Commercial snake photography ( or any product photography, really) walks a fine line between art and documentation, and I think that, rather than attacking Photoshop users for gilding reality, one should simply focus on accurate representation of one's product. In this case, a snake. If I am made to choose between
1. a breeder who has set up a backdrop and bounce light for their shots and then white balances the RAW files in PS, or
2. A breeder who took a flash photo of their snake on a towel in a poorly-lit apartment and posts it just as their $150 camera crapped it out
...You bet your butt I'll choose the former.
Snakes are pretty, and deserved to be shown off as such. Don't up the saturation so that all of your albinos suddenly look like sunglows, sure, but don't act as if accessible digital photography is the pinnacle of reality just because your snake photos look greyed out and crappy.
-C
