HomeWrecker under normal lighting?

hybridazn · Apr 29, 2017

Well dang...

N4sty T4te · Apr 29, 2017

Everybody is always talking about photoshop and saturation. As a professional photographer though, I can tell you you can make crazy things happen without doing anything in photoshop.

Like these three pics for example. Zero photoshop. All in camera. Do the corals normally look like this? No. But they CAN look like this under the right conditions and all these colors are there.

Velcro · Apr 29, 2017

N4sty T4te said:
Everybody is always talking about photoshop and saturation. As a professional photographer though, I can tell you you can make crazy things happen without doing anything in photoshop.

Like these three pics for example. Zero photoshop. All in camera. Do the corals normally look like this? No. But they CAN look like this under the right conditions and all these colors are there.

What's the lighting and camera/lens/settings?

chomoney · Apr 29, 2017

I don't own one, but I have seen one at a frag swap.

Sure, the pictures can be crazy. But in a tank of 50 nice sps frags, HW stands out instantly.

N4sty T4te · Apr 30, 2017

Velcro said:
What's the lighting and camera/lens/settings?

5DSR w/90mm Macro, color correction lens filters, capture one for final color balancing. That's about it. Royal blue LED's with a little T5 in the mix.

Saturation untouched, slight contrast enhancement, maybe 5 on a scale to 100. Light sharpening to help clean up the degraded quality from 1/2" glass.

Velcro · Apr 30, 2017

N4sty T4te said:
5DSR w/90mm Macro, color correction lens filters, capture one for final color balancing. That's about it. Royal blue LED's with a little T5 in the mix.

Saturation untouched, slight contrast enhancement, maybe 5 on a scale to 100. Light sharpening to help clean up the degraded quality from 1/2" glass.

What color filter? Yellow and brown work really well for my setup but orange makes things wayyyyyyyyyyyyy to walt disney

Graffiti Spot · Apr 30, 2017

N4sty T4te said:
Can't remember where I read it but he actually goes and dives himself to find new species then brings them back. He does a 1st stage quarantine for a few months, then cuts the base off, re-glues and re-quarantines for a few more months. Then Cuts again re-glues and quarantines again for a few months before he introduces it to the grow out facility.

He doesn't go diving for all of his corals, I am pretty sure people have given him corals which he has put his name on before, if I am correct. A lot of people go diving for corals and bring them back but I would guess not many of them are his money makers on the website. I would guess he gets a lot of them like others do, buying boxes and picking the nicest ones from each, or buying select hyped (high dollar) pieces from wholesalers.

Also I thought he uses odd ways to make corals look as crazy as everyone sees them. Like running 400w radium's on a 250w ballast to get a very odd color for halide. There are other ways to do it, I am sure others can chime in who have actually had a relationship with him. Or has no one here been to his house and traded with him?
Other people like to do this with LEDs to make corals flourecent and bright with certain water conditions as well. Only thing I don't really like is not many people at all keep corals like this long term. These methods and good photographing make for some crazy pictures.
I have a friend who is still kind of new to the hobby and he always messages me these crazy edited pictures of high end corals thinking that's how they will look in person. A lot of people photographing corals like this make sales because of people like this. And when some of them spend this type of money on a frag they feel like they have to back it up and say it looks like it does in the picture.
Not saying that's what's happening here at all, I haven't seen one in person yet. But still looking for some hw pics in some more natural lighting.

N4sty T4te · Apr 30, 2017

Meh, Idk. I think most people with the financial ability to buy a $800 frag wouldn't waste their time saying it's a solid piece, if it wasn't.

Regardless of how he secures his new species, his quarantine practices were the main thing. Of ALL the vendors I've ever ordered from. Jason Fox's WYSIWYG photos are absolutely the most accurate.

Daniel@R2R · May 1, 2017

I also think another reason you don't see many pics in this thread (or others like it) is that threads like this (with the direction it's gone at this point) tend to draw out haters. If people post less than stellar pics, the ones hating on it grab that as evidence that it isn't what people claim (when it could be any number of issues from water conditions to camera skill issues). Or if someone DOES have a nice picture of it (a few have already been posted in this thread) which show good coloration, those same haters claim that it's been edited to make it look as it does. In my years of reefing, I've seen this happen over and over again. It's an issue of preconceived bias being used to interpret the evidence. I think lots of people might avoid showing off their piece in that kind of discussion.

Hopefully we'll see more pics, but I do think many people avoid posting pics in these discussions due to these issues.

vanpire · May 1, 2017

N4sty T4te said:
Meh, Idk. I think most people with the financial ability to buy a $800 frag wouldn't waste their time saying it's a solid piece, if it wasn't.

Why not? I am not saying the HW is not what JF says it is, but that this statement is too vague...

I don't think we should equate actually paying $800 for a frag vs. not paying $800 for a frag with financial means. There are many on this site with financial means of doing so that won't pay this, and there are those who cannot afford and will. Some will see it as an investment. Buy one frag for $800 and sell more for $300, $400, $500 etc. and make a profit. My guess is this last group will make up the majority, but not all, of the early purchasers, i.e. no colony pics.

For me, the purpose of reading this thread is to understand whether the HW is worth getting and how much I should be paying based on my own value system. Others might have different values....and I don't care.

It would like see more HW pics with different types of lighting to help me decide.

Peng · May 1, 2017

vanpire said:
Why not? I am not saying the HW is not what JF says it is, but that this statement is too vague...

I don't think we should equate actually paying $800 for a frag vs. not paying $800 for a frag with financial means. There are many on this site with financial means of doing so that won't pay this, and there are those who cannot afford and will. Some will see it as an investment. Buy one frag for $800 and sell more for $300, $400, $500 etc. and make a profit. My guess is this last group will make up the majority, but not all, of the early purchasers, i.e. no colony pics.

For me, the purpose of reading this thread is to understand whether the HW is worth getting and how much I should be paying based on my own value system. Others might have different values....and I don't care.

It would like see more HW pics with different types of lighting to help me decide.

Makes sense. The purpose of the thread is to allow people to make up their own minds...whether it's worth to buy it or not.

nl5882 · May 7, 2017

I have this piece straight from Jason Fox, it is definitely the most colorful coral I've owned yet. It has a crazy orange at the end by the coralites even under white. All though I really loved my JKR rainbow. It isn't a mini colony yet, but it's growing out. His picture on his website and what I received was spot on.

vanpire · May 8, 2017

nl5882 said:
I have this piece straight from Jason Fox, it is definitely the most colorful coral I've owned yet. It has a crazy orange at the end by the coralites even under white. All though I really loved my JKR rainbow. It isn't a mini colony yet, but it's growing out. His picture on his website and what I received was spot on.

I would like to see a pic if you can take one.

Sabellafella · May 8, 2017

This is white, photo is under coralplus purple plus and reef brite blue led strip that you can barely even tell.

The led strip basically makes it not come out grey , from the only 2 bulbs i shoot under

Peng said:
Most JF homewrecker pictures online are taken under actinic lights. Can someone share photos of HW under full lighting? Planning to buy this coral but I want to make sure it looks nice under normal lighting. Thanks!

Sabellafella · May 8, 2017

Reference to my picture lighting and to when i first got it.

Sabellafella · May 8, 2017

d2mini said:
If the white frag plugs are ultra blue, I don't trust the pic.
There's no reason you can't take a pic of the coral showing it's true colors... if you know what you're doing.

And yes, coral colors can definitely change from tank to tank.

Problem now a days is when people try to hard. Using thick gel filters, taking dark shots, photoshop or programming is barely half of it. Nothing more simple then just playing with exposure and making sure the coral is illuminated enuff to show its beautiful colors

ReeferMadness80G · May 8, 2017

I heard Vincent Chalias say this weekend at RAP "Its better to buy brown acropora and watch it color up than to buy a amazingly colored one and watch it turn brown"