By now it is abundantly clear that LED lighting is the charmed prince and future king of reef lighting. It is also clear that even in the best of circumstances LED lit tanks produce a light that is very skewed to the blue. Even if they don’t read that way to the naked eye, the moment you try to take a photograph the truth becomes apparent. Husbandry debates aside, I think it is fair to say that all reef keepers loathe the preponderance of barely perceptible, unrealistically colored, intolerably bad photographs that litter reef boards and vendor forums. It really makes on-line reefing a greatly diminished experience. Well I am here to put the smurfs on alert. NY hobbyist and professional photographer Mike Cuttone has stumbled upon a remarkably easy and cheap solution that really could make the reefing world a better place for you and me.
In Mike’s own words:There has long been a problem getting “true color” photos of our tanks and corals with a cell phone. Even a good DSLR camera, if you are unaware of how to set up a custom white balance (which can be a daunting task in itself) the photos will not come out with an accurate color representation.There is nothing worse than trying to show someone your beautiful tank and the photos just keep coming out BLUE! BLUE! BLUE! We have all experienced someone trying to sell you a frag on a forum and you doing your best to imagine its true color only to find out when you go to pick it up it is not at all what you expected. It is time to say goodbye to the line “Sorry for the crappy cell phone pics”
There is a simple, inexpensive, easy to use solution. 
Let me explain–in photography studios they sometimes use colored “Gels” and put them over flashes to change a normal white background to a colored background depending on the color of the gel used. This is a simple trick that saves them from purchasing multiple colored backgrounds.
The other day I stumbled across an old box of these gels and as a blast of blue actinic light from my tank assaulted me, I got an idea. With a bit of trial and error I have discovered that by simply placing a specific shade of red/orange colored gel or over your cell phone lens and taking the photo as you normally would, it removes the BLUE from the photo thus giving a more true to color representation.… More:
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