How to Photograph Corals Like a Pro

We've all seen them: listings where the entire tank looks like someone accidentally spilled a bucket of Windex. If your coral photos are completely washed out in blue, buyers scroll right past. Here is exactly how to fix it using just your smartphone.

Corals look best under actinic (blue/UV) lighting because it forces their symbiotic zooxanthellae to fluoresce, but digital camera sensors panic when hit with pure blue light.

• Turn down the whites: If your lights are adjustable, dim the white channels. White light reflects heavily off the glass and sand, washing out the natural fluorescence of the coral.
• Clean the glass: Seriously. Grab your magnetic scraper. Even an invisible layer of algae will refract light and cause your camera to lose focus.
• Turn off the flow: Turn off your wavemakers for 5 minutes. Trying to snap a sharp photo of a violently swaying torch coral is impossible.

This is the silver bullet. You cannot digitally edit away a severe blue wash without destroying the image quality. You need a physical optical filter.

Invest in a cheap Coral Lens Kit (usually a clip-on for your phone). Most kits come with a 15k or 20k orange filter. The orange physically blocks the excess blue spectrum before it hits your phone's sensor, revealing the neon greens, reds, and yellows underneath.

Once you have the orange filter on, your photo might look a little too orange. This is where basic editing comes in.

Do not over-saturate. Your goal on FragSwipe is honest representation. If a buyer shows up and the coral is dull brown instead of the radioactive neon you posted, the deal will fall through.

1. Open the default Photos app on your phone.
2. Adjust the Temperature (Warmth) slightly towards the blue side to neutralize any heavy orange tint from the physical filter.
3. Increase Contrast slightly to make the darks deeper.
4. Drop the Blacks to hide background algae and isolate the frag.