Hey everyone...
A bit new to photography so apologies if this is a naive question.
I've seen a lot of great coral pics from various vendors and hobbyists. Something I've realized is a lot of these are simply taken with an iPhone, not necessarily a DSLR or super high-end equipment. I have struggled myself to get comparable pictures of the same corals, even though they look great in my tank in person.
However, the other day I downloaded some photo editing software and was fairly easily (within literally 2 minutes) able to drastically improve the aesthetic of some iphone pictures I had.
Let's talk specifics and examples.... coral is ACI Princess:
This is a great, unique hammer coral with awesome coloration. No denying that. However, the pic also looks... how do I put this... pretty tricked out!
Here's a completely un-edited, "raw" pic of the same coral in my tank:
Obviously doesn't look nearly as vivid/pop as much. Looks fairly bleached out and crappy actually. However, with relative ease, here is what I'm able to do:
We're not quite where the original vendor pic is, but a LOT closer. Obviously I need to adjust colors more to make it look "real" (this looks fake AF). My original was taken without using a look down lens, without proper lighting/high whites, without stabilizing the camera, and with a bad angle on the glass... So some simple techniques and I could replicate something like the vendor pic I'm sure.
BUT, the disappointing thing is to me is the epiphany that main thing that moved the needle was the photo editing software. White balance, exposure, tone, contrast, etc.
I guess my main question is how obvious is it that people are doing this? And is it respected/accepted? Are all the vendors doing this? Or is it more ambiguous, you can't tell when someone is using heavy editing or if it's just a great coral that pops.
Thanks, hoping to learn from this discussion. Appreciate y'all.
A bit new to photography so apologies if this is a naive question.
I've seen a lot of great coral pics from various vendors and hobbyists. Something I've realized is a lot of these are simply taken with an iPhone, not necessarily a DSLR or super high-end equipment. I have struggled myself to get comparable pictures of the same corals, even though they look great in my tank in person.
However, the other day I downloaded some photo editing software and was fairly easily (within literally 2 minutes) able to drastically improve the aesthetic of some iphone pictures I had.
Let's talk specifics and examples.... coral is ACI Princess:
This is a great, unique hammer coral with awesome coloration. No denying that. However, the pic also looks... how do I put this... pretty tricked out!
Here's a completely un-edited, "raw" pic of the same coral in my tank:
Obviously doesn't look nearly as vivid/pop as much. Looks fairly bleached out and crappy actually. However, with relative ease, here is what I'm able to do:
We're not quite where the original vendor pic is, but a LOT closer. Obviously I need to adjust colors more to make it look "real" (this looks fake AF). My original was taken without using a look down lens, without proper lighting/high whites, without stabilizing the camera, and with a bad angle on the glass... So some simple techniques and I could replicate something like the vendor pic I'm sure.
BUT, the disappointing thing is to me is the epiphany that main thing that moved the needle was the photo editing software. White balance, exposure, tone, contrast, etc.
I guess my main question is how obvious is it that people are doing this? And is it respected/accepted? Are all the vendors doing this? Or is it more ambiguous, you can't tell when someone is using heavy editing or if it's just a great coral that pops.
Thanks, hoping to learn from this discussion. Appreciate y'all.