Through the Looking Glass - Page 35

reefmutt · 01/25/2017, 09:19 AM

Love that pe on the ot.
I had a mitratus butterfly that I added to my tank on impulse. Gorgeous fish but he did shut down the pe on my sps. Unfortunately/fortunately, it got ich and died.
I've also had a dwarf golden angel forever who is now quite bold and loves to pick hard on my sps.. I love the fish but I also love my pe.. not sure what I will do about him..
Can't wait to see your 'sweet one' in a couple months. That frag looks like it will be a ball of molten lava.

watchguy123 · 02/22/2017, 11:29 AM

These pictures were shot with all lights on, MH, T5 and XHO

JF Flame

And right behind it is my purple monster

Purple Monster

watchguy123 · 02/26/2017, 04:19 PM

forgot I had taken some pictures last week.

TGC Inferno

check out the chalice below and to the side, it is looking happy. Love old school chalices, bight colors and equally bright contrasting eyes (spots) that look good even under good old fashioned metal halides.

Reef Raft Canada Shazam

I had all the lights on, MH, T5 and Xhos's. the xhos really made the lower portion of that colony glow blue. The colony is in the middle of my reef and the xho's are way over on the rim so the light spread was just to that lower rim. Kinda cool looking

MichaelW · 02/26/2017, 04:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by watchguy123

forgot I had taken some pictures last week.

TGC Inferno

check out the chalice below and to the side, it is looking happy. Love old school chalices, bight colors and equally bright contrasting eyes (spots) that look good even under good old fashioned metal halides.

Reef Raft Canada Shazam

I had all the lights on, MH, T5 and Xhos's. the xhos really made the lower portion of that colony glow blue. The colony is in the middle of my reef and the xho's are way over on the rim so the light spread was just to that lower rim. Kinda cool looking

I would do very bad things for that shazam! Its incredible

watchguy123 · 02/27/2017, 07:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MichaelW

I would do very bad things for that shazam! Its incredible

Thats funny.

Here is one of my favorites although anything that lives is one of my favorites. I have no fondness for deceased coral. Although it doesn't look like it, this colony is about three inches across or so

Z's Yellow Eyed Jawdropper

MichaelW · 02/28/2017, 02:53 PM

You have one of the bestcollections. That yellow polyped "jawdropper" is awesome. Do you sell frags ever and ship?

Rakie · 02/28/2017, 06:50 PM

Watchguy -- I'm almost considering visiting you and your tank as a vacation sometimes soon..

heads up: I may bring lots of cash and a weed whacker too.

slavetonet · 02/28/2017, 07:30 PM

Very nicely composed photos.
Keep them coming.

watchguy123 · 03/02/2017, 11:40 PM

I started reefing with power compact lights. That was a long time ago. I graduated into metal halides and now use a light fixture with both metal halides and t5s. A year or two ago I added reefbrite xho's for dawn/dusk effect and to enjoy that pop at least for a short part of the day. My goal has always been to get both good growth and good color under metal halides. I guess I am old enough, and have reefed long enough, that I just have always thought of metal halides as the best of lighting. Certainly over the years, LEDS have continued to progress in terms of both their popularity and success at growing and coloring sps. Although, I would like to switch to LEDS to save the expense of electricity and the incredible heat of metal halides, I am just so set in my ways. Although, hopefully at some point I will transition to LEDS perhaps like G4 Radions or some type of Kessil or who knows what plus t5's. One of my many concerns is how to get good photography, accurate color rendition out of LEDS. When I look at friend's tanks lit by leds, the colors can be truly amazing. Much more vivid and fluorescent than metal halides can ever show. I have tried and tried to take photos of my corals just lit by leds but really have not been very successful at it. I tried some different methods today and have been a little more successful in my opinion. So I thought I would share some photos under just blue leds and I think perhaps these are close to what they really look like under that light. In Lightroom, I had to increase the exposure a significant amount because the pictures were otherwise dark. I set the temperature to 20 k on each of these photos but I always do that with metal halide pictures as well. Some pictures came out looking oversaturated so I reduced the light on those. So that was it in lightroom, 1) temperature adjusted to 20 k, 2) exposure increased substantially, and 3) some pictures had the "lights" reduced. This is far from perfect but I am getting closer to capturing the blue LED lighting "look" of these acros. Some of the pictures came out terrible, so I did not include those but regardless of what lighting I use, there are always photos that come out as poor representatives of what is actually seen. I hope you enjoy my blue LED pictures.

This coral looks good under any lighting but certainly with LEDS, there is much more vividness to the acro (Is vividness really a word)

TGC Inferno

RR Asia Ray's Rainbow

I think these are really fascinating pictures. I have more to share but I will wait for tomorrow

kevlow · 03/03/2017, 04:37 AM

Excellent quality photos. It is interesting to compare the two pics of the TGC Inferno.

In your opinion, which pic is closer to what the eye actually sees?

watchguy123 · 03/03/2017, 10:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kevlow

Excellent quality photos. It is interesting to compare the two pics of the TGC Inferno.

In your opinion, which pic is closer to what the eye actually sees?

That is such a profound and important question to me. My goal and I presume most others in taking pictures is to best represent the actual colors seen looking at the tank. It is the exchange of photographs we share online that lets us look into each others tanks. And that is really phenomenal. You can be in Los Angeles, Singapore, Texas, Australia or anywhere and peer into someone's living room and see their corals. The ability to see the diversity of coral, growth and color is educational, informative and ultimately inspirational. If someone can get "that color" with the tools they are using then perhaps then any of us can achieve something similar as well.

Our lighting whatever it is, metal halide, t5's, LEDS or some combination of them all play havoc with our cameras ability to capture what our eyes see when viewing our tanks. We use all sorts of tools to manipulate, color correct, those photographic images. Lightroom, photoshop, filters on and on. There are different goals that people have in sharing their photographs and so sometimes photos are manipulated to show "unreal" colors.

So I would like to think if you and I were standing next to my tank and if my metal halides were on, we both would agree that my halide lit pictures look exactly like what we both see. I like to think that I get this right most of the time. And now, I would also like to think that if we peered at my tank with just those XHOS on, that we would once again agree that what we see looks exactly like these photos. I am not good enough as a photographer and Lightroom user to get it right all the time. I would like to think that at the least I am close and getting closer with practice.

There is a most dramatic change taking place in lighting, well actually it already has taken place. Last time I was at a RAP, I didn't see any metal halide fixtures being offered. When I first saw blue lit tanks at reefing shows, I was bothered but now I am accustomed to those lights. And more and more of my buddies are utilizing LEDS. Maybe they supplement with t5's or not. Plus some of the newer lights by Radion and Kessil don't seem to cast shockingly blue color over a room yet provide lots of fluorescence within the tank. I perceive that ultimately we will all likely transition to LEDS or something better perhaps.

I wanted to be able to photograph blue led pictures and capture the image my eye sees when I look into the tank. I am getting my photos to more closely mirror what I now see. Hopefully, I will keep improving.

The short answer to your question is that I hope my pictures represent realistic and accurate colors of these corals at whatever lighting is being utilized whether it be Metal Halides, T5's, LEDS or a combination of some or all.

More LED:XHO pictures

watchguy123 · 03/03/2017, 05:20 PM

As you might be able to tell, I am enjoying sharing these unusual pictures

Here is a picture with both XHO's and T5's, I don't think anyone has really seen much of this acro anywhere.

Reef Raft Canada Ultimate Orange Passion

this next picture is just XHOS, and if you are curious, neither saturation nor vibrancy nor tint were adjusted

Z's Pink Cotton Candy

kevlow · 03/03/2017, 05:57 PM

Spectacularly awesome.

And that was a very good write up on the accuracy of each type of photo.

My tank only has LEDs. My corals only have one appearance. I had not thought about having multiple lighting. In turning off one or the other type lighting, a piece can have two complete different appearances.

Never the less, I love the pics of your tank. Keep posting.

AkoAung · 03/03/2017, 09:24 PM

Rakie · 03/03/2017, 11:09 PM

CoralNerd is searching very hard for RRC Ultimate Orange Passion.

reefmutt · 03/04/2017, 07:20 AM

Beautiful shots, Mark!
I love the blue lit shots.
That pink cotton candy looks a lot like a rr angry bird.
I couldn't agree more with your comments about trying to accurately reproduce the corals one has in one's tank. Although, it is fun to see them under the crazy blue LEDs.
Your growth rates are still absolutely stellar as are your colors and over all health.
Your even handedness and extreme patience has paid off in spades.
Very very impressive.

Geeray · 03/04/2017, 08:59 AM

awesome pics and corals man! I keep coming back over and over to look at them... lol

watchguy123 · 03/04/2017, 10:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kevlow

Spectacularly awesome.

And that was a very good write up on the accuracy of each type of photo.

My tank only has LEDs. My corals only have one appearance. I had not thought about having multiple lighting. In turning off one or the other type lighting, a piece can have two complete different appearances.

Never the less, I love the pics of your tank. Keep posting.

Its pretty interesting to see the transition in appearance during the day based on the lights, so the reefbrite xhos are on dawn/dusk so I see these incredibly fluorescent and vivid colors in the morning and then in the evening. When the t5's turn on there is a change and finally when the metal halides click on another change. I have traditionally favored the metal halide look but I am getting more and more used to the "blue" look

Quote:

Originally Posted by AkoAung

Thank you

Quote:

Originally Posted by reefmutt

Beautiful shots, Mark!
I love the blue lit shots.
That pink cotton candy looks a lot like a rr angry bird.
I couldn't agree more with your comments about trying to accurately reproduce the corals one has in one's tank. Although, it is fun to see them under the crazy blue LEDs.
Your growth rates are still absolutely stellar as are your colors and over all health.
Your even handedness and extreme patience has paid off in spades.
Very very impressive.

Patience, hmmm. None of us really have enough. From frag to colony always seems to take forever but the journey really is fun.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Geeray

awesome pics and corals man! I keep coming back over and over to look at them... lol

Enjoy. My favorite part has become taking pictures

More of this series of XHO lit pictures:

Z's Yellow Eyed Jawdropper

Z's Favorite

RR USA Medusa

watchguy123 · 03/05/2017, 12:05 PM

Under metal halide, this looks just like RR USA Pink Floyd, but when you put this guy under XHO's the growth tips turn vivid blue looking much different than the Pink Floyd does under the same XHO's.

Z's Blue Floyd

reefmutt · 03/05/2017, 01:38 PM

Omg, what a crazy shot!
Fantastic!!
Otherworldly coloration.

drawman · 03/05/2017, 03:22 PM

Absolutely gorgeous watchguy!

watchguy123 · 03/05/2017, 06:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by reefmutt

Omg, what a crazy shot!
Fantastic!!
Otherworldly coloration.

Quote:

Originally Posted by drawman

Absolutely gorgeous watchguy!

thanks, guys. Lots of fun sharing these pictures.

This is a progression over the last year of my Reef Raft Canada Ultimate Orange Passion

The first picture is from January 2016

Reef Raft Canada Ultimate Orange Passion

Here it is April 2016

Reef Raft Canada Ultimate Orange Passion

And March 2017, photo with XHO's

markalot · 03/06/2017, 09:08 AM

I really like the LED pics, I think you are close to what they look like (without actually seeing them the colors look close to some of what I see). My pink coral looks incredible under LED but washed out when the T5's are on. Polyps also tend to color up with more blue LED, which I like.

Regardless, everything looks super healthy ... that orange passions is to die for. Sheesh.

reefmutt · 03/06/2017, 12:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by watchguy123

thanks, guys. Lots of fun sharing these pictures.

This is a progression over the last year of my Reef Raft Canada Ultimate Orange Passion

The first picture is from January 2016

Reef Raft Canada Ultimate Orange Passion

Here it is April 2016

Reef Raft Canada Ultimate Orange Passion

And March 2017, photo with XHO's

Nice! I don't know what acro steroids you use but they are gooooood!!
I want some!
Growth and colors are enviable!!

watchguy123 · 03/17/2017, 12:36 AM

A couple more xho shots. These pictures are from the last batch of xho shots and I had forgotten to post them earlier. I have been traveling so it will be interesting to see when I get home, how these all are doing. Unexpected things always seem to happen while away, hopefully nothing negative this time.

Reef Raft USA Orange Passion

Reef Raft Canada Orange Passion. The stunning blue tips did not really show in the photo though.

01/25/2017, 09:19 AM	#851
reefmutt Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Mtl. Canada Posts: 7,824	Love that pe on the ot. I had a mitratus butterfly that I added to my tank on impulse. Gorgeous fish but he did shut down the pe on my sps. Unfortunately/fortunately, it got ich and died. I've also had a dwarf golden angel forever who is now quite bold and loves to pick hard on my sps.. I love the fish but I also love my pe.. not sure what I will do about him.. Can't wait to see your 'sweet one' in a couple months. That frag looks like it will be a ball of molten lava. __________________ Matt. Current Tank Info: 53x32.5x26 190g dt 60g of sumps 3 tank-100 gal frag system 6xAI prime 8xt5. 4x maxspect gyre. Skimz Dual internal sicce pump skimmer Deltec PF601s ca rx+Kalk stirrer

03/02/2017, 11:40 PM	#859
watchguy123 Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Southern California Posts: 1,074	I started reefing with power compact lights. That was a long time ago. I graduated into metal halides and now use a light fixture with both metal halides and t5s. A year or two ago I added reefbrite xho's for dawn/dusk effect and to enjoy that pop at least for a short part of the day. My goal has always been to get both good growth and good color under metal halides. I guess I am old enough, and have reefed long enough, that I just have always thought of metal halides as the best of lighting. Certainly over the years, LEDS have continued to progress in terms of both their popularity and success at growing and coloring sps. Although, I would like to switch to LEDS to save the expense of electricity and the incredible heat of metal halides, I am just so set in my ways. Although, hopefully at some point I will transition to LEDS perhaps like G4 Radions or some type of Kessil or who knows what plus t5's. One of my many concerns is how to get good photography, accurate color rendition out of LEDS. When I look at friend's tanks lit by leds, the colors can be truly amazing. Much more vivid and fluorescent than metal halides can ever show. I have tried and tried to take photos of my corals just lit by leds but really have not been very successful at it. I tried some different methods today and have been a little more successful in my opinion. So I thought I would share some photos under just blue leds and I think perhaps these are close to what they really look like under that light. In Lightroom, I had to increase the exposure a significant amount because the pictures were otherwise dark. I set the temperature to 20 k on each of these photos but I always do that with metal halide pictures as well. Some pictures came out looking oversaturated so I reduced the light on those. So that was it in lightroom, 1) temperature adjusted to 20 k, 2) exposure increased substantially, and 3) some pictures had the "lights" reduced. This is far from perfect but I am getting closer to capturing the blue LED lighting "look" of these acros. Some of the pictures came out terrible, so I did not include those but regardless of what lighting I use, there are always photos that come out as poor representatives of what is actually seen. I hope you enjoy my blue LED pictures. This coral looks good under any lighting but certainly with LEDS, there is much more vividness to the acro (Is vividness really a word) TGC Inferno RR Asia Ray's Rainbow I think these are really fascinating pictures. I have more to share but I will wait for tomorrow Last edited by watchguy123; 03/02/2017 at 11:48 PM.

03/03/2017, 05:20 PM	#862
watchguy123 Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Southern California Posts: 1,074	As you might be able to tell, I am enjoying sharing these unusual pictures Here is a picture with both XHO's and T5's, I don't think anyone has really seen much of this acro anywhere. Reef Raft Canada Ultimate Orange Passion this next picture is just XHOS, and if you are curious, neither saturation nor vibrancy nor tint were adjusted Z's Pink Cotton Candy Last edited by watchguy123; 03/03/2017 at 05:29 PM.

03/04/2017, 07:20 AM	#866
reefmutt Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Mtl. Canada Posts: 7,824	Beautiful shots, Mark! I love the blue lit shots. That pink cotton candy looks a lot like a rr angry bird. I couldn't agree more with your comments about trying to accurately reproduce the corals one has in one's tank. Although, it is fun to see them under the crazy blue LEDs. Your growth rates are still absolutely stellar as are your colors and over all health. Your even handedness and extreme patience has paid off in spades. Very very impressive. __________________ Matt. Current Tank Info: 53x32.5x26 190g dt 60g of sumps 3 tank-100 gal frag system 6xAI prime 8xt5. 4x maxspect gyre. Skimz Dual internal sicce pump skimmer Deltec PF601s ca rx+Kalk stirrer

03/05/2017, 01:38 PM	#870
reefmutt Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Mtl. Canada Posts: 7,824	Omg, what a crazy shot! Fantastic!! Otherworldly coloration. __________________ Matt. Current Tank Info: 53x32.5x26 190g dt 60g of sumps 3 tank-100 gal frag system 6xAI prime 8xt5. 4x maxspect gyre. Skimz Dual internal sicce pump skimmer Deltec PF601s ca rx+Kalk stirrer

02/22/2017, 11:29 AM	#852
watchguy123 Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Southern California Posts: 1,074	These pictures were shot with all lights on, MH, T5 and XHO JF Flame And right behind it is my purple monster Purple Monster

02/26/2017, 04:19 PM	#853
watchguy123 Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Southern California Posts: 1,074	forgot I had taken some pictures last week. TGC Inferno check out the chalice below and to the side, it is looking happy. Love old school chalices, bight colors and equally bright contrasting eyes (spots) that look good even under good old fashioned metal halides. Reef Raft Canada Shazam I had all the lights on, MH, T5 and Xhos's. the xhos really made the lower portion of that colony glow blue. The colony is in the middle of my reef and the xho's are way over on the rim so the light spread was just to that lower rim. Kinda cool looking

02/28/2017, 02:53 PM	#856
MichaelW Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2014 Location: Kirkland WA Posts: 1,061	You have one of the bestcollections. That yellow polyped "jawdropper" is awesome. Do you sell frags ever and ship?

02/28/2017, 06:50 PM	#857
Rakie In Memoriam Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Huntington Beach, CA Posts: 3,059	Watchguy -- I'm almost considering visiting you and your tank as a vacation sometimes soon.. heads up: I may bring lots of cash and a weed whacker too.

02/28/2017, 07:30 PM	#858
slavetonet Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2014 Location: Brisbane Australia Posts: 442	Very nicely composed photos. Keep them coming.

03/03/2017, 04:37 AM	#860
kevlow Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Clearwater, Fl. Posts: 732	Excellent quality photos. It is interesting to compare the two pics of the TGC Inferno. In your opinion, which pic is closer to what the eye actually sees?

03/03/2017, 05:57 PM	#863
kevlow Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Clearwater, Fl. Posts: 732	Spectacularly awesome. And that was a very good write up on the accuracy of each type of photo. My tank only has LEDs. My corals only have one appearance. I had not thought about having multiple lighting. In turning off one or the other type lighting, a piece can have two complete different appearances. Never the less, I love the pics of your tank. Keep posting.

03/03/2017, 09:24 PM	#864
AkoAung aka -iDestroya- Join Date: Oct 2013 Location: Toronto Posts: 507

03/03/2017, 11:09 PM	#865
Rakie In Memoriam Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Huntington Beach, CA Posts: 3,059	CoralNerd is searching very hard for RRC Ultimate Orange Passion.

03/04/2017, 08:59 AM	#867
Geeray Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Ontario Canada Posts: 262	awesome pics and corals man! I keep coming back over and over to look at them... lol

03/05/2017, 12:05 PM	#869
watchguy123 Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Southern California Posts: 1,074	Under metal halide, this looks just like RR USA Pink Floyd, but when you put this guy under XHO's the growth tips turn vivid blue looking much different than the Pink Floyd does under the same XHO's. Z's Blue Floyd

03/05/2017, 03:22 PM	#871
drawman Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Mankato, MN Posts: 864	Absolutely gorgeous watchguy! __________________ Tim Current tanks: 30 gallon rimless, G2 radion, Vertex 130, MP10w 60 gallon rimless, G3 radion, Vertex 130, MP40QD

03/06/2017, 09:08 AM	#873
markalot ... Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: Florence, KY Posts: 3,806 Blog Entries: 3	I really like the LED pics, I think you are close to what they look like (without actually seeing them the colors look close to some of what I see). My pink coral looks incredible under LED but washed out when the T5's are on. Polyps also tend to color up with more blue LED, which I like. Regardless, everything looks super healthy ... that orange passions is to die for. Sheesh. __________________ -- Mark 150G (72x18x27) \| 35G sump \| SRO-XP2000INT Skimmer \| ATI SunPower T5 / NanoBox LED hybrid 60" x 4 + 8 NanoBox v3.1 arrays

03/17/2017, 12:36 AM	#875
watchguy123 Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Southern California Posts: 1,074	A couple more xho shots. These pictures are from the last batch of xho shots and I had forgotten to post them earlier. I have been traveling so it will be interesting to see when I get home, how these all are doing. Unexpected things always seem to happen while away, hopefully nothing negative this time. Reef Raft USA Orange Passion Reef Raft Canada Orange Passion. The stunning blue tips did not really show in the photo though.