Reptile photography - real or fake?

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in response to HDR and modified/crap photos,

decent HDR(High Def Rendering) wont work with moving subjects, moving includes leaves and the snake the branches,etc etc, unless you have a very very fast camera and lenses( EG a hasselblad W/Carl Zeiss Lens) or you manipulate your shots with a PC program, you cant bracket and layer shots of a subject that moves accurately as the foreground, mid and backgrounds are all different angles
if you want an accurate non manipulated shot ask for a raw image file.
Nato
 
decent HDR(High Def Rendering)

my understanding was that HDR stood for High Dynamic Range which means capturing an image several times at different exposures; underexposed(to get all the highlight detail), overexposed to get a lot of shodow detail and a couple of different exposures in between. If the subject is not moving and the camera was on a tripod, then all these images can be combined together to give an image with a much broader range of tone and detail than would be possible in a single exposure.
 
if you want an accurate non manipulated shot ask for a raw image file.
Nato

I take your point but how accurate a RAW image is going to be in relation to the live snake? Some good, some not so good in case of the latter, the buyer will shy away. Also, how many people have the gear to shoot in RAW? I see a lot of images in ads taken with a phone ...... no further comments. LOL

my understanding was that HDR stood for High Dynamic Range which means capturing an image several times at different exposures; underexposed(to get all the highlight detail), overexposed to get a lot of shodow detail and a couple of different exposures in between. If the subject is not moving and the camera was on a tripod, then all these images can be combined together to give an image with a much broader range of tone and detail than would be possible in a single exposure.

It's my understanding too.
 
if you want an accurate non manipulated shot ask for a raw image file.

What's going to make a raw file more accurate? It could be badly exposed or have the wrong white balance from the outset. The advantage of raw is you can even recover many images which are very poor to start with, or make well shot images even better. A raw file is no more accurate than a jpeg, but it contains much more info for you to manipulate to make it accurate
 
RGB, CMYK, ICC Profiles, separation data, dot gain, monitor profile, paper whiteness, 5000 Kelvin lighting, Grey balance, soft or hard proofs, GCR or UCR, sheetfed or heatset. You can calibrate your monitor but if it is a normal everyday monitor its not up to the task and never will be, look at a QUATO or Eizo display. There are so many issues affecting colour and colour management, your only just scratching the surface.
 
Haven't seen reptilesaustralia but in one of the other herp mags the colour printing(most likely prepress) is pretty terrible with lots of very flat lifeless images. I feel sorry for the photographers because it's not showcasing their images in the best light.
 
Haven't seen reptilesaustralia but in one of the other herp mags the colour printing(most likely prepress) is pretty terrible with lots of very flat lifeless images. I feel sorry for the photographers because it's not showcasing their images in the best light.


Story of my life. What can you do about it? I departed from Steve Parish for this reason.
 
Haven't seen reptilesaustralia but in one of the other herp mags the colour printing(most likely prepress) is pretty terrible with lots of very flat lifeless images. I feel sorry for the photographers because it's not showcasing their images in the best light.
Without knowing just what is happening in the pre-press it is hard to pass judgement. If the files are supplied as PDF's what are you expecting the pre-press to do? It is up to the publisher / photographer to embed the correct ICC profile, check the separation (CMYK) colour shift.
In saying this the quality of print just might be ordinary and have nothing to do with the publisher / photographer and pre-press.
Its very easy to blame pre-press, in my experience in most instances it has absolutely nothing to do with pre-press (I own a colour management company, training printers, photographers and pre-press people). It is usually a combination of many factors which produce crappy lifeless images.
 
Sorry I didn't mean pre-press with the printers or other professionals. The trouble nowadays is everyone has a camera capable of taking great images and everyone's a graphic designer and it's "easy" to make a pdf and send it off to a printer. The days of the professional prepress house are pretty well finished and prepress on images just doesn't get done unless it's through a professional and many are reluctant to pay for that because they have no idea what a difference it can make. Apart from the poor colour reproductions, just look at the number of low res images that get printed now where you see all the pixelation!

I think many photographers fail to do even the most basic things like setting black and white points for decent prints, and CMYK conversions is beyond most...of course you can just go to the menu in PS "convert to CMYK". I think a photographer should be able to do colour correction etc in RGB files and make them look their best but working with CMYK is a whole new ball game!
 
I take your point but how accurate a RAW image is going to be in relation to the live snake? Some good, some not so good in case of the latter, the buyer will shy away. Also, how many people have the gear to shoot in RAW? I see a lot of images in ads taken with a phone ...... no further comments. LOL

Even if everybody had the capability to shoot and read RAW files, it would not guarantee image "integrity" as those of us who are remnants from the days of film can manipulate filters to enhance and render colour changes at the shooting stage.
 
Even if everybody had the capability to shoot and read RAW files, it would not guarantee image "integrity" as those of us who are remnants from the days of film can manipulate filters to enhance and render colour changes at the shooting stage.

Do digital photographers even bother with filters these days when PS makes it so easy to add the effects later?
 
Sorry I didn't mean pre-press with the printers or other professionals. The trouble nowadays is everyone has a camera capable of taking great images and everyone's a graphic designer and it's "easy" to make a pdf and send it off to a printer. The days of the professional prepress house are pretty well finished and prepress on images just doesn't get done unless it's through a professional and many are reluctant to pay for that because they have no idea what a difference it can make. Apart from the poor colour reproductions, just look at the number of low res images that get printed now where you see all the pixelation!

I think many photographers fail to do even the most basic things like setting black and white points for decent prints, and CMYK conversions is beyond most...of course you can just go to the menu in PS "convert to CMYK". I think a photographer should be able to do colour correction etc in RGB files and make them look their best but working with CMYK is a whole new ball game!
Spot on!
 
Do digital photographers even bother with filters these days when PS makes it so easy to add the effects later?

Some do some don't... depends on what your shooting. You can turn a tabletop scene in a studio (lit with flashes) and make it look like the afternoon sun is lighting it from a window if you know what your doing. I haven't figured out how to do that in PS (not to say it can't be done)

What do you think would happen if:
I shoot a dark gold Tully jungle python in front of a busy/mottled background (with no white on it)
On a large enough F stop to fade the background just enough not to pick up detail
With a slight yellow/amber filter on my flash
And shoot it on RAW...

That dark gold Tully jungle turns into a yellow Tully jungle and there's no photo manipulation as it's a RAW file ;)
 
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When sending pictures to prospective buyers who you may have never met, it only takes half an hour to snap 100 or more pictures indoors, outdoors, on white paper, on newspaper etc, save and send without any editing at all so the buyer get's to see the true colours of the specimen(s) in question in the different lights or settings.
Very easy to do and saves any disappointment, exaggeration or mis-representation.
But the problem is off the bat the camera usually misrepresents the colours etc , what I try to do is then manipulate the saturation brightness etc till I get the closest representation to real life. But if what Michael says about different monitors all showing different results then that makes it almost impossible???
 
But the problem is off the bat the camera usually misrepresents the colours etc , what I try to do is then manipulate the saturation brightness etc till I get the closest representation to real life. But if what Michael says about different monitors all showing different results then that makes it almost impossible???

Buy this:

LED-Monitor-LG-E2250V.jpg


My monitor of choice.
Full HD, LED.

I use it with my work, and I have never had a complaint about my colour choice.
 
What monitor is that one Denuel? I like the dell ultrasharp, I can't fault it for colour reproduction.

On topic: web colour management can really screw with how photos appear on the web, some browsers still don't have colour management.
 
This thread reminds me too much of work.

NEC Spectraview monitors are probably the best $$$ value wise for colour accuracy.

Lifeless images on the press can sometimes just be inexperienced photographers with unrealistic expectations... comparing cmyk press output to their maxed out saturation / contrast LED monitor or 7 colour inkjet prints... it is NEVER going to match.
Unfortunately the days of a skilled pre-press team / scanner operator, pressman... and a client who is actually willing to pay to have a standalone job.. with proofs and do a press check are long but gone.
 
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