To Photoshop or not to Photoshop

Teddahlia

Nicole Brunelle did a post on Facebook that got a zillion replies and lots of discussion. She has a pet peeve that sellers are using photoshopped pictures. While most responses were supportive that this is a problem, many posts explained why photos are adjusted or in most cases why cell phone pictures often appear to be photoshopped(because the phone does the adjustments).
Yesterday, I showed Margaret my picture of Hollyhill Tarantula that I have shared with many people. She exclaimed: "that is is not good picture, it is a lot more purple than that. " It was the original picture that was just cropped. I opened up Photoshop and adjusted the purple color a bit and she said: "That is not enough, but it will have to do."

There is no answer for this issue.

One method that I tried a year ago to address the issue was to select a companion flower that has a nice blend of colors and picture the subject flower with it. If the companion flower is a well known flower, people would be more likely to trust the accuracy of the depiction of your new flower.
I have better example of this idea(that are somewhere and I may look for them) but does this picture quality?

BarryO

Teddahlia
Tweaking photo colors is less of a problem for exhibition/show flowers, as they already have been given an ADS color classification and must be exhibited as already-classified. Adjusting the photo colors of flowers for cutting is more problematic, and may be okay as long as accuracy, rather than deception, is the aim.

blown_dry

I agree Ted. Adjusting photos is meaningless. Any photo is somewhere sideways of perceiving something in person. The issue is only whether the changes are meant to be more honest about representing something for sale or less honest about it. And of course, there is no accounting for people's monitor settings which can be very bright and high-contrast or less so.

Cosey

I used Pantone this year to find the correct HEX# for many of my blooms so I could 1) use the real colors in my marketing and 2) provide a color card on my sales listings to show the overall bloom color more accurately. It's the only work around I feel good about.

Teddahlia

The color of a flower is a function of the color of the light that is reflecting off the flower. As a purist in order to determine the color of flower, you would need to bring the flower into the house and use a neutral light source on the flower and then shoot the picture in RAW. Alternatively you can use photoshop to adjust the picture if you include special color chip(gray chip) in the picture. and photoshop will correct the entire picture to the proper color based on the values in the gray chip. I was thinking about making a suggestion to the trial garden people that each flower should have picture with the gray chip and after correction, then the proper colors from the ADS color charts assigned.

AndreaB

I think Nicole’s “pet peeve” is just that, a pet peeve.
I’d venture to guess that 90%+ of flower hybridizers/farmers with an online presence do not have their images professionally color balanced, corrected or retouched. It’s not their business. Most are DIY’ers doing the best job they can. And yes, some are better than others.
Having made a concerted effort to take pictures of every cultivar I grew this year, I understand the work involved doing so. And that doesn’t include the time spent cataloging, building websites, etc.
It’s a tremendous amount of work “behind the scenes” that the average person doesn’t even know exists! My hat’s off to those of you that do it!

There are two other factors that directly affect color variation:

Mother Nature. Climate and soil are not created equal.
Color perception. Who remembers this dress that went viral a few years back? LOL

blown_dry

Oddly, I most often look at suppliers' images and want to volunteer to Photoshop their images for them, rather than think they should do it less. Commercial photography is a skilled job. I don't claim to have those skills, but it's not a matter of 'natural' vs. 'altered'. I did do that for a new supplier once just because their stuff was cool.

I keep a photo record of my orders, and I look up available photos to pick a fave. Sometimes there is one photo available, and I fix it up to suit myself. I find it fun.

Teddahlia

Zephyr?

blown_dry

Teddahlia Yes. 🙂

blown_dry

Or this image of Lexa I took at the ADS show. The touched up version is much more like seeing it in person:
Before

After

Emilyp

It is amazing how much basic cell phone settings can affect the photos as well. This summer my husband and I stood side by side and took pictures of the same flowers, and we got drastically different results. We tried to figure out what settings were different and how they got that way, but we never really figured it out, it was super frustrating for him (my color was more accurate 😄). We have the same exact model of phone, and had not changed the settings manually. Each cell phone model and brand I have taken pictures with have remarkably different picture capabilities and color defaults. I try to capture the accurate colors that I am seeing, and time of day and cloud cover (or not) make that variably successful.

SteveM

It is pretty exciting to see Amazon is now selling Blue Dahlia Seed. And very reasonably priced!

blown_dry

SteveM Those make me so irked. The fake flower listings are one of the most bald-faced frauds that I see on mainstream ecommerce sites. I wonder what it would take to get them to address it?

Bessie

blown_dry the practice of seedling bogus seeds is shameful. I've been so bold to write a review of the misidentified item. I point out the seed shape is not correct, and there's a wrong photo for the described genius/ species. I see Amazon includes a "Report" button for some listings(all?). I have also used that reporting function to call out the seller to Amazon.

SteveM

blown_dry Those make me so irked

It is even more irksome when the vendor has a 4.5 star rating. I have made several reports and poor ratings on Ebay re: blue dahlias and I don't see as many listed there now. I think Amazon, Ebay etc do pay attention to reports of fraud and bad reviews. It is difficult to keep up withthe fraufdsters, they either open a new account or move to another site.

Teddahlia

Margaret's slightly cheaper cell phone takes better pictures than mine about 50% of the time. Could it possibly be she is more skilled than me?