Be Careful Buying the Hype

mdb_talon

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Would this be hype? hahaha

I would propose nobody point out specific vendors as manipulating photos without real evidence they have done so. Kudos to the orig author for giving examples without dragging specific vendors into it he pointed out things to look for but would hate to see this as vendor bashing thread without facts to support claims.
 
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btkrausen

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Sorry, should have just linked pics. Didn't mean to drag in a sponsor, just the bright blue pics :)
 

Jcr's Reef

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You really do need the same set of lights they are running (lots of actinic) for them to look half as good in your tank. Kind of disappointing when you see them
 

reefkoi

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I think the outrageous frag price is the easiest indication of coral photoshopping LOL

haha here is my contribution:

untouched pic I took

sunkist.jpg


tweaked in just the standard windows picture viewer, took a few seconds and they are worth 3x's as much :) hard to tell its not genuine if you didnt see the first pic!

sunkist-Copy.jpg
sunkist-Copy.jpg
 

Pufferpunk

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Is that eggcrate blue?

I actually had to de-saturate this pic, because my white balance made these brighter than they really were & I didn't want to disappoint anyone. Funny thing though, the eggcrate was white in both pics.

OrangeSherbet.jpg
 

Tabasco1

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If you ask an online vendor for a daylight shot is that something that they would usually give or too much work for them? I am thinking probably not for a $10 frag, but when you are talking about $50+ for a FRAG, I think they should post a couple different pics. One actinic, one daylight. Sucks because I live in Vail... hahaha... not really, BUT there are no LFS as even an option... so it pretty much has to be mostly online purchases for me. But it makes me nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rockers. Alot of these corals are not chump change.
 

ninjareef

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Just wanted to stop by and say hello to everyone on this forum. I am newbie and just bought my first nano-cube, 30 gallon tank; no fish yet, just sea water, sand, and some rocks. This is my first time to this forum; referred to be by a customer. Thats all.
 
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akabryanhall

akabryanhall

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If you ask an online vendor for a daylight shot is that something that they would usually give or too much work for them? I am thinking probably not for a $10 frag, but when you are talking about $50+ for a FRAG, I think they should post a couple different pics. One actinic, one daylight. Sucks because I live in Vail... hahaha... not really, BUT there are no LFS as even an option... so it pretty much has to be mostly online purchases for me. But it makes me nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rockers. Alot of these corals are not chump change.
I'm thinking that we should provide a daylight shot as well as actinic, people do like to see how it fluoresces!
 

Reefnjunkie

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Great thread, even though I've been around awhile and should know better I've been duped by sponsors on this site that have great feedback-Its sad becuase I know there are others that have been burned by the sponsor(s) but they continue to sell away.
It make me conclude its the dollars they spend in dues that allow them to be around.

I shoot my photos in a raw format and will adjust the sharpness from 3 to 10 and adjust the "temp" to about 7500K which produces a more actually looking shot of the piece. I do agree with the fact that a picture will look different on different computer monitors, I have a HD monitor that will have the coral looking all jacked up, while the laptop it looks normal.

Back to my point, I think this is a great thread and hope it opens peoples eyes or even certain "sellers" see it and think about the stuff the post or have on their site. The sad part is the 2k I spent with one seller could have turned into 10k over time but they wont see another cent from me.

Cudos for the examples!
 

reefkoi

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This is still my favorite thread for Reef 2 Reef. I kind of forgot about it, glad to see its still going well :)

Chris
 

dnov99

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Great thread, even though I've been around awhile and should know better I've been duped by sponsors on this site that have great feedback-Its sad becuase I know there are others that have been burned by the sponsor(s) but they continue to sell away.
It make me conclude its the dollars they spend in dues that allow them to be around.

I shoot my photos in a raw format and will adjust the sharpness from 3 to 10 and adjust the "temp" to about 7500K which produces a more actually looking shot of the piece. I do agree with the fact that a picture will look different on different computer monitors, I have a HD monitor that will have the coral looking all jacked up, while the laptop it looks normal.

Back to my point, I think this is a great thread and hope it opens peoples eyes or even certain "sellers" see it and think about the stuff the post or have on their site. The sad part is the 2k I spent with one seller could have turned into 10k over time but they wont see another cent from me.

Cudos for the examples!

Very well said!!! Excellent post and I could have not said it better myself or agreed more!!
 

mnat

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It is sad that this thread is a year old and certain vendors and sellers still over saturate and over shop there pictures. Some vendors won't even give a wysiwyg picture let alone under several different lighting combos. I hope this thread leads to buyers being more aware which will force some vendors to do the right thing. When you photoshopp to that degree, you are lieing to your customers which is just sad.
 

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