open main page for all woods          open page 2 for articles
BogusColorVendor
One of the prime reasons I started this web site in the first place was that I found it impossible to tell what wood pictures shown on the Internet gave a reasonably accurate picture of a wood and which were just way off base.

Even with the best intentions, it can be very difficult to get a good color shot of some woods and many vendors who show pictures with poor color representations are probably doing their best. HOWEVER ... there are also cases where the pictures have clearly been "corrected" to show the wood to what the photographer feels is better advantage by making the colors MUCH more vibrant than reality.

There is one vendor that is the absolute unchallenged epitome of this and that's the vendor I refer to throughout this site as the "BogusColorVendor". I have purchased from them and I have some direct comparison shots of their pictures versus those that really represent the wood and the differences are stunning.

It appears to me that many of the pictures shown on the Internet by this vendor have been manipulated by someone who is thoroughly dishonest and has absolutely no personal integrity or honor.

There is no possibility that he tripped on the way to the photo lab and got these results by accident. The saturation level in some of these pictures is almost off the scale and there is no wood in existance that has ever looked like some of the pictures shown by this vendor.

I use this vendor throughout this site to reference the awful way that wood is sometimes misrepresented on the Internet, and particularly in eBay auctions.

To see my full rant on Internet wood color representation, with pictures, click here: COLOR CORRECTION, DIGITAL CAMERAS, AND WEB PICTURES

PLEASE NOTE: I am told by the company that the images identified on this site as outrageously bad representations of wood are from an earlier time in the companies operation and I do note that they now seem to have changed their ways and present much more accurate representations of the woods they sell. In fact, I have seen some recent pics on their site that I would be happy to have taken myself. They tell me that the previous outrageousness was due to an honest effort on their part in the past to show the wood as it looks with a clear finishing agent. That's QUITE a stretch since there is NO finishing agent that would make the wood look like what some of their pictures show. Nonetheless, they DO seem to have mended their ways and the person who contacted me makes a good case for their basic honesty, so I'll assume their photographer was not a wood person, thus my inclusion of this statement. Since it was never their intent to mislead their customers, they have agree to not object to my use of their old pics to demonstrate poor wood representation, and I think that that fact speaks well for their honesty.

A LATER NOTE: I recently (2015) purchased some wood from them for the first time in many years and when I went to their site to pick it out I found that most of the images there were quite good. In particular the images of the woods that I purchased were very accurate. Had they been doing anything like the current quality of photography that they use on their site now, as opposed to what they used on eBay ten years ago, I would have had to find someone else to hold up as a bad example.

2016 NOTE: Well, they are back to their old ways. A huge number of the pics on their web site (not all, but MANY) are just ridiculous, with unbelievably over-saturated reds even considering that the wood is usually (probably always) waxed or moistened for the pics.

2020 NOTE: Same as 2016. Here's an example:


a pernambuco plank I bought from them in 2020. On top, a copy of their pic on their web site and on the bottom my own pic of what the wood actually looks like. As usual with them, there is no amount of wax or sunlight that can result in this much disparity between the actual color and what they show. The only way to get it is to seriously over-saturate the red hue. To be fair, some of their pernambuco pics were more representative of the actual color than this one.

2021 NOTE: Same as 2016. Here's an example:

marblewood, my pics (top) and their pics (bottom)

2021 NOTE: Same as 2016. Here's an example:

This one is so far off the charts that it's actually hilarious (but of course it would not be for some unsuspecting soul who bought the wood from them). On the right is a piece of mora that I bought from them and on the left is their "representation" of sample pieces from the batch I bought from.

2022 NOTE: Same as 2016. Here's an example:

Just another of their standard serious over-saturation in the red hue, this time in merbau / Intsia bijuga (which they have as Moluccan ironwood). These do not show the exact same plank but their pic of the plank I bought was identical in color to the one shown.

More from 2022

Just another of their standard serious over-saturation in the red hue, this time in pau santo / Zollernia paraensis


another pau santo / Zollernia paraensis