Online buyers beware!!!!!

I'm aware its a long paragraph but read it! It will definitely make you think twice!


Ok, so i was checking out some pictures and these colors were just not adding up on these corals so i did a little research and found out how to find if a picture was photoshopped. Here is a link to the website! (real easy to use) I will give you a little run-down of how it works. There is something on a photo called ELA or Error Level Analysis and it will basically take your picture and tell you if you image has been distorted or photoshopped in any way. When someone photoshop's an image or changes it in any way AT ALL it will take away from the quality of the image. If your image has been changed or photoshopped (in the coral word it is the color change) then the ELA will be darker or basically the quality has been reduced. If your image has not been changed it should look pretty white and you should pretty much have a good image. (not perfect but if this picture flashed in front of you for a couple seconds the overall pic would be white). I just wanted to share a few things to the fish world that i dont think has been addressed yet!



Here is the link! Enjoy!

FotoForensics


There is also a tutorial if you want to check that out! My explanation is a little confusing, i know!

 

Lot's of less-than-reputable-shops photoshop their listings. It's usually not that hard to spot if you know what to look for.

The real lesson here: Deals too good to be true generally are, and it's always better to stay with someone who has a good reputation.

 

And in shorter terms...... ;D

 

Just because a photo has been altered does not mean that the shop is disreputable. In many cases the lighting in the tank does not translate proper colors to a photo. As an example, in my tank I've got some amazing looking corals that look like crap when I take a picture. This is due to the lighting. Using photoshop to correct for lighting wavelength is appropriate. Now there are many cases where using Photoshop isn't, but a changed pic doesn't necessarily mean bad behavior.

 

If I was wanting to set up a freshwater tank and I don't like brightly colored gravel, where would I find this blue or purple or pink sand the coral sellers in the saltwater side of the hobby use? ;D

 

haha, well theres the exception!

 

LOL Curt

 

Actually most need to white balance their photos because of the preferred look we want is not conducive to good looking color in photos since cameras are affected the most by the first bulb's light spectrum or the most dominant spectrum in the tank.

 

Very true! I guess there are exceptions but it's next to impossible to figure out what they did exactly to the photo. Some softwares will tell you if its been saved in photoshop or another editing software but its still too hard to get down to the nitty gritty.........unfortunately!

 

I haven't received any coral that wasn't reasonably close to the color that was shown in the pic on the dealer's site yet. I am knocking on wood though about that.