Commercial Sites using Photoshop?

[TritonsGarden]

How prevalent is the use of Photoshop or other tools to enhance coral pictures on commercial websites?

I'm not accusing anyone of this practice however some websites have coral photos with astounding color.
The photos look like the color saturation and contrast have been tweaked. Some well known and respected vendors I might add.

Jack

 

[143gadgets]

In this hobby where better colors allow u to charge more money, it is very common. Just beware of sites that do it.

 

[Poseidon]

Make sure to look for something white in the picture, like eggcrate, if it is not white, then well.... you know the image is not 100% accurate.

 

[Russellaqua]

I'm sure some people do it. How prevalent it is we'll never know because those vendors don't tell you. The only "good" uses of Photoshop are white balance (many cameras do not allow manual white balance at 20000K color temps that some corals are kept under), cropping, and any other adjustments to give a more accurate representation of the coral. I use it only for white balance and cropping.

 

[surfn]

lol i have no problem saying reefermadness photoshops their pics. (or they are too ignorant to know how to fix the white balance on their camera). either way, the saturation in their pics is sky high. has NOTHING to do with 1000w bulbs...worse excuse ever.

 

[143gadgets]

has NOTHING to do with 1000w bulbs...worse excuse ever.

lol!!! :hammer:

 

[Leishman]

agreed, but I have NEVER been anything but 100% satisfied with corals from Chris @ RM (I have ordered 10+ colonies from them over the years)

 

[Burks]

A lot of people use it. I myself have been accused of using photoshop on coral I am selling when in fact, and it was clearly stated in the ad, that the pictures were taken under a 20k bulb and my camera cannot get the right "look". If anything the corals looked worse....

I could have doctored them but that's sleazy to me. If you correct the photo using photoshop to show the TRUE colors, fine. But to make them look like something they are not...no thank you.

 

[Russellaqua]

I could have doctored them but that's sleazy to me. If you correct the photo using photoshop to show the TRUE colors, fine. But to make them look like something they are not...no thank you.

My thoughts exactly.

 

[reefboy]

It is very taboo to do this luckly boards like this and many others bring it to light and alot less try it anymore(insert pirate accent) nobody wants the black spot arrrrgg lol.

 

[Stixbaraca]

RM sold a while back...so if you've bought there in the last 6 months or so...you haven't been dealing with the same people. That's what I heard at least!

 

[NapoliNewJersey]

Anyone ever go to www.aquaholicsinc.com .... holy photoshop!

 

[coral88]

Anyone ever go to www.aquaholicsinc.com .... holy photoshop!

I don’t think those are photoshoped. they’re just using the special buyer beware lighting system. So remember the coral may lose some color in shipping but it will color back up and look just like the pic after you add a little glow in the dark paint. (glow in the dark paint sold separately) Paint works best if you do a 30 min bleach dip before applying.
:hammer:

 

[JuniorMC8704]

Everyone SHOULD photoshop...but use it appropriately. Taking the raw images from a digital camera are going to look awful with out proper whitebalance, exposure adjustment (for most people), sharpness, and yes even saturation. But there is a fine line between ehancing the coral to look as it does to the eye in person, and just plain BS. ALMOST every site out there juices there photos...sometimes its not even intentional...just have overexposed pics and makes it look 5 times brighter than it really is...

Fragglereef.com used to be one of the worst offenders of the saturation slide ever...that is until i called him out on RC, almost got banned, and then in the end he ended up looking like an ****** because i took his pictures and adjusted them properly (best i could, given the low resolution), and well...funny its really easy to tell which pictures are old and which are new...

His old pics look like amazing, awesome corals...his more recent ones are just drab, and lacking any pop...truth hurts.

Any sponsors that have any photoshop questions, please feel free to ask me, or a few of the other photoshop buffs on here..its really simple once you know what your working with.

 

[divecj5]

Totally agree with you Junior. Using RAW conversion software including Photoshop is the way to go. In my opinion, you can't beat how you can pretty much match the Kelvin rating of a particular bulb thus resulting in a more true to life image.

Nothing wrong with a slight boost of saturation or sharpness to remove any cloudiness from the glass but it MUST be used with discretion.

I guess after taking pictures for about 5 years now seriously and using Photoshop for about 4 years, it just gets pretty easy to tell which sites are shopped and which aren't.

 

[rocko918]

Like these? From a well known site.

Its sad, but it happens all the time. You just have to know what you are buying.

 

[revhtree]

IMO those are not that bad. If you look at my macro pics of corals they may looked photo shopped as in the colors, but they are not. Most of my photos get an unsharp mask and an auto level and that is it.

 

[Stixbaraca]

I used to visit Fraggle Reef on a very regular basis before he moved...and his corals were amazing, awesome corals!

 

[rocko918]

when it pure white on the sides you have to wonder.

 

[Russellaqua]

The temptation will always be there for some people. It's a very competitive business, and some people will feel that re-touching their photos to make their corals look better will give them a competitive edge. I've wondered before about how much business I've lost because I don't do anything other than crop and white balance. My pics tend to look more like:

But I'd rather WYSIWYG mean WYSIWYG.