Vender coral pic vs actual coral

[shoelaceike]

I saved your picture and altered it to what I would think it would look like in person. Using the color of the coralline algae I edited until it seemed reasonable. Am I close?

That's about right when looking from top with all power off and of course bringing the coral to the top.....

 

[teosso]

Hi guys, been reefkeeping ànd diving for over 20 years. Many of the pics look better because of the lights they use... One of my LFS puts them in a show tank with metal halide and kessil a360 tuna blue with the blue spectrum at max power, of course they look great but when removed they look like regular corals, the actual colors change or look like they do as soon as I grabbed the dial on the kessil and went down on the Kelvin temp the real colors come out ( I should add on this particular tank they had 1 metal halide and 4 kessil a360's.

 

[RMS18]

This is the yellow aussie hammer I thought I was getting from cherry corals live sale...

And this is what I actually received a green hammer..

I tried putting it under all spectrums from 13k-20k even just under my uv to see if they just pictured it under a certain kelvin. No luck.. I then messed with my picture on my phone by changing the hue. Seems to match their picture a bit more.

 

[shoelaceike]

This is the yellow aussie hammer I thought I was getting from cherry corals live sale...

And this is what I actually received a green hammer..

I tried putting it under all spectrums from 13k-20k even just under my uv to see if they just pictured it under a certain kelvin. No luck.. I then messed with my picture on my phone by changing the hue. Seems to match their picture a bit more.

Sorry bout that bro.....just the way it is

 

[teosso]

This is the yellow aussie hammer I thought I was getting from cherry corals live sale...

And this is what I actually received a green hammer..

I tried putting it under all spectrums from 13k-20k even just under my uv to see if they just pictured it under a certain kelvin. No luck.. I then messed with my picture on my phone by changing the hue. Seems to match their picture a bit more.

Looks like they cranked the red spectrum...sneaky.

 

[DHill6]

I ordered a coral from an online vendor that I have not dealt with before. The picture on his website shows a vibrant hot pink to red bright coral. The coral arrives and it is drab brown in color. I sent emails and pics to vendor, he states the picture on his website is under blues. This revelation of course is after I paid and received coral. He also sent a picture from his tank which shows a drab pink tenuis. The coral didn't look anything like his posted picture on his website, I stated the pic he sent from his tank under more white light looks like a pale pink tenuis and he accused me of being borderline illegal, What the heck? This vendor obviously only posts pictures that have been taken under bright blues. The vendor than accuses me of trying to get a free coral, trying to ruin his name, and I'm the only person complaining in a year. Today I also received a box from Cherry Corals and WWC, they all shipped fantastic and arrived holding their color. All I asked for was a return label to send it back to him and a full refund of price I paid, that was honest. He states IF it arrives alive back to him he'll refund the purchase price minus the shipping cost. So, I turned it over to PayPal to decide the outcome, this is a high priced coral. Lesson learned.

 

[DHill6]

Update to above post. I have cancelled the PayPal case as the coral is showing slight sign of color. I hope it turns out as good as the picture on BigRCoral website. My apology to Mike.

 

[AwildcatsZ]

One vendor that I use frequently, and does not seem to edit their photos, is Kush Corals. Bobby Moon runs a great business, and offers great customer service. If asked he will send you a picture of the coral under various lighting conditions. They also look very similar, if not better, in person!

Here is an example of the photos on his Facebook page, compared to what I have in my tank. These were a few cut to Order pieces from his own personal collections. The top photo is his 5 Star acan and the bottom photo is of his Unicorn Milk acan. Both corals are amazingly bright!

Love the #tankdank!

 

[DHill6]

Nice colors! Thanks for info.

 

[GrouperBait]

This is the yellow aussie hammer I thought I was getting from cherry corals live sale...

And this is what I actually received a green hammer..

I tried putting it under all spectrums from 13k-20k even just under my uv to see if they just pictured it under a certain kelvin. No luck.. I then messed with my picture on my phone by changing the hue. Seems to match their picture a bit more.

i almost bought a bunch of cherry corals stuff tonight. i search for reviews and now i see this. they just lost about 500$ in business from me, as well as my respect.

 

[Reefman71]

First pic is what I got. Second pic is what it was advertised at

 

[Dr. Jim]

This thread almost made me laugh. I've been saying for a long time that it is rare to find an online vendor that doesn't Photoshop the heck out of their photos. And, that includes most all of the "big names." This is unfortunate because it keeps me from buying a coral unless I recognize the name of the coral, in which case I know what it will look like. The problem is, there are so many corals that I don't know and would like to try some new ones, but don't pull the trigger because I know how misleading the photos are.
I recently received some frags from an "online Live sale." I bought some high-end frags (Reef Raft, Battle Corals, TSA, etc) and they arrived brown. I'm sure the photos were taken right after they were fragged but after sitting in a frag tank for who knows how long, of course it is common for SPS acros to lose color. Actually, the brown color doesn't bother me a whole lot, it just gives me the challenge of coloring them up.
I use to sell SPS online. I never mastered the photography though. I'd shoot the pics in RAW mode (which almost gives a "negative" appearance) and then fill in the colors. I would do my best to make them as real as possible, but I would be careful to not overdue it like some of the ridiculous ones I am seeing!

 

[RMS18]

i almost bought a bunch of cherry corals stuff tonight. i search for reviews and now i see this. they just lost about 500$ in business from me, as well as my respect.

He doesn't sell LPS unfortunately.. but Adam @Battlecorals pictures his corals as they are in real life well. If he uses blues only he will state what pics are in blues. Out of the 18+ sps frags I have bought from him I was able to reproduce the colors in 17 of them. There is one I was unable to reproduce but it still is super bright and healthy just off on color. It's because of this I only trust buying from him. I have been burned so many times from other vendors that are supporters of R2R. Basically if it looks just to "wow", then it is. I can say I have not found a Battlecorals of the LPS world to date, but I'm not collecting LPS as much compared to SPS now. If you find one let me know !

 

[GrouperBait]

He doesn't sell LPS unfortunately.. but Adam @Battlecorals pictures his corals as they are in real life well. If he uses blues only he will state what pics are in blues. Out of the 18+ sps frags I have bought from him I was able to reproduce the colors in 17 of them. There is one I was unable to reproduce but it still is super bright and healthy just off on color. It's because of this I only trust buying from him. I have been burned so many times from other vendors that are supporters of R2R. Basically if it looks just to "wow", then it is. I can say I have not found a Battlecorals of the LPS world to date, but I'm not collecting LPS as much compared to SPS now. If you find one let me know !

I bought a battle box from Adam a few weeks ago. By far the best acros I have in my tank.

 

[Duncan Tse]

Kush Corals.

Those pics are definitely altered. All you gotta do is change the white balance and saturation levels

 

[Reefman71]

Cornbread has got to be the worst. Not only with the photos but with the names also.

 

[EMeyer]

Lots of complaints about coral pics in this thread, many are well founded but a few appear to be based on misunderstandings.

First, corals will never look the same under your white lights as they do under the vendors blue lights. It doesnt matter if your white lights are fancy schmancy $900 lights -- they still wont look like corals under blue lights. Turn on just your blues if you want to compare with the vendors' blue pic.

Second, you've got to use a filter if you're taking pictures of aquariums, or everything just look blue with a hint of green. Vendors arent "photoshopping" or "oversaturating" to get these colors -- they're using the proper filters for the light. Of course the customer's cell phone pic taken without a filter isng going to look like it.

Please don't get me wrong. I'm not defending the faked pics that are all too common, or the LOL price tags that are attached to them. I'm just saying that the vendors pics don't just look better because they cheated, they look better because of how they were taken (i.e. under the right light with the right filters to best show the corals' colors). As a seller, I always show both white light and blue light pics, and consider that a reasonable standard to hold all vendors to.

----

You want something to really complain about with vendor photos? A real dishonest practice? Photoshopping out the background. This is a dead giveaway - they are hiding color manipulation. If you manipulate colors, the white egg crate isnt white anymore. So they solve this by photoshopping out the background and showing the coral on a pure black (fake) background. This is a problem. Using blue lights and filters is just good aquarium photography practice.

 

[Duncan Tse]

Lots of complaints about coral pics in this thread, many are well founded but a few appear to be based on misunderstandings.

First, corals will never look the same under your white lights as they do under the vendors blue lights. It doesnt matter if your white lights are fancy schmancy $900 lights -- they still wont look like corals under blue lights. Turn on just your blues if you want to compare with the vendors' blue pic.

Second, you've got to use a filter if you're taking pictures of aquariums, or everything just look blue with a hint of green. Vendors arent "photoshopping" or "oversaturating" to get these colors -- they're using the proper filters for the light. Of course the customer's cell phone pic taken without a filter isng going to look like it.

Please don't get me wrong. I'm not defending the faked pics that are all too common, or the LOL price tags that are attached to them. I'm just saying that the vendors pics don't just look better because they cheated, they look better because of how they were taken (i.e. under the right light with the right filters to best show the corals' colors). As a seller, I always show both white light and blue light pics, and consider that a reasonable standard to hold all vendors to.

----

You want something to really complain about with vendor photos? A real dishonest practice? Photoshopping out the background. This is a dead giveaway - they are hiding color manipulation. If you manipulate colors, the white egg crate isnt white anymore. So they solve this by photoshopping out the background and showing the coral on a pure black (fake) background. This is a problem. Using blue lights and filters is just good aquarium photography practice.

^ totally agree with everything said here

You can't compare a white light pic in your tank to a blue light pic from the vendor