Coral Industry Is Next, Cosmetic Industry Banning Photoshop

Discussion in 'Aquarium Photography' started by HappyCoral, Sep 24, 2012.

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  1. HappyCoral

    HappyCoral 3reef Sponsor

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  3. rc_mcwaters3

    rc_mcwaters3 Clown Trigger

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    I am glad that this is finally being said and done. thanks for sharing ;D
     
  4. Vinnyboombatz

    Vinnyboombatz Giant Squid

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    Awesome news and a huge pet peave of mine.I hate when vendors Photoshop. I have no problem when the pictures are slightly tweaked to represent the true color of the coral but blatant misrepresentation just sticks in my craw.What you see should be what you get. ;)
     
  5. grinder37

    grinder37 Whip-Lash Squid

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    What in the world is a craw?lol

    And a big two thumbs up,I hope they take it to billboards and the food industry too as my bigmac never looks like the one on the sign.It's a great start!
     
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  6. HappyCoral

    HappyCoral 3reef Sponsor

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    If only there was a waterproof item everybody had that could be in everyones photo to tell how accurate the photo is?
     
  7. gcarroll

    gcarroll Zoanthid

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    You have to also take into account lighting differences as well. The best companies will always list what lighting the photo was taken under. If you buy a coral where photo's were taken under 20K, youo'd be a fool to think that they would look the same under 10K. Back in the early days I would use a white balance tool in my minolta software that allowed me to click on the white eggcrate and identify that as white. It would automatiacally adjust the photo and remove the "Blue Light Special" look. Problem is that vendors got wise to this and now focus in on the coral not giving you a reference point to tell how much blue or saturation is in the photo. It sucks but the best way to prevent this is to leave vendor feedback on the forums. Only then will those hpotoshop specials feel the urge to reform.

    One thing that irks me is when a company seels frags of a coral from a picture taken by the collector or the wholesaler. Those are the worst. Then when they get the coral it looks nothing like the photo and typically all browned out. This is the best thing about buying frags at shows like Reef-A-Palooza and MACNA. You get to see before you buy. The vendors that sell at those events only do well if their corals are top notch. This weeds out the photoshop pros who are great at adding color to brown corals!
     
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  9. HappyCoral

    HappyCoral 3reef Sponsor

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    Yeah most just say Radium 20k. I take Acropora pics under Radium 20k and mine look nothing like that blue because they are white balanced correctly. I could take pics under a 40k and have them look normal with proper white balancing. Kind of gives Radium a bad name. The main thing is don't support companies that promote unrealistic lighting. Even at Frag Swaps, the Carny lights are on the tanks so when you get it home it looks nothing like what it will in your tank.
     
  10. Lady J

    Lady J Peppermint Shrimp

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    I'm glad to see these changes as well. Regarding corals: my 2 LFS are very honest when it comes to the color(s) of various corals. I've heard employees explain to many different customers that although a coral looks like this in THEIR tank, the colors may not look the same in the customers' because of different lights, kelvin, etc.
     
  11. FaceOfDeceit

    FaceOfDeceit Hockey Beard

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    One of my LFS has a 90 gallon frag tank setup, with a mix of corals. It is lit strictly with LEDs. I walked over to it, saw some SPS frags for $10-$20, but it was only lit with some Actinic Ecoxotic Stunners. I asked if the employee could turn on the whites so I could see the coral in it's true color, and he did. Most of the acro's were browned out, but looked great under the actinic only. I asked why all the other tanks had daylight bulbs on, but this didn't ($10-$20 browned out frags is why!), and he said this tank has the whites turn on from Midnight to 8 AM. They open at 10 AM. Certain online vendors are obvious con-artists, others you can tell are not. I have bought from Christian before, and everything looked identical to what was advertised. I hope this continues and forces all vendors to represent their specimens properly.