I think that last point is one that most people overlook. If I get orders that look nothing like the pic, I won't order from you again. I know that corals look a little different depending on lighting, but I have LED's, so I know how corals look at their best, and it still doesn't look like the pic.
Thanks Chris,This is still my favorite thread for Reef 2 Reef. I kind of forgot about it, glad to see its still going well
Chris
I do think that colony shots should be posted with wysiwyg pics as well though. I know that I would love to get an idea of how it will look when grown out. I think sometimes a wysiwyg by itself can be misleading, Chalices are a perfect example. I know that there are a few of them that look much better as 1 or 2 eyes with a sweet growth ring than when it grows out.
It looks like you have it under t5s and his looks like they were under LED. You can see that he saturated the photo and tweaked the colors a little but but as far as it goes under the right lighting that acan could be gorgeous, not quite like the picture put none the less a very nice looking piece.I have no problem picking up on your average over saturated pictures. It also helps that I have a photo editing program & can reduce the saturation to get an idea of what it may really look like.
Recently I experienced a new problem that can only be explained as replacing colors. Say from brown to red.
I bought a coral from Extreme Corals that appeared to be red & green in their picture. The acan arrived at my house 24hrs after being put on their site. It arrived brown & green. There is no way an acan can lose that much color in 24s. The owner said his picture was an accurate representation of how it looked in his tank under his lights. I asked how long ago he took the pictures & he said the day before. I told him I wanted a partial refund because I would have never bought the coral had I known it was brown. He refused but said I could return it for a refund minus shipping costs. I said no thanks & informed him I will no longer be buying corals from him.
I later traded the coral into a local store for credit. It looked brown under there lights as well.:heh: This is the worst case of photoshopping I have ever experienced.
HIs picture from his site.
Mine the day I received it.
Good info to put out, thank you. Are you familiar with Adobe Lightroom? Another hobby of mine is photography. Lightroom is MUCH easier than Photoshop (imo). Adobe offers a photographers package that includes Lightroom and Photoshop for a low price. Think of Lightroom as a digital darkroom, but with sliders, from the days of 35mm film.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.
