Photoshop: when is enough enough

[Lovefish77]

I would just say that we need to use common sense based on the common variety of colors we have seen "in person" in other tanks. Retailers are always trying to make some money out of a new niche based on a rare color variation or something. But it is demand that is to blame in this case. I see lots of people in this hobby eager to stay on top of the curve by acquiring a mesmerizing color variety of a certain coral, which of course turns out to be not-so-mesmerizing at all. So we just have to be careful not to let the magic of royal blue led and orange filters trick us.
But on the flip side for people using bluish spectrums it is hard to shoot without filters. We should all strive to make colors look natural even with filters, BUT filters have their own skew on colors especially if the coral has multiple colors.

 

[Cstar_BC]

This. When you see a coral picture with all the background edited out and filled with black, walk away, you're being had.

Blue light isn't deceptive, but showing only blue light images is. Corals should be sold with one blue image and one white.

And NOT this trick blueish white I've seen lots of lately where the egg crate stays white but the coral lights up. I mean straight up blue, and straight up daylight around 10k.

But the edited backgrounds without egg crate, those are the worst.

agree . I tend to have my lights move from heavy blue to just a hint of blue when I’m normally viewing it .

however, tank maintenance day is 100% white and I would hate to not like my coral then

 

[Cstar_BC]

i kind of do the same thing! Especially with coralline algae in the background. If it is a weird color, or has strange unnatural looking pixels i know better. i haven't thought to look at the egg crate. Thanks for the idea!

well I have egg crate in my tank , and I know what it looks like under heavy blues .

So when I see a pic under heavy blues that’s over saturated it’s like a neon beacon saying - don’t buy this it won’t look the same

 

[MuscleBobBuffPants]

Things got out of hand long ago.

Actually people loved following IG accounts and vendors who really just show blue massively contrasted, filtered and photoshoped corals with ultra rare premium ****** names.


But for me the saddest is the more and more common use of orange filter glasses to watch your tank.

I attach some examples of my IG of how can they easily trick somebody even without being 24k turbo or weird looking tiles or egg crates.

These are some awesome shots in terms of resolution and framing alone. What kind of camera/ lens setup do you have going here?

I have a Canon t3i from back when I shot for my school newspaper. Can I take photos like yours with my camera? How are you getting the white background with the fluorescent colors? Is there a guide I can follow to help me take photos like these? I viewed your instagram and those photos are amazing too.

 

[DivingTheWorld]

I made my first online coral purchase the other day and it was the biggest let down ever!

can I please pictures of your corals with regular white daylight?? Is it possible to buy truly colourful corals that don’t need altered lighting to look vibrant?

Check out @Battlecorals . The corals I’ve received from Adam have been better than the pictures. And his site pictures are very accurate white light pictures.

 

[itselenababe]

Check out @Battlecorals . The corals I’ve received from Adam have been better than the pictures. And his site pictures are very accurate white light pictures.

I’m from Canada so unfortunately I most likely wouldn’t be able to purchase but i’ll definitely look at his pics for reference. Thank you!

 

[AcroNem]

Adjusting for white balance is where the line is, if you blast something with UV, all actinics, mess with colors and saturation you've crossed it.

 

[JCTReefer]

So what the consensus on this hammer? Does the photo look legit or altered heavily? I know some of you that have posted know your stuff pretty well. It’s shot on white egg crate. Not sure how much that matters. Over saturated? I see multiple orange hammers for sale of different shades. I should probably just learn my lesson and stay away from orange hammers. Lol!

 

[Michael Gray]

id say looks pretty good.. as the eggcrate is still white! and not blue

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

#layermask

 

[JCTReefer]

#layermask

I had to look that one up. Thanks

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

yeah.. on something with a clear outline (like that hammer) it would take me all of about 2 minutes to magic lasso it, create a mask, a smash the colors up without affecting the color of anything else in the background.

Believe you me.. it is waaaaay easy to change the color of the coral without affecting the background. I mean.. how do you think all those people get pictures of their colors on a perfectly black background? Lasso, clip, paste. done

 

[JCTReefer]

yeah.. on something with a clear outline (like that hammer) it would take me all of about 2 minutes to magic lasso it, create a mask, a smash the colors up without affecting the color of anything else in the background.

Believe you me.. it is waaaaay easy to change the color of the coral without affecting the background. I mean.. how do you think all those people get pictures of their colors on a perfectly black background? Lasso, clip, paste. done

Wow, that’s very informative! I didn’t realize you could do that so easily! I’ve wondered how WWC has perfectly pictured corals on a flawless black background. I know it’s pretty simple to adjust an image with basic editing software on just an iPhone. You can make a coral look really, really good without affecting the background too much. I’ve messed with that a bit for the heck of it, and that’s just a phone. Can’t imagine what actual photo editing software can do. I’m know picture expert that’s for sure. I went ahead and purchased the hammer pictured. I got screwed on my last orange hammer. Man, if this one doesn’t look semi close, I’m giving up on orange hammers period. I purchased it from a reputable online dealer, so time will tell. They use Eco Tech Radion XR30wPRO’s on their tanks. I don’t guess it matters what kind of lighting they use since they can just edit it however anyways. I’m certainly not expecting the same color when it’s in my tank. I do hope it looks better than the last hammer though. Guess I’ll find out tomorrow morning. Appreciate the input.