Gecko color enhancement on some sites

[Geckonut]

Hate to bring this up and don't know if anyone ever has here...

It is my observation/opinion that a few of the websites for gecko breeders are enhancing the color of their animals via computer manipulations. While this may be perfectly acceptable procedure, I find it rather deceptive. The computerized color enhancements do not give a fair characterization of the actual colors of geckos. That bothers me. Sorry!

Maybe some of you have noticed this. It seems to be just a few sites that do this. I will not mention names. It is most evident in the orange colored geckos, where various geckos for sale and in particular, breeders in their colony, have very brilliant deep orange coloration, almost bordering on red. But in reality, these are not their true colors in my opinion.....in reality these geckos are more of a dull golden orange color.

Other sites do show actual colorations and seem more ethical to me, but those that enhance colors are doing customers a disservice in my opinion, because the animals you will receive may not be the actual color intensity you expected.

A word to the wise. Let the buyer beware.....

 

[Daidra]

All the pics of my geckos on my site are represented the way the gecko actually looks and I do not enhance any of my pics at all,but I have seen people do that and it is really annoying that some people will do that.

 

[Gonser]

I too have been noticing this and yes it is annoying!

 

[snared99]

I myself have not noticed this on the sites, but have on forum pics. Another thing to consider it your computer versus others computers, they can show pics very differently. Me for one have never altered a pic on my site or any other pics. But i think you are dead wrong about the orange color on a leos. They can be deep orange almost red, i can show you a handful right now and bet a million dollars they look that way when the buyer purchases them. While i agree with you the geckos should be properly represented, there are animals out there that are truely spectacular no matter what camera takes the pic.

 

[Gonser]

"They can be deep orange almost red, i can show you a handful right now and bet a million dollars they look that way when the buyer purchases them."

A million dollars??? Be more careful with your money. You'd lose it quickly with that bet!

 

[snared99]

I would be a million dollars richer if i made the bet with you...lol You clearly need to see more nice tangs in person. Check out my site in the projects section and you will see red/orange tangs with no alterations whatsoever.

 

[Gonser]

I would be a million dollars richer if i made the bet with you...lol You clearly need to see more nice tangs in person. Check out my site in the projects section and you will see red/orange tangs with no alterations whatsoever.

Yes, yours are more realistic in golden color! I would not call them deep orange or red though. I've seen some sites where their tangs looked dipped in red paint...not realistic looking at all.

 

[snared99]

I have seen geckos in person that are red/orange and dont look realistic but obviously are. The first 2 tangs on my site(projects page) are now where near golden in color, maybe is it your monitor??

 

[jwurm]

Another thing to consider besides differences among different displays (monitors or screens) is that Macintosh machines have a different color palette than windows or linux machines.

 

[Haligren]

I have not seen very many leos in person to be honest, and I am sure that some sites do enhance the colors, but I have it on good authority that there are some leos that have unbelievable coloration. My Mandarin (in my avatar there) is ridiculously bright orange with some reddish orange on her tail. Upon seeing Mandarin for the first time I had doubted that leos could actually get that bright and thought that all the images I had seen on breeder sites were manipulated to look more intense. If anything photos don't do Mandarin justice; in full natural light, she practically glows in your hand.

There is one site in particular that I frequent that I am pretty sure they enhance their photos. However, I have heard mixed reports about it. Either the photos are true-to-life, somewhat true, or aren't true at all in some cases. But it doesn't surprise me that people would enhance the photos. They want to sell their product, right?

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

Whatever. I know of a breeder that actually has professional photography of their geckos for website pics. The bottom line is... that most geckos look f-a-a-a-r better in person under natural light that their photos depict. True, each computer/monitor has it's own color, but personally I'd rather have someone buy one of my gecko0s based on it's web-pic and be blown away at how beautiful it is in reality than 'enhance' my photos to make a sale and have my coustomer be disappointed.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[Krow]

I COMPLETELY disagree with color enhancement of photos, it is VERY misleading. I want to get a deep color tang for my next leo, but I do not know where to buy from because of this exact thing!! Its very annoying & very put-offish(if thats even a word). :furious3:

 

[Anthony Caponetto]

I was the same way getting into high end Tangs. I thought they looked cool in the pictures, but wasn't really expecting them to look as different as they do. In person, they actually looked a lot nicer.

If you aren't sure who to go with, I can tell you that Urban Gecko, Hot Geckos (Dan Lubinsky), Kelli (HISS), Marcia at Golden Gate Gex and Jason Haygood (and several I probably forgot) all have top notch Tangerines. It's really all about bloodline and seeing the breeder's adult stock. Even the best names produce sub-par geckos, so you can't just go by bloodline without pics of breeding stock...for example, if you buy Tangerine Tornadoes from some guy who bought 3 star Tornadoes to start with, you probably shouldn't expect 5 star babies from that breeder. So look for good bloodlines and a breeder willing to provide photos of their breeding stock.

As far as pictures go, you also have to remember monitor types...there are low contrast and high contrast and a lot of stuff in between. High contrast LCD's used to be really uncommon, so I used to do pictures on my laptop...just a cheap $600 laptop, so it had a cheap screen with a low contrast ratio (400 or 500 to 1). Now you can get a 20" high contrast monitor for $139, so what used to be rare is now the most common. When I started looking at pics on my new monitor (with a high contrast ratio of 5,000 to 1), some of the pictures looked really blown out and oversaturated.

We shoot everything we sell on a grey "lazy susan" so that both myself and shoppers can gauge the color accuracy (the grey shouldn't have any color to it at all) and the light intensity (if it's dark grey, there's lower than normal light and vice versa). It's not exactly pretty to look at, but it's a great tool (photos are rarely perfect). I shoot on a saved preset (same settings every time) and we only correct the RAW image files for white balance (too blue, too yellow, too green, etc.) and for exposure (light level).

Some sites I've seen do crank up the contrast on dark photos or they just crank up the saturation. In my personal experience with reputable breeders who do this, the geckos almost always look better in person. They're usually just trying to get crappy pictures to look more like real life (rather than shooting with enough light to start with).

Another thing if you're looking at higher end baby tangs...some of the ones we had last season really did look fake in person, so there's little hope of getting them to look realistic in a photo. We had a horrible time selling baby Tangs until local people started seeing them at shows. lol

 

[Kristi23]

I normally don't see it on websites, but I do see it here in the show off your leos section a lot more lately. I know that I try my best to keep the colors right. I do fix the exposure and brightness in photoshop because my lighting is never right. Most of the pics I've seen are very obvious with the added contrast. I don't know if people are really doing it on purpose though. It can be tough for someone who knows nothing about photo editing to get their pics right. I have a hard time with my tangerines. They never seem to show up as dark as they really are.

 

[GeckoRing]

I think it is reasonable to ask for natural lighting pictures if you are unsure about what you are purchasing. I am very careful to get accurate representation of our geckos, but am always willing to send additional pictures. I believe most reputable breeders are willing to do this. Monitor coloring is actually a very valid argument.

 

[spykerherps]

True, each computer/monitor has it's own color, but personally I'd rather have someone buy one of my geckos based on it's web-pic and be blown away at how beautiful it is in reality than 'enhance' my photos to make a sale and have my customer be disappointed.

Here here I'm with you on that Marcia.

A breeder that does that has more to loose then gain. more like gaining a bad rep for not providing what you presented. its like fails advertising.

 

[Gonser]

Some of these website tangs in collections look brilliant orange red....as do a few of those for sale, but then when you receive them they might be golden.
Not sure why they computer enhance colors because many would be unhappy and just return them...what a hassle that must be!
Honesty is the best policy.

 

[bro paul]

I find this thread interesting and a little annoying at the same time
Let me explain...

Like most here, I cruise a lot of sites...and off hand, I can't think of any reputable breeders where the photos seem "enhanced". I do, however, find that images look extremely different on different monitors. I basically view my pictures/sites on 3 different computers. On one they look normal, on another they look dim, and on the last they look way too bright. So, I guess individual monitors have a lot to do with it.

The reason I find this a little annoying is that most of us breeders spend A LOT of time stressing over pictures...trying to get the best representation of each individual gecko. My brightest geckos really stress me out because while I love taking pictures of them and showing them off, it's always in the back of my mind that someone is going to think..."that's not real"...or "they turned up the contrast"...when we didn't. The gecko is just that bright. :main_robin: So, what do we do...? Dim the pics? Or, just not show off the crazy looking stuff??

Am I the only breeder that feels this way?

 

[Retribution Reptiles]

I have purchased many a gecko based on website pics. I can honestly say that from the people i have bought from i wouldn't question their geckos at all. Paul Allen, Kelli H, Brittney G, Cody, Steve Sykes, and Jeff Galewood all have great pics on their sites. But when i get the geckos they are about a million times better looking then in the pics.

I don't see how people can get all bent out of shape regarding color and such when looking on a computer screen. I can almost bet that there isn't one breeder on this site that has a professional studio setup in their house to take pictures of their geckos. Without having the proper education on taking pics as well as proper lighting there is no way to get true representation of the geckos.

I find that people that are educated on the product and the source of where they are buying the product typically walk away happier. They have put in the hours of research and didn't waste their money. If you question someone's ethics/representation of their geckos on their site then don't buy from them.

Not all cameras and monitors are created equal. Just do your research and you'll be happy simple as that. No need to complain about it just don't buy from the shady people.

 

[Anthony Caponetto]

I can almost bet that there isn't one breeder on this site that has a professional studio setup in their house to take pictures of their geckos. Without having the proper education on taking pics as well as proper lighting there is no way to get true representation of the geckos.

Our setup isn't top end professional (and I did have it in my house at one point!), but I do have the same type of equipment that professionals use...and believe it or not, it's still not easy to get 100% color representation. Especially with tangerines.

I agree with Paul...it's really frustrating when you know your pictures will either look fake or look way too drab.

I've actually had people approach me at shows about some of my geckos, saying that they were sure I was doctoring my pictures until right then and there. One guy said that he didn't really believe leopard geckos could look like "that" (as he pointed to one of my Tornado x Hot Geckos males) and he also made a really good point that they look 100 times better when you can see all the details (texture of the skin, etc.).