Photo Tomfoolery to sell coral frags... your thoughts:

[ZAB]

Lol the corals are too bright. Help me my eyes hurt lol. Too funny. Here are some pics from my tank I run at full blue most of the day except for a 6 hr period with 10 percent whites. Maybe I did start my obsession because of how incredible a high end, well tweaked tank looks in blues. A more thorough appreciation for the animal came later. Still would rather not see a tank full a brown buggers. Perhaps it may be challenging to get optimal colors out of our corals. I know I've had a really tough time with some. But at least i know what colors to shoot for on account of those letter prefixes and funky names. Lol. Complaining about stuff sure is fun huh? Protect your eyes when viewing these pictures, they maybe so bright they cause headaches and seizures.

My eyes.my eyes

 

[H@rry]

I think this is an example of what I heard one time: "98% of lawyers give the rest a bad name".

I don't have Photoshop, can't afford it. I downloaded a free photo editing program called "GIMP". It does everything I need to do to a photo. My camera skills are not all that good but I make sure they are in focus. Then they go to the computer and I adjust the colors and exposures just enough so the pic looks like the coral. I don't try to mislead anyone with over saturated pics.

When you look at some of the pics on some sites you will see purple and blue egg crate and frags plugs. That's when you know you can't trust the pic to accurately represent the coral.

 

[Terri Caton]

I despise the photo manipulation but like every item being sold you want to spice it up and make it look as best as it possibly can.

Much respect for sellers who post side-by-side pics in both whites and blues. This seller is a great example -

Oregon - zoas & soft corals - you pick - 6 for $80 or 12 for $130

I've got some more zoas ready, and a few soft corals from the last sale. Selling 6-packs or 12-packs of colorful, healthy corals to start your zoa garden or add to your collection. Only $80 shipped for 6 frags, or $130 shipped for 12 frags of your choice. Shipping: my standard shipping for...

www.reef2reef.com

100% agree! I would literally pay a few dollars more for them to do photos that way. So great to see what it will look like at different times of the day/night.

Coral vendors, Please, Please, Please start doing it this way! Some of you already are. Many thanks!

 

[Terri Caton]

This point is a good one, and worth discussing. The main reason that vendors use digital manipulation and/or environmental manipulation (i.e., "black lighting") for the photos of their corals is that there's been a shift in the "reef culture" over the last 5 years or so. Reef keeping in the 1990's/early 2000's was largely about creating a biotope, and "awesome tank" generally meant a clever aquascape with grown-in large colonies of corals (whether softies, LPS or SPS) and a selection of interesting fish that occupied all of the environmental niches of the tank.

A fairly high percentage of reefers today focus on the individual corals rather than the tank as a whole. A good technical description of what they're doing is "coral gardening" or "coral collecting" rather than "reef creation". Don't get me wrong, I'm not condemning coral gardening if that's your thing. But because of this shift in focus, the on-line coral vendors have shifted the focus to the color attributes of the individual corals rather than colony size or morphology. This makes sense when marketing to coral collectors, because collectors tend to be focused on the appearance of the coral and the fact that they have it - up to a point, the size or morphology of a colony is irrelevant. In fact, you could go as far as surmising that large colonies are undesirable from the collector's standpoint in that they occupy more tank space that could be used for acquiring different corals.

That's quite unlike someone that is focused on creating a reefscape, where larger (and fewer) colonies are highly desirable, and where someone is unlikely to pay more for a different colored corallite on the same colored background because it just doesn't get noticed when looking at the tank from the macro perspective.

Not undesirable to me. I'll take all unwanted large colonies off anyone's hands who don't want them!

 

[Terri Caton]

Two of them look dead or close to death

I just bought a "box" from a vendor on here. His corals are so freaking amazing it almost made me cry! Polyps out in the bags. Colors awesome. Very generous sized frags. Even as I was gluing them the polyps started to come out while I was holding them! Basically indestructible!

Now that I've seen this is possible I demand to have them in that quality Every time. No excuses! I'm sick and tired of paying high prices for low quality coral...no matter who's name is on it.

 

[HB AL]

For me after learning exactly what was going on with the pics vendors post and learning the hard way and participating in a live sale a couple years back or so( and I'm gonna drop a name, tired of this not calling them out for fear of what?) I participated in a WWC live sale here on R2R, spent quite a bit on acro frags and what I received outta the 10 I bought really bummed me out especially with the $spent and thinking that big, respected company/vendor on here surely would be safe to order from just pics, but my excitement from when I bought the pricey (on sale, ya right) acro frags(not won, won infers free like winning a fishing tournament and the cash and prizes that come with winning) to the feeling I got when I actually received the order was a complete disappointment to what was actually pictured, but at the time even though I heard of shenanigans going on with coral pics I figured a live sale exclusive to R2R that those pic shenanigans would surely not be happening in this case from the "greatest,best coral seller) but after that experience the light bulb came on in my head and I learned alot one being not to trust even the so called best coral vendors. Although I now by most of my corals locally from lfs's or private sales in person, I have since bought a few times from other vendors on here and have found 3 for sure that represent there corals in true colors in there pics and receive pretty much what was pictured, so there are legit vendors not doctoring there corals and they are the only ones that will get my money along with my lfs's. Sorry if some get upset but this was my first hand experience and have not been disappointed ever since whether online or in person.

 

[cCRAWLINS]

It's also pretty irritating when they purposely bleach acros to make the colors brighter under blues

 

[ZAB]

I just bought a "box" from a vendor on here. His corals are so freaking amazing it almost made me cry! Polyps out in the bags. Colors awesome. Very generous sized frags. Even as I was gluing them the polyps started to come out while I was holding them! Basically indestructible!

Now that I've seen this is possible I demand to have them in that quality Every time. No excuses! I'm sick and tired of paying high prices for low quality coral...no matter who's name is on it.

You really might be surprised who sold these corals they have had lots of really good reviews in the past..even from me...here on reef2reef.i am really bummed out that they have changed the way they do business...

 

[Terri Caton]

You really might be surprised who sold these corals they have had lots of really good reviews in the past..even from me...here on reef2reef.i am really bummed out that they have changed the way they do business...

Not sure who you are talking about. I just had the Best experience with who I am talking about.

 

[LBReefer]

I completely agree that sellers should not Photoshop their images to enhance colors, in particular when they increase the saturation to make colors look artificially vibrant.

However, some corals can naturally look vibrant in photos. I don't sell corals, but I do take a lot of photos (in particular macro photos) just for fun. I set my camera to adjust the white balance to compensate for blue lights, but do not use Photoshop at all. Here are a few examples from my tank which have not been enhanced in any way that look particularly good, and actually look the same in person:

These are amazing. What kind of lens do you use?

 

[Terri Caton]

You really might be surprised who sold these corals they have had lots of really good reviews in the past..even from me...here on reef2reef.i am really bummed out that they have changed the way they do business...

Are you still using Benepets Reef Food? How do you like it?

 

[ZAB]

Yes like it

 

[Is this the LFS]

How much of that expensive coral frag you are buying WYSIWYG.....is the byproduct of the SELLER using expensive camera equipment PLUS Photoshop?

I see all these WYSIWYG corals for sale and my mind is boggled with how perfect the picture is due to photo manipulation

Your thoughts....

I have only ordered one coral and that was from wwc. It was a little less than I expected but not awful. But the places that do it to the extreme are just catfishing us

 

[Hemmdog]

I have only ordered one coral and that was from wwc. It was a little less than I expected but not awful. But the places that do it to the extreme are just catfishing us

Catfishing !! Lol! I love it.

 

[krash7172]

It's not about good experiences vs bad experiences in trade. That will always happen and good vendors will do right. Being deceptive is wrong.

 

[Is this the LFS]

Catfishing !! Lol! I love it.

Haha I’m proud of myself

 

[krash7172]

I decided to try to repeat the image of the coral I purchased. I haven't been able to yet but I started playing with the UV on my hydras. My wife left the room and I turned the UV up and turned the room lights off. When she came back she said it looked like a fish store. lol

 

[SuncrestReef]

These are amazing. What kind of lens do you use?

I use a Nikon D610 camera with a Nikon 200mm f/4 macro lens, one of the best macros you can buy. It's a beast to work with and can be pretty unwieldy with the long 14" porthole tube I use, but the results are worth it. You can see more about this lens and my coral macro shots in my build thread: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/suncrestreefs-red-sea-reefer-xl-425-build.358990/post-5006754

 

[ReefRondo]

Ok so looks like we are all in agreement the way things are going is wrong. What do we all do about it? I personally have completely stopped buying from people with photos like this no matter how juicy they look.

 

[Waynerock]

Got this from TSA, here is My picture compared to there sales picture. Pretty close not exact but close enough that I am happy.