Exposing the truth: How to take unreal pics with your DSLR!!! -or- You are EXPOSED!

DJE · Sep 10, 2015

Great write up Adam!

Waynel333 · Sep 11, 2015

You're a stand up guy Adam. I'm so sick of vendors shooting 'insane' pics of partial colonies in a for sale thread and never posting prices. Then you ask for a colony or even a frag pic and they 'inadvertently' miss your request, or multiple requests. Then their next post is sold out, or sorry, too many pm's to respond to.

The hype/bait and switch threads are getting old. There's a reason these frag-star-millionaires don't last long and why you have endured so long with so many loyal customers. It really speaks volumes to honest business practices. Kudos to you.

ReefMadScientist · Sep 11, 2015

Waynel333 said:
You're a stand up guy Adam. I'm so sick of vendors shooting 'insane' pics of partial colonies in a for sale thread and never posting prices. Then you ask for a colony or even a frag pic and they 'inadvertently' miss your request, or multiple requests. Then their next post is sold out, or sorry, too many pm's to respond to.

The hype/bait and switch threads are getting old. There's a reason these frag-star-millionaires don't last long and why you have endured so long with so many loyal customers. It really speaks volumes to honest business practices. Kudos to you.

While their few loyalist will say "oh, they are a stand up vendor - a pleasure to do business with!" and the vendor makes you feel like YOU were the problem since you just wanted to know the price of the frag.

I can guarantee they will never see my business.

batman3n1 · Sep 11, 2015

Question... After adjusting WB, why are all, or almost all, the corals yellow? Are they all ACTUALLY yellow? What if you've got corals whose colors are NOT yellow? Thanks

whatchamacallit · Sep 11, 2015

I tried taking a selfie with this magical process, still as ugly as ever.

TaylorPilot · Sep 11, 2015

This is why as an industry, you guys need to come up with some type of known standard that can be included in any photo so that it will show true colors. Something like a plastic white card that is a known color temp. If it was included in every photo, and was super red/blue or green, you would know that photo had been shot using photography trickery. That was just simple jpeg. Imagine what you can do to it in lightroom or photoshop with a RAW photo.

ReefMadScientist · Sep 11, 2015

TaylorPilot said:
This is why as an industry, you guys need to come up with some type of known standard that can be included in any photo so that it will show true colors. Something like a plastic white card that is a known color temp. If it was included in every photo, and was super red/blue or green, you would know that photo had been shot using photography trickery. That was just simple jpeg. Imagine what you can do to it in lightroom or photoshop with a RAW photo.

True but I think this fixes only the camera issue. With Photoshop, I can make the coral look like a flaming unicorn but keep the white card untouched.

TaylorPilot · Sep 11, 2015

Well doctoring half the photo and leaving the card white is total unethical. I mean you can somewhat argue that you tried to adjust the colors of the photo on your screen to make it look like what you see in real life. But screwing with parts of the photo to try to purposefully trick people is over the line. Do that too many times and you'll get run out of town.

I've always thought that leaving the card in it and posting RAW photos to download so you can do your own white balance at home. That is the best you are going to get I think.

650-IS350 · Sep 11, 2015

Marquiseo said:
Responses above in red.

Like mentioned earlier, if you are basing a photo on being doctored from egg crate and frag discs, you are being misinformed. As I stated before, learn about the process instead of following others who are ignorant of the process. It is basically "the Blind leading the Blind" and this is a general statement and in no way aimed at you. Overall, even an untrained eye can still detect over saturation.

Disclaimer: I am not a pro and still learning but I took the time to research photography by countless videos, articles, as well as getting small tips from an old buddy who majored in it while in college. I do not condone or support others that use shady photography tactics. I don't like the fact that people are starting to automatically assume that everyone who take nice photos of corals are deceiving people.

I did say Im not a camera expert, I talked about FTS all blue. There's nothing about the blind leading the blind here bud don't know what your trying to lead that to. I'm just calling out what I see which the examples I mentioned.

As I mentioned previously just look in the internet you'll see pictures that are so over saturated or unatural it doesn't take a trained eye. You see the same type of corals out there that no where will looks like that cartoon look regardless of how nice your parameters are or nice lighting you have.

Good thread and discussion here btw- 2 thumbs up.

Fishpalace · Sep 11, 2015

A really good thread and shows what can be done with a camera.

Get what people are saying about the manipulation of pictures to create an unreal position but this happens all the time across everything. Does it matter IMO no unless it is for a photo competition.

Someone on a local forum posted this link, tried it and posted some great pics. Does look OTT but some look good and others just look fake.

Paul

atoll · Sep 11, 2015

Not sure about this to be honest. I just want my pic's of my corals to look how they look in my tank not to the camera or for some guy to play with the colours to falsify them. That surely what we want to photograph and when taken to look just like our corals do in our tanks. I don't want to buy a frag or even show a pic of a coral or frag looking colour wise like nothing like what it does or will do in my tank. Some shops do this kind of stuff all the time and I think it's wrong but am I missing the point, perhaps you disagree with me?

Fishpalace · Sep 11, 2015

atoll said:
Not sure about this to be honest. I just want my pic's of my corals to look how they look in my tank not to the camera or for some guy to play with the colours to falsify them. That surely what we want to photograph and when taken to look just like our corals do in our tanks. I don't want to buy a frag or even show a pic of a coral or frag looking colour wise like nothing like what it does or will do in my tank. Some shops do this kind of stuff all the time and I think it's wrong but am I missing the point, perhaps you disagree with me?

Totally agree when listing photos for the sale of frags, corals as should show a fair representation of the item and this includes the colour and health of coral.

D maul · Sep 11, 2015

Interesting thread Adam. It's cool my pink panther looks just like your picture lol.

JBNY · Sep 11, 2015

This is a great post Adam, shows how some of those crazy colors we see from some vendors and sellers are really just deliberate attempts to fake and scam unsuspecting buyers.

For the people reading this and thinking this is great, I have to try this with my Camera. You are missing the point of Adam's post, this is not great, it is a way to use the camera to misrepresent your coral. Using this technique will not show the colors of your coral properly, what it will do is trick the camera into misrepresenting colors that it sees. This misrepresentation is what you are seeing, the coral does not look like this! it is a lie. Don't post pictures of corals taken with this technique unless you are trying to scam, misrepresent or otherwise trick your fellow reefers into thinking your coral actually looks like the picture.

Gonzo · Sep 11, 2015

Love the write up Adam. Perfect example of photo manipulation is the WD acro. I have yet to see one that looks like the original sellers photos. Believe me I have asked and still not got a pic even close the the coral pics from the seller.

I have seen 2 in person and they look like a regular green tenius. Main reason you don't see negative feedback it most bought it to resell. How you gonna resell a coral you bash lol. Worst place for greasy photos and vendors is facebook.

Greasy Greasers everywhere on the FB. It really amazes me at the people that buy into the hype and photo crap.

Battlecorals · Sep 11, 2015

JBNY said:
This is a great post Adam, shows how some of those crazy colors we see from some vendors and sellers are really just deliberate attempts to fake and scam unsuspecting buyers.

For the people reading this and thinking this is great, I have to try this with my Camera. You are missing the point of Adam's post, this is not great, it is a way to use the camera to misrepresent your coral. Using this technique will not show the colors of your coral properly, what it will do is trick the camera into misrepresenting colors that it sees. This misrepresentation is what you are seeing, the coral does not look like this! it is a lie. Don't post pictures of corals taken with this technique unless you are trying to scam, misrepresent or otherwise trick your fellow reefers into thinking your coral actually looks like the picture.

Hey Joe!

Thanks a lot for reemphasizing the intention of this one. Not sure how anyone could take this seriously lol. I mean the title alone is one big pun!

Wouldn't have thought I'd need to explain it but when I said "unreal" in the title. I meant that literally as in pics that do not look real, and not the slang as in awesome or something to that effect

ReefMadScientist · Sep 11, 2015

Gonzo said:
Love the write up Adam. Perfect example of photo manipulation is the WD acro. I have yet to see one that looks like the original sellers photos. Believe me I have asked and still not got a pic even close the the coral pics from the seller.

I have seen 2 in person and they look like a regular green tenius. Main reason you don't see negative feedback it most bought it to resell. How you gonna resell a coral you bash lol. Worst place for greasy photos and vendors is facebook.

Greasy Greasers everywhere on the FB. It really amazes me at the people that buy into the hype and photo crap.

Man you're a man on a mission!!!

I agree - Facebook is stuffed with nonsense. However; some of us did get our WD from Mike or have a connection to the OG coral.

Lets end the debate and figure this out. I will open a thread. You post the OG pic, and some of us will try to match it

jgraz · Sep 11, 2015

All of a sudden Reef Raft pics take on a whole new light

Gonzo · Sep 11, 2015

As I tell them on facebook. Shut me up. Show me a picture that look like the original sellers photos.

And guess what ? Still nothing

Diesel · Sep 11, 2015

Have a lot of enjoyment out the very informative points about how to tackle the skills of photographing corals.

This was one of your 1" frags about two years ago, help me out on the name as I go only on beauty