Exposing the truth: How to take unreal pics with your DSLR!!! -or- You are EXPOSED!

[akitareefer]

I think part of the sps debate is half tank related and half photography. Do you run uln's, t5, MH, or LED? Do you only take pictures way past 20k. I saw a picture of WD under radiums and Berlin method. It needed some coloring but it looked like a fuzzy turd.

 

[650-IS350]

Does it matter IMO no unless it is for a photo competition.

hmmm. I think it matters a lot when your projecting something that its not or what it may not look like in real life in the buyers hand/tank. Especially when sellers are asking $100-500 for said new release or newly obtain jewel. I think the buyers would care if they spent $100-$2500 for a piece of coral that is 1/4"-1/2" average.

 

[Keepswiming]

Thanks for this tip! I have been trying to catch the colors of my corals for a long time now and this changed the photography game for me!
I could never get a good shot of these corals that i saved from my brothers tank, this is how they look now with no photoshop! Thanks!

 

[Battlecorals]

Have a lot of enjoyment out the very informative points about how to tackle the skills of photographing corals.

This was one of your 1" frags about two years ago, help me out on the name as I go only on beauty

Nice Ben Wow! That looks really good. I'd guess that's the old Reef Ready Grape juice. Would you say the polyps are blue in person?

 

[tigé21v]

I pretty much ended up taking a break for a couple of years after I lost all my sps to a crash. Been slowly getting back into it. The one thing I haven't been able to understand is where in the world some of the vendors have been getting all of these outrageous, gorgeous morphs. Now I know..
Thanks, Adam

 

[Diesel]

Blue polyps as in Back the Blue.
All be darn......Reef Ready Grape Juice, that must be than over three years.
You still have that coral?

 

[fishnreef]

Great explanation and thread Adam. Get this pinned!

The more hobbyists that know about these tricks, the more they can see through them.
If hobbyist, especially new hobbyists, understood the range of coral colors in real life, they might not fall prey to these photo shenanigans.

It takes a good amount of skill and work to have amazing colors in a tank. But it is readily possible. Unfortunately, with doctored photos, so many hobbyists may think they aren't good enough, and leave the hobby, when in truth the corals they bought never looked like the pictures.

 

[SchnitzelReef]

Thanks for the post!!

 

[Fishpalace]

hmmm. I think it matters a lot when your projecting something that its not or what it may not look like in real life in the buyers hand/tank. Especially when sellers are asking $100-500 for said new release or newly obtain jewel. I think the buyers would care if they spent $100-$2500 for a piece of coral that is 1/4"-1/2" average.

Fair comment.

I would not spend that kind of money without seeing it first and certainly would not pay that money for it to be shipped to me, just a personal choice.

Paul

 

[knukles55]

Aaa aaaa finally I can make my Red people eaters look like krakotas lol jk jk but I can definitely take some awsome pictures of my tank now. You know as bad as it is to some vendors for us to know this information this is just another tool for me and my tank making this hobby more fun

 

[BWilliby]

Gotta bring this thread back up because i received my first pack from Battlecorals today and shortly after getting the frags in my tank they looked just like the preview pic he sent...how refreshing! Props to an upfront and honest online coral vendor!! Thanks Adam!

 

[RobMcC]

One thing that is slightly misleading in the article (and the article is good, don't get me wrong), is that under royal blue LEDs the coral IS truly a different colour than under 10k light, as pretty much all the corals we keep have a host of fluorescent proteins (the ones that don't the collector leaves in the ocean, as no one would buy them). Most coral fluorescent proteins absorb light at the bluer end of the spectrum (which is found at depth, red light is quickly lost in water) and emit light at the redder end of the spectrum. The process is called excitation and emmission. Therefore, that brown coral can really emit red light (or look fluorescent red) under blue light. So it's not always smoke and mirror. The white balance isn't totally making things up that aren't there, hence why many folks on this site keep corals under bluer light, but it can definitely be used dishonestly if taken to the extreme (and sadly often is by vendors and hobbyists alike).

 

[ReefMadScientist]

Have a lot of enjoyment out the very informative points about how to tackle the skills of photographing corals.

This was one of your 1" frags about two years ago, help me out on the name as I go only on beauty

This one is SICK!!! Adam does have the sickest SPS I have ever seen.

 

[ReefMadScientist]

Blue polyps as in Back the Blue.
All be darn......Reef Ready Grape Juice, that must be than over three years.
You still have that coral?

It looks very similar to the Battlejuice coral.

 

[Illusions]

Awesome write up Adam, I think this is good and bad (considering 80% of the comments aren't quite understanding this is trying to help them not get scammed and not a "how to" lesson) as you stated a few comments in... Good for the fact that you're showing people how they may have been taken before from a vendor or whomever on the net. But it seems like way to many comments were thanking you in the way of "wow, I can really get my colors to pop now" THIS ISN'T HIS POINT PEOPLE! maybe you can edit and add a line in the beginning of your original post to state this? I'm a super relaxed guy, but after reading your post (which I appreciated and fully agreed with) and seeing how many people took this the complete opposite way was mind boggling! I may have pulled out some hair!...

 

[jasonandsarah]

Awesome write up Adam, I think this is good and bad (considering 80% of the comments aren't quite understanding this is trying to help them not get scammed and not a "how to" lesson) as you stated a few comments in... Good for the fact that you're showing people how they may have been taken before from a vendor or whomever on the net. But it seems like way to many comments were thanking you in the way of "wow, I can really get my colors to pop now" THIS ISN'T HIS POINT PEOPLE! maybe you can edit and add a line in the beginning of your original post to state this? I'm a super relaxed guy, but after reading your post (which I appreciated and fully agreed with) and seeing how many people took this the complete opposite way was mind boggling! I may have pulled out some hair!...

I completely agree! Way to many people seem to be completely missing the point. Although I don't think there's anything wrong with someone using this to create "Art" or pictures for there own enjoyment at all. First and foremost people need to get and understand that the original point is people are using this to scam us and falsely portrait coral colors for profit. Only once you understand that and know you your self should never use this to sell a coral should you try this to make ART!

 

[Battlecorals]

I completely agree! Way to many people seem to be completely missing the point. Although I don't think there's anything wrong with someone using this to create "Art" or pictures for there own enjoyment at all. First and foremost people need to get and understand that the original point is people are using this to scam us and falsely portrait coral colors for profit. Only once you understand that and know you your self should never use this to sell a coral should you try this to make ART!

Well, like satire, some get it and some don't. This whole writeup illustrates an extreme misuse of an exploitable camera flaw essentially. Albeit, somewhat tongue in cheek. I am fairly confident those of you that didn't get the point exactly, just didn't read the whole thing. Instead, saw the title (missing the compound puns entirely), skimmed over the text, and went on to assume that I was actually trying to teach you something other than the underlying theme. Perfectly understandable in my opinion.

 

[goodtogo]

Thanks Adam for this write up. You are a stand up guy to post this thread. You set the standard for being an honest business man. Other venders out there would not dare do what you do and expose themselves.
Since being back in the reef scene about three years ago, I laughed when someone said SPS stood for "Super Photo Shop." I have a short story to tell. You may have encountered a similar situation yourself while selling at your store or online.
I was recently selling frags at a local frag swap and had an Ice Fire Enchinata that was purchased originally from Menard. I had a basic frag tank setup with Kessils set at approximately 18k. The frags were nice sized and priced reasonable. A perspective customer stated that he has been looking for an Ice Fire Enchinata. I said, "I have A few frags here." He looked at the Ice Fire and stated "Are you sure that this is an Ice Fire Enchinata? The one I saw online had bluer tips and does not look like yours." I told him yes this is the Ice Fire Enchinata. He decided to not buy. This is not a rant about someone not buying a frag, I actually sold them all at the end of the swap. I looked back and kind of regret not explaining to him that sometimes hobbyists and vendors pictures do not replicate the true representation of the frag they are selling. Also different lighting, water parameters etc. can make a colony slightly different from one tank to another. Here is my small mini colony under halides AWB, you can see the reflector on top.

People have this digital image of a coral that they see online and expect to see that in real life when not knowing that the picture online can never be real.

 

[ReefMadScientist]

A few people I fought over the last few weeks were correct. I finally figured out the scheme, from this threads help, other peoples words, and my own witness accounts the last 24 hours.

Sorry here is bull at its finest. master of deception.

This is more than yellowing. This is full blown photoshop.

 

[kschweer]

A few people I fought over the last few weeks were correct. I finally figured out the scheme, from this threads help, other peoples words, and my own witness accounts the last 24 hours.

Sorry here is bull at its finest. master of deception.

This is more than yellowing. This is full blown photoshop.

I have been quietly following these threads you're talking about. May I ask what "changed" your mind?