Pics of sps. Daylight or blue light preferred?

[bubbaque]

I like to post daily pics in my thread. I’ve been thinking about switching up the way I post pics. As of now I post pics with all my bulbs on to make the corals look natural. I’ve been thinking about going with actinic pics as it seems more people enjoy those.
I’m not sure if that’s the general consensus but it seems when I post a random actinic pic it gets more “likes”.

What type of pics do you prefer when it comes to sps?

There is a poll at the top.

 

[x2uranium]

not going to lie... I like daylight pics.. then you can really see what the coral truly looks like.. again

I do like actinic look of a lot of corals but I prefer daylights so you can really get an idea of how colorful the corals are.. I have some that look amazing under whites / crappy under blue. Vise versa.

 

[lolgranny]

+1 daylight, but then again your “daylight” runs on the bluer side of things. My vote is to keep doing what you’re doing. Everyone enjoys your phots

 

[x2uranium]

Indeed what granny said.. I just realistically like them more when I am buying a coral so I don’t get scammed lol.

 

[DivingTheWorld]

I prefer daylight since it's a more realistic photo to what it would look like in our tank. Not that we can achieve the same growth and color as you do!

 

[Anirban]

Both....

 

[MarinaP]

Having been in this hobby for 20 years, I do not quite get the recent uptick of sps pics under heavy actinics. Nobody grows sps under such light longterm. It looks cool in a scifi kind of fashion, but the value of actinics pics stops right there.

 

[Funlad3]

20K daylight; you can see fluorescent colors still, but blues, purples and pastels don't get washed out like they do under actinics.

 

[TheHarold]

Daylight for the win! Daylight or bulb photos for me. @bubbaque In general I like photos that represent corals closer to how you would see them in nature- not bathed in actinics with orange filters.

I think I am pretty good at getting that- just being natural. Sometimes the photos look a bit on the dramatic side when I white balance it, but usually I think they are representative. I primarily use my iPhone for photos.


When I post photos, I think "Would I be happy if I bought a coral that looks like that and then looked at it during my regular daylight schedule?" "Is this representative of what I see?"

Another good strategy is just taking a photo from the side panel. How much does that photo from the side look like your topdown?

Here are some of my ambient lighting photos- to me, the most natural looking and magical time for a tank:

And then with bulbs:

 

[Epic Aquaculture]

I like to see both, but if I'm picking one it's definitely daylight.

 

[Janci]

Although I do not mind to see an actinic tank, I prefer to see photos of coral in a daylight setting.

I guess that is what I see all the time when watching my own tank, while actinic is only in the last hour of ramping down the LED.

Anyway @bubbaque , what ever type of coral photo you post, I keep on ;Drool;Drool;Drool

 

[bubbaque]

+1 daylight, but then again your “daylight” runs on the bluer side of things. My vote is to keep doing what you’re doing. Everyone enjoys your phots

My tank is for sure on the bluer side. On my radion tank the AB+ scdhule I run says it's 18.5k + plus I add my blue t5 bulbs.

20K daylight; you can see fluorescent colors still, but blues, purples and pastels don't get washed out like they do under actinics.

Thats where I try to run my tank. You get a little of both worlds.

When it comes to actinic pics I feel the issue is those darn orange filters. Those orange filters change how a coral looks dramatically.

 

[bubbaque]

I’m pretty amazed the “daylight” pics are winning by a landslide!

 

[TheHarold]

I’m pretty amazed the “daylight” pics are winning by a landslide!

That’s only because ambient isn’t an option ;Woot

 

[jda]

I do not want to see pics in true daylight (5500k). However, if you mean "daylight" in the 14k to 20k range, then yes.

I just want eggcrate and sand to look white. Coralline to look normal.

 

[tripdad]

I think jda nailed it, smewhere near 20k is good for me. 5500K looks too yellow to my eyes. Actinic are fun to look at but I don't run there.

I just want eggcrate and sand to look white. Coralline to look normal.

 

[FarmerTy]

I want Bubba to work twice as hard... I want both side by side each time. Please everyone!

You know 80% of the Facebook crowd wants it blue so you might as well do it Bubba. [emoji4]

 

[Michael Naegeli]

White pics if I’m buying. Blue pics when I’m slangin... [emoji56]

 

[NY_Caveman]

You need a “Both” choice. However, if the point is to force us to pick I pick Daylight. I figure everything pretty much looks stellar under Actinic, so Daylight is the real test.

 

[sawdonkey]

Also daylight with a hint of blue.