Photoshop: when is enough enough

[Wildreefs]

Not sure anything can irritate one more than misrepresentation of anything in life.

These coral photos that circulate the web of corals you know dont really look like that are beyond frustrating.

Was at an lfs the other day and he should em me some wholesale corals from a coral place I will leave unnamed.

On the frag plug a zoa was on, was a snail. Not just any snail, a completely “gold” snail.
The picture was shopped so hard and careless they didnt realize they turned a turbo snail gold.

Why can’t we just sell things as is,
Not pose them as something they are not?

 

[Sierra_Bravo]

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[DeniseAndy]

I do think they filters for photoshop get a bit carried away. I understand the need for it as our cameras and eyes see differently. However, when I take pics and then photoshop, I am trying to get it to look as I see it.
However, I am not trying to sell things either.
This is not a new thing. Everything looks cool in the adds. Just know, actual corals do not fly (not a flying toy).

 

[Reefs and Geeks]

It is out of hand, and also gives people who buy those frags a feeling that they aren't a good reefer, or that something is wrong with their tank when their coral don't look the same.

When I take pictures of my coral, especially those that are for sale, I will use the orange gel filter when taking the picture. I still find that even with that, certain colors look too bright while others are actually blander than in real life. So I will adjust the picture to try and best match what the coral looks like in person to how it shows up on my screen. I can typically get it to be very close to real life, and most of the time those that I sell them to still say they look even better in person than in the pictures. I think that might be because they are used to the opposite and expect them to look worse in person.

This whole color saturation thing is one big reason I love going to frag swaps. I can see in person what these designer coral really look like in person (with all blue lighting of course). Regardless of if I plan to purchase or not, I can get a good feel for what they really do look like and have realistic expectations for my own tank.

 

[Cstar_BC]

I’ve started looking at the egg crate or the frag plugs , or even algae in the background .

you can normally tell whose over saturated their pics based on the common items

 

[this is me]

I blame it on the blue led. LED lights in general are very tough for the camera sensor to see actual colors. So people tried to correct this by changing the color temperature of the RAW file and while at it, they oversaturate the colors.

 

[Devaji]

totally agree 100% it gotten way out of hand. a thread like this come up once a month most reefs if not all are fed up with it. I think we really need to have a convo with most if not all the big name coral vendors and tell them what we want. in the end of the day our $$ votes so if one start doing the "right and honest" thing I hope we as reefers will support them .

 

[melanotaenia]

I blame it on all the recent vendors who have saturated their photos to the extreme so they can charge absurd prices for frags that should cost $10.

 

[Cstar_BC]

totally agree 100% it gotten way out of hand. a thread like this come up once a month most reefs if not all are fed up with it. I think we really need to have a convo with most if not all the big name coral vendors and tell them what we want. in the end of the day our $$ votes so if one start doing the "right and honest" thing I hope we as reefers will support them .

I think it should just become standard practice to have two pics on every coral . One under blues andone under white/normal daylight

 

[Michael Gray]

Not just vendors. Hobbyist now do it with all their personal photos.

 

[robbyg]

Its way out of hand and very short sighted by the vendors. I would rather be pleasantly surprised by how a coral looks rather than be disappointed and feel like I was ripped off.
I am sure they get enough of these complaints, so they are doing it knowing that most customers will be one time customers. We need lists or a Poll to flesh out who are the worst offenders, that way we can slow down the rate at which they sucker in new buyers.

 

[DivingTheWorld]

I think the biggest injustice is the 100% blue pics using an orange filter which results in the ridiculous colors no one will see unless they just run 100% blue and wear orange sunglasses. Then they saturate the heck out of them. That’s why I avoid some vendors and with others just stick with named corals that I know will look a certain way.

Sometimes it’s fun to take pics like that as long as you’re clear what you’re doing. “Hey, here’s some fun all blue pics.”

But if you’re passing them off as legit colors for a sale, that’s shady. When I post pics, especially for a sale, I do my best to make them look exactly as they do to your naked eye. I don’t want anyone to be surprised when they see them in person!

Why is my Walt Disney not bright yellow??? Lol

 

[Devaji]

I think it should just become standard practice to have two pics on every coral . One under blues andone under white/normal daylight

yeah there is one vendor that doesa this I and have bought from them a few times. its nice!

 

[Trey]

Why not just shoot RAW and correct in post using Lightroom? Should be easy enough to do accurately...

 

[Wildreefs]

It’s blatant misrepresentation point blank. I go into several shops and see there corals, than see their Facebook pages and say, many, they must have a different holding facility, cause those sure are not it .

Then when you get to know more of these vendors from behind the screen you find out they are tech/computer guys. A few on here are former programmers, now they have the coral with colors no one else sees, that is until they show up at your door.

Come to think of it, one of the bigger zoa guys on Facebook has “IT” as his profession.

 

[Dr. Jim]

I understand that color correction in Photoshop or Lightroom is necessary, but it is the excess SATURATION that is ruining them. If the saturation is causing a blur, instead of distinct demarcation, then it has been oversaturated during processing.

There have been so many Live Sales on Reef2Reef where I would have bought tons of corals but because of the oversaturation, I stay away (unless I recognize the name of the particular coral and know how it will look, but that is only a small fraction of them).

 

[proxy001]

Same colony... Unmodified VS post image processing...

 

[vetteguy53081]

I realize we are in a world of advanced photography, and nice filters and gadgets to enhance photo BUT when a monetary transaction is involved- Purchasers Deserve a True non-enhanced photo to see/know what they are buying with expectations that it will look just like that in their tanks.
We would not expect to buy a Pair of black colored jeans online and when it arrives, its' Purple.

 

[proxy001]

I realize we are in a world of advanced photography, and nice filters and gadgets to enhance photo BUT when a monetary transaction is involved- Purchasers Deserve a True non-enhanced photo to see/know what they are buying with expectations that it will look just like that in their tanks.
We would not expect to buy a Pair of jeans online and when it arrives, its' Purple.

And the other thing... the magnification they use is ridiculous. You buy a coral that you think is large and they are selling you ONE polyp.

 

[vetteguy53081]

And the other thing... the magnification they use is ridiculous. You buy a coral that you think is large and they are selling you ONE polyp.

YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY CORRECT !!! I Forgot about that. . . I have literally Stopped buying online and online auctions as when you see a 10 head zoa that looks massive with heads the size of a pencil eraser, and the frag arrives the size of a dime with the heads the size of a pinhead, You get irate very quickly !