Please remember that the manipulation or post-processing of contest photos is not allowed. This includes, but is not limited to, sharpening and color enhancement.

If anyone is familiar with how other nature photo contests handle this please post here.

I would say post production is standard in the majority of nature photo contests.

I would frown upon Colour enhancement for the simple fact it is misrepresenting the chameleon which is the goal of the contest: To show the chameleon in the best possible way.

However because the camera often perceives light differently than our eye/brain does, it's standard to alter the hue or colour temperature that is caused by different types of light sources in attempt to restore it to a more natural state.

Also, Post production is used to clean up undisireable traits that come with certain situations when shooting photos. For example when shooting in dim light, you will need to raise the ISO (When in Film camera terms, this is the amount of metal in the film that responds to light, and similarly the same in digital) but what this does is makes for a really grainy image, rather than a nice smooth image. There are programs and procedures during the post production that removes some of the grain and makes for a much nicer photo.

Some camera equipment affect photos differently. Some glass in lenses make for sharper photos or some for softer. Usually the aveage consumer of camera gear will opt for the lens that is 1/10th the price, knowing that they can sharpen the image in post production to get close to the same quality of the much more expensive product.

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WILL HAYWARD

I've found in photographing my corals that you can do alot with light filters.
If I use a pale blue tupperware lid in front of the flash it makes the photos the same as the tank appears to the naked eye.

The photo in my avatar is a good example. It is taken under grow lights that really make Icefyre glow. They have a very pink hue to them. When I use just the flash it washes everything out. Under his UVB lamp he loses his red tones because the light is very blue.

Just the different lighting in the cages makes these guys look different. I was trying to get a good pic of a friends yellow bodied blue bar and still can't figure out how to get a true depiction of his color.

Alot about the true colors of the animal has to do with the light that is used for the pic.

Kevin

Even lens filters (which alter the perceived light entereing the lens) or flash gels have their downsides. They make the need for lighting to be more intense.

But really, the whole thing is based on trust.

I could take a blue filter and make a chameleon look really blue, then use an orange flash behind the chameleon to conteract the affects of the blue filter on everything behind the chameleon, and no one would be the wiser.

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WILL HAYWARD

Would that take two different flashes?


The loss of light doesn't hurt in most of my pics because I'm not trying to capture motion with the corals or chams........and I'm just using a 5 year old Fuji Fine Pix.

Kevin

You nailed it Will, it's about trust.

You could do it with lights instead of flashes. And It could take one or two flashes.

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WILL HAYWARD

I think the trick is to get the pic to look the same as if you were looking at the subject with your naked eye. No wash, no extra color......just what it looks like normally.

Kevin

In an ideal world. However people like to advance themselves by altering things. There have been plenty of photos of chameleons for sale that were altered, and entries to the photo contest too. Proves that some people don't follow what you have suggested.

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WILL HAYWARD

Well said. The online reptile community as a whole agrees that altering the photos of animals you are selling is dishonest. Yet....I see the same sellers with doctored photos of animals for sale day after day.... It really is too bad some sellers take the trust that their customers place in them for granted.

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"I sort of gave up on this whole human adventure a long time ago, divorced myself from it emotionally. It gives me an artistic detachment that I find valuable. I think the human race has squandered its gift, and I think this country has squandered its promise, for the sake of cell phones and Jet Skis." - George Carlin