Be Careful Buying the Hype

akabryanhall · Feb 16, 2011

I posted this in another thread, but it was in a different context. I wanted to post this in the beginners forum to help newbies recognize what to look for when buying coral.
I think that most vendors provide very accurate depictions of what their corals look like. There is a program called Photoshop, which some of you may or may not be aware of. I use it, and I think a lot of people use it as well, the trick is to use it responsibly. I sometimes have a hard time capturing the true color of a coral, so I will use Photoshop to touch up my photos to make the coral look more like it does in my tank. My photography skills are not great so this can be a lifesaver.
An example
This is an original picture of a pink watermelon I have.

Touched up to make it look like it does in my tank

This is the way some corals look on for sale threads

Some things to note. Take a look at the colors of the coral or algae around the coral in question. Is the coraline just as colorful as the coral? Something may be up. Also shadows are not supposed to have a lot of color like they do in the right hand side of the last pic. Quite beautiful examples of Blue and Purple.

Please, if anyone else can provide examples of exaggerated pictures (YOUR OWN) of coral done in Photoshop, please provide them along with comparison shots.

dougers31 · Feb 16, 2011

Great idea to post this! One other trick is to use plenty of blue led lighting which can look like its oversaturated but be an actual pic. While led's are legit lighting I myself am not a fan of them in pics or at fragswaps.

Nice chalice by the way!

KLR · Feb 16, 2011

Neat thread

Another thing to look for is what I call photoshop smudges...Some times when people use saturation you will see ,usually a shade of blue, "smudges" around the edges of the coral pictured,or the edges of anything in the picture..whenever you see these it usually means the picture has been touched up with some saturation increase

akabryanhall · Feb 16, 2011

dougers31 said:
Great idea to post this! One other trick is to use plenty of blue led lighting which can look like its oversaturated but be an actual pic. While led's are legit lighting I myself am not a fan of them in pics or at fragswaps.

Nice chalice by the way!

I think an Actinic shot to go with the daylight is fine, I am after all buying this partly because of how it fluoresces under actinics, I would like to see that side as well.

akabryanhall · Feb 16, 2011

KLR said:
Neat thread

Another thing to look for is what I call photoshop smudges...Some times when people use saturation you will see ,usually a shade of blue, "smudges" around the edges of the coral pictured,or the edges of anything in the picture..whenever you see these it usually means the picture has been touched up with some saturation increase

Good point, the smudges can be a giveaway, some may call them artifacts, but smudges is more descriptive lol!! I know right away what you are talking about.

clowns101 · Feb 16, 2011

No photoshop:

Over shopped:

Pretty clear to tell IMO...notice the shop marks?I did go a little over board though,just sayen.

spscrazy · Feb 16, 2011

when I first started I had no idea about photoshopping etc what a "dissapointment" saver this would have been for me thanks for helping people new to this see there is a difference & it isn't just because their lighting is different!

akabryanhall · Feb 16, 2011

Wow what an example!!
If I may Austin, these are the artifacts KLR was mentioning, going to be in the background out of focus areas

re-fin-away · Feb 16, 2011

This is why I still dont buy any coral site unseen. Call me old school but unless they seller has alot of great feedback I can't do it.

clowns101 · Feb 16, 2011

No problem.

If you do notice,as Kelby mentioned,you will see a blue marking on part of the coral by the contrasting colors.This can easily be seen by the blue stripe in teh center of the coral.Notice teh blue lining around the contrasting colors?I do.

Also-Look at the red on the coral.Notice how some spots are so bright it looks flat?And there is no texture?General sign of being photoshopped.

akabryanhall · Feb 16, 2011

re-fin-away said:
This is why I still dont buy any coral site unseen. Call me old school but unless they seller has alot of great feedback I can't do it.

Good feedback is crucial thats for sure! I think that buying online is fine, and like I said before, most vendors are very trustworthy!!

MAXreefer · Feb 16, 2011

Very good thread!!
So far I didn't sell any corals or frags but when I get to the point where I will I would post also the info regarding the lighting I use and guarantee I didn't photoshopped (besides correcting the White Balance and some sharpening which is not manipulating the picture).
Just me

skinz78 · Feb 16, 2011

Great thread! I don't have photoshop so I totally didn't know about the differences.

clowns101 · Feb 16, 2011

Im trying photoshop Cs5 right now,not a huge fan of it,its not what I expected,way to advanced IMO for teh average person to deal with,I understand it,but some of it is over my head,I guess it takes time.

I like photoshop Elements 9,its $80 right now,and is a very simple program,and has some advanced features on it for a fraction of the price like content awareness,which is a pretty advanced editing tool when you come to think about it.

Jcr's Reef · Feb 16, 2011

Great Thread!

akabryanhall- The first pic shows smudges as well? Is that bad?

I still have not figured out why people are posting coral blasted with actinces (leds, whatever) in for sale threads, and then get offensive when everyone asks for a different pic. Its an automatic turnoff for me. This is the reason I don't buy coral unless the picture is taken in daylight. Daylight pics are hard to alter because it is either way to crisp, or everything around it is "un-natrual looking."

Troylee · Feb 16, 2011

Wow I can't really tell myself unless the surroundings look wierd...like mentioned if there is exotic coralline algae surrounding the frag "beware"!!!!!!! Now austins photo I would have a hard time with determining it..... I have never used ps and prolly never will since it's to complicated for me lol.... What I normally do is save the pic in question upload it to photobucket and use it's 3 features to tone it down or what ever I can do with it in there and get it to really look like it does in real life....we have All been around enough corals to know exactly how something can or should look in real life...

clowns101 · Feb 16, 2011

HAHA,I can edit that picture to make it look crazy sweet with out anyone knowing I photoshopped it belive it or not...dont use photoshop either,haha,well,I do,but it isnt for color enhancing the coral.