I don't agree with that. Our eyes actually don't have the ability to focus on something that's an inch or two away from the lens, yet that's the essence of macro photography.

The goal is a good photograph that is an accurate representation of a subject, but I'd argue that it's still a representation. I do level correction on every photo I take because I'm just not skilled enough to get the exposure right. The difference is when you cross the line between conveying a representation, and actually falsifying through imagery.

That's my opinion but I'm far from experienced.

Of course macro lenses gives you a better view of the subject. You could take a pic of 5 scales on your chams head and blow it up so then look like lemons. I don't think that enlarging is a problem. I think the problem is mainly in color manipulation......all I'm saying is that to get a pic to look as "real", color wise, as I can I filter the flash because if I don't the colors are reflecting the yellow that the flash gives off and this isn't how I view my corals or my chams.

My corals are under 14,000 K MH bulbs that are much bluer than any flash so they look like crap when the pic is taken with a regular flash and are too dark and too blue without a flash. So I make the flash mimic the lighting that I use and the pics the depict the corals as they actually look in the tank.

Icefyre is under a yellow heat lamp, a blue UVB bulb, and I put the grow lights on because they make him GLOW really nicely. If I take a pic in the UVB his blues and turquoises stand out if I take a pic under the yellow he looks more green and burgandy, and under the grow lights his reds stand out.

I have all three lights on the cage and they all make a difference when he's fired up or when he's calm.

It sounds like we are saying the same thing so I'm not sure what you don't agree with. I said that it's about trying to show what the subject looks like if you were standing there looking at it yourself. You said that you try to convey a representation without falsifying. That sounds like the same thing. ????

Kevin

Yeah Kevin, I think we agree. Hopefully my tone was not misunderstood.

IMHO, the truest pictures are taken outside during the day where there is mild cloud cover or full sunlight. it has the complete spectrum of colors of light and gives the most dependable representation of color and contrast.

i agree with others that it really comes down to honestly representing the animal as you perceive with your own eyes. macro lenses are definitely artistic, filters on the other hand are debatable. i don't disagree with them but maybe they should be avoided for contests and selling the animals.

__________________
1.0 Veiled: Marley ~5 snakes [2 Ball Pythons: Creeper & Sneaker ~Rubber Boa: Hanyo ~Pueblan Milk: Spaide ~Red-sided Garter: Tracker] ~1.0 Beardie:Buddy ~0.2 doves: Kodama & Woodstalk ~1.0 Finch:Atticus

I have a few more monthes before I can photo Icefyre outside. The snow just melted and he wouldn't fair well at 40 degrees . I can't wait to see what he looks like in sunlight. The grow lights are alot more pink than the sunlight is. I know that corals and especially clams look fantastic in sunlight.

Filtering to make something appear different than it should is not the same as filtering to make someting appear AS it should. I can't put filters on my fuji but I can filter the flash lighting with my high-tech tupperware lid to diffuse the light and get the picture colors to look like they should. Tomorrow I'll try to get some of my coral pics off of my old PC to show the difference.

Bedtime......Goodnight,
Kevin

apparently i have to type something outside the quotation because a message pops up and says that i have to have at least 10 characters here! lol

__________________
1.0 Veiled: Marley ~5 snakes [2 Ball Pythons: Creeper & Sneaker ~Rubber Boa: Hanyo ~Pueblan Milk: Spaide ~Red-sided Garter: Tracker] ~1.0 Beardie:Buddy ~0.2 doves: Kodama & Woodstalk ~1.0 Finch:Atticus

All digital cameras are programed to sharpen and color adhance automatically specially shooting in formats like jpeg. Some cameras have camera raw formats. People choose to shoot raw so they can apply the color correction and sharpening them selfs, that the camera would automatically apply shooting in jpeg. My camera raw file is a 12mb file after resizing and lowing the resolution the quality changes drastically and some modification is necessary to make it "normal". Even saving a picture file in certain formats jpeg, tif, gif etc can change the digital information usually resulting in a loss of information because of compression. I agree purposely altering a photo to deceive someone or people for personal gain is wrong and should be discouraged. We also have to understand how many things affect a photo. Everything !! Some people need to do modification to create a better representation of there subject matter.

__________________
1.1 Veiled Chameleons
0.1 Bearded Dragon , 0.1 Ornate Uromastyx

Sorry no pics tonight. I just got in from a 14.5 hour shift and I need to get showered and go to bed I gotta be up in 6 hours. Hopefully I can get them up tomorrow.

Kevin

Here are two pics taken on the same evening of the same cham (Icefyre).
The first is under the pinkish aquarium grow lights.....the second is taken under the UVB light which is much more blue.

I'm still working on getting the other pics off of my old PC.

Grow lights




UVB 5.0 Bulb




What do you think of the differences?

Kevin

it think that they're so different! i definitely enjoyed the first one more, it seemed to intensify the blues and reds dramatically. in your opinion which picture is more true to life the way you see it through your own eyes then?

__________________
1.0 Veiled: Marley ~5 snakes [2 Ball Pythons: Creeper & Sneaker ~Rubber Boa: Hanyo ~Pueblan Milk: Spaide ~Red-sided Garter: Tracker] ~1.0 Beardie:Buddy ~0.2 doves: Kodama & Woodstalk ~1.0 Finch:Atticus