SPS Keeper's Guide to Spotting BS/Greasy/Edited Photos

[jda]

Please feel free to post more examples, but installment #1 is with coralline algae.

This is Big Bird Acropora $1250 for a 1/2 frag - grown under Big-Named LEDs with our custom settings that we will give no specs on, guaranteed to be a daylight pic and to have this color in your tank... as long as you have the same exact lights, parameters, fish list, longitude and latitude and hair-do otherwise it could be different. Of course, it looks better in person (they all do, don't they):

This is the same coral under 14K lights with no photo editing and filters. This is not a sharp picture, but it is honest.

The purple coralline in either side of the frag is a dead giveaway. The daylight photo coralline is out of focus, but the color is correct. The coralline in the first photo is just ridiculous and easy to spot if you know what you are looking for.

Installment #2: eggcrate and frag discs.. Nearly everybody should know what a Bounce Mushroom looks like, but these are all of the frags that I have on eggcrate right now, so sorry... so just pretend that this is an orangeish SPS.

First photo is wanting to sell a deep orange coral. Frag plug is purple and eggcrate is too. This could come out as a new kind of Bounce called a Tropicana Orange Bounce for $2500 a pop.

Daylight photo still shows a bit of a purple frag plug since this one is not fresh, but it is nothing like the one above. Eggcrate in the side is pure white. A fresh frag plug would be pure white too.

While also might not be the best photo, at least it is honest. They stray Kenya Tree also can be a good giveaway.

Anybody have any other examples or things to look out for? What is the greasiest photo that you have ever seen of a coral? Please post.

 

[Stevejrnc]

A lot of photoshopers use photo boxes so you can't compare with anything

Way to many sites I see show unrealistic photos of acroporas the past several years

 

[Big E]

I know you're focusing on photos but,

What's funny to me is that Big Bird is your standard yellow tip austera......popular name now is WWC yellow tip..........it goes for about $40-45 for a large frag. You can get some insane pop out of it with just some minor actinic and still keep a 14k tank. It's a fast grower as well.

 

[Donovan Joannes]

Microsoft Lumia 640XL raw pictures...

 

[BoomCorals]

I actually wrote an article on this exact subject a while back.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/w...into-coral-photography-in-advertising.312819/

An excerpt:

Normal, correctly colored photo of Electric Oompa Loompa.

Doctored up version that someone would suddenly charge 3x as much for.

Also, this is why all of my photos have something in the background - no black boxes. I strive to have my coral look true/accurate.

 

[jda]

Ed, I agree... but don't you think that if Vivid posted the photo of The Big Bird that it would have a waiting list already since people have not been around to know what you know? That one is actually Westside Tort, which is a bit different than WWC Yellow Tip, but your point is still a good one... awesome old school coral that thrives and looks good under good lighting.

Boom, that is a good article. I wonder if we can figure out how to decompose some of the edited pics. I have a professional high end photographer friend who thinks that he might be able to figure out some on black sand.

I forgot to put Ultra in the made-up names. Dammmit! I still have a dozen Tropicana Ultra Orange Bounces for sale.

Who is the worst offender of selling corals off of unrealistic and doctored photos? Vivid? I really appreciate RMF and Gonzo who I think try and do a good job of not going overboard, but I have not been on their sites in some time.

 

[DLuce510]

Those photos dont seem that bad, it just appears that the white balence has beent adjusted with a small bump on saturation. Maybe a little too much saturatuon to be a honest representation but its not like some of the insanity ive seen. I dont think I would be super bumed if I received those but I would never spend those prices, even though it was a exaggeration to get the point across.

 

[TMB]

As I look around at corals for sale I see a lot of the tell tale signs of photo editing beyond what is reasonable. The problem is that I think a lot of people, myself included, are worried about calling someone out in this thread, and what might come of that. It is a problem these days and brings back the old adage "believe none of what you hear, and only half of what you see".

 

[Ghxst]

I've noticed that using a phone for photos the more pictures you take the more the software tries to compensate. Once in a while I get a redic looking ultra bright pic that the sensor can see but not my eyes. This happens on my frag of WD, I just don't share the over the top photos.

So Doug, how much are your ultra Tropicana mega bounces? I might have to get some along with the pearl berry you recommended to me.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

I agree with Ed when he says the austera at the top is an average coral. And also think the wetside tort is the same coral. Thoes austera come in all the time and have been for years, it's amazing vendors can sell frags of this coral for more than 10$. I guess it just adds to the point of the thread.

The vendors who take pictures of frags in black boxes with specific lighting to make the corals easier to photograph and to make the photos easier to Photoshop and process into an image that newer hobbiests will want and not be able to stop looking at. So many people look at these pictures and don't understand what they are going to get.

 

[foxt]

The other thing that mystifies me is the PE that you see in some of these shots - that isn't photoshop, but are they doing something else to get the exaggerated PE?

 

[BoomCorals]

The other thing that mystifies me is the PE that you see in some of these shots - that isn't photoshop, but are they doing something else to get the exaggerated PE?

No, PE is just a sign of happy healthy coral.

 

[jda]

They have them in frag tanks with no/few fish, turn the flow down. Lots of the ones with the polyps out so much are usually starved for light and are looking to feed. You can get your PE up too if you turn your lights to 50%, slow the flow and get rid of all of your fish. It is one the many differences between selling coral and keeping it - some do both the same way, but not many.

 

[BoomCorals]

They have them in frag tanks with no/few fish, turn the flow down. Lots of the ones with the polyps out so much are usually starved for light and are looking to feed. You can get your PE up too if you turn your lights to 50%, slow the flow and get rid of all of your fish. It is one the many differences between selling coral and keeping it - some do both the same way, but not many.

Just speaking for myself, I do none of those things. All my tanks have fish and tons of flow. Lights are cranked, etc. And I get Fantastic PE. You can ask people who have seen my tanks in person. I keep and grow coral so my goal is growth and health, not staging pictures of perfect specimens in ways that no one can replicate in a normal reef tank and using heavy photoshop to doctor the frags!

 

[foxt]

There is PE, and then there is PE!

I've bought a few frags of something based on the extreme PE that I saw in the photo, hoping that I could come close to replicating it in my tank. What I forget is that in some cases, the photos are taken at an optimal time/conditions, and that the frag isn't going to necessarily look like that. This is specifically so true when it's not a wysiwyg frag - I am not sure, but I would not be surprised if the extreme PE photos are not usually wysiwyg.

I am not calling any particular vendor out. And being a recent customer, I can say that Matt at Boom Corals does a great job of representing what you're getting on his website.

Just reminding myself that, especially when it comes to corals, the best way to know what you are getting is to see it in person. I don't have a lot of options for that (not any good LFS or clubs nearby), and Reefapalooza NY is my annual splurge (sort of glad about that, actually!). So I rely on reviews here, and try a few test purchases from online vendors before I go all out with them ....

 

[Ghxst]

I have a red dragon growing like crazy 3 inches from my mp40 with zero polyp extension and a WD 8 inches away with swaying hairy pe. I'm sure every tank is different because of the other factors. But I know some shops alter flow and lighting to get that look, they talk about nuking zoas at reef stock all the time to get them glowing. They will melt if kept at that light.

But the real question is @jda will you sell me one of those photoshopped mushrooms? I promise to take unaltered photos and post

 

[jda]

Some vendors flip the lights on early in the day or morning and take photos with the polyps out more. Don't get caught up in PE - there is probably not a less important factor in determining acropora health.

There are honest sellers. More and more are not so honest...

 

[scchase]

I only worry about PE if I am not getting any at night, during the day there is none and I expect there to be none. Not a good indicator of health. Tired of all the greased photos because they are not representative of what you will get..... over and no matter what. I don't look at my tank through a camera lens, light filter or anything else and I bet you don't either.

 

[BoomCorals]

Some vendors flip the lights on early in the day or morning and take photos with the polyps out more. Don't get caught up in PE - there is probably not a less important factor in determining acropora health.

There are honest sellers. More and more are not so honest...

Hmm interesting. I thought I had read studies correlating PE and acro health? Specifically, if PE is good it means the acro is probably healthy. But lack of PE does not necessarily mean it's not.

 

[jda]

...not that this needs to become a PE thread, but having a lot of PE does not mean anything. Some of the real studies back a few decades by folks like Dr. Ron (I think...I forget...sorry) show more PE means that the coral can need to feed more and/or exchange more gas and nutrients. It can mean that they are not getting enough light and need more food. While less near-dying corals do not usually have much PE (this is bad, of course), it can also mean that healthy coral are getting enough light/food and do not need to risk exposure since most of the predators go after polyps first (this is good). Then, some are just hairy and always will be. It is a total crapshoot.

Keep in mind that a LOT of folks read about PE from LPS and other types of coral, which are totally different... and that gets lost in translation. I am talking about SPS only. You REALLY have to separate the two when you look at a study or research. I think that most people know that NPS are also not a good comparison, but a lot of the PE folklore come from papers about them.