animals posted I know for a fact are edited or lit with color enhancing lights just based on the exposure used or color cast on the background. Drives me nuts. Under expose a snake with red highlights and that gets heightened.

Now we are in the spectrum of lights that can be adjusted from 3k to 20k kelvin with infinite adjustments.

Without an industry standard as exists in photography where the base 5500 then it's an open crap shoot to how an items is represented and I'm not necessarily saying this is nefarious but their lights may not be as what one has at home therefore it might just be that piece will never look the same. Perhaps customers demand that for photos to be taken under a know spectrum so there's a base all work from yet subtleties in the LEDs used might still give slight changes.

BTW, there's also the issue with customers likely not having calibrated monitors. Been using those decade plus and I can assure you it makes a difference. Color accuracy heavily depends on it therefore what you see may be different than what the vendor saw based on it and that is on the consumer to fix otherwise just live with the fact you're at a disadvantage selecting pieces.

 

[fish farmer]

I always expect the color will be off.

A top down shot will always look better even without editing.

I recently bought a gold hammer, online photo was better, but if I take a picture top down under just the right light setting I could probably duplicate it.

But I have it mounted for mostly side viewing so it won't look like advertised.