|
Home
 Fossils
Photography of fossils
|
|
The main intent of this manual is to provide some tips and directions for photographing fossils and editing these pictures so that they are appropriate for upload on the
Forum
or the Photo page.
An often-recurring problem is that people upload a fuzzy or blurred picture, asking if anyone can identify the fossil. Since this is not an easy task, a clear, sharp picture is essential. But how do we take a good photo of a fossil?
In this manual the following subjects are discussed:
With thanks to Frederik
Lerouge for writing this manual! Many thanks also for the English translation provided by Edo Schets, edited by Brent Baeslack.
|
|
Introduction
If we look at the two pictures below, it is clear that we prefer the first. The sea urchin is clear and the small details are visible, allowing for a correct determination. The second picture, however, cannot be used. Yet, many pictures of this sort show up at the forum regularly. Generally, the problems can be attributed to under exposure of the object or the incorrect use of camera.
This manual will, guided by examples, show you how to quickly create a setup with limited means to photograph your fossils.
|
|
1 Word Clarification
- Pixel: A digital photograph is made up out of a number of squares with an even color. We call these squares pixels.
If a picture consists of more pixels, the picture will show more detail but will also occupy more disk space. In the example below, the picture is enlarged so that you can see the individual pixels.
- Resolution: Represents the number of pixels per square centimeter in a picture. The more pixels your picture contains, the more detail a picture can have, but it will also occupy more disk space. Looking at large picture files on the Internet causes a lot of data traffic and it will take more time to load them. Therefore, pictures on the forum are automatically shrunk or reduced to take up less space.
- Macro: Photographing small objects in a way that makes them enlarged in the picture. In fact, this is more correctly called 'close up' rather than 'macro', but for simplicity the term macro will be used in the remainder of this text.
- Shutter speed: When you take a picture, the shutter will open for a moment to let the light in. The less light you have when taking a picture, the longer the shutter has to be open. If you move while the shutter is open you will cause a .blur by motion.. A good reason to use a tripod is to prevent camera blur and steady the camera.
- JPG / JPEG:
Is a common technique for compression of picture files. Converting a picture to JPEG can decrease the amount of disk space taken without noticeably affecting the quality. JPG will let you choose the quality of the compression.
- Crop: Cutting out a part of the picture. For example if your fossil only occupies a small portion of the picture.
- Compression: Decreasing the amount of space taken by the picture (and thus the time it takes to load the picture) by using a technique for compression. The most common technique is JPEG (see above).
- Server: The computer on which a website is saved. If you wish to see a page of this site, your computer will send that question to the server, at which time the server will send you the right page.
|
|
2 Material & Equipment
You can use a number of different cameras to take a picture of a fossil. The most well known are the digital camera and the scanner. Using a webcam is not recommended, because it is virtually impossible to take a clear, detailed picture with this type of camera (low resolution, blur, bad exposure). The same holds true for a mobile phone. Uploading a webcam-picture is hardly useful, so it is better to borrow a digital camera. A scanner usually does allow you to take a good picture, but a digital camera still offers more advantages, like easily taking pictures from different angles and the opportunity to adjust and move your light source.
This manual is mainly aimed at users of a simple digital camera like Sony Cybershot, Canon Powershot or Nikon Coolpix. If you are not the proud owner of such a camera, borrow one quickly. Below you will find a picture of a typical basic camera.
The camera, used in this example. The macro-key is indicated with red..
Take some time to create a good setup with which you can photograph your fossils. You can go as far with this as you want, but a number of items are essential:
- Tripod: definitely vital if you take your picture with artificial or little light (to prevent blur by motion), but also useful if you shoot a number of pictures sequentially. You can then experiment until you find the right setup, distance etc. and keep shooting from the same position.
- Even background: this may be black or white, or colored, but preferably choose a light, uniform color as a possible background.
- Reference: to estimate the size of the fossil, a reference is essential. Sometimes a coin or the like is used for this, but a measuring straight edge or something like that is preferred.
- Good exposure
 :
this is extremely important and is often overlooked. Take your picture preferably by daylight. If you must stay inside, make sure you have enough bright light. Too little light causes slow shutter speeds, which almost always creates a blur.
If you lay your fossil on a plate of glass, positioned somewhat above the background, you can avoid annoying shadows.
In this example you see a very simple setup: a pile of boxes, a measuring stick (in this case a penknife with centimeters and inches inscribed) and a tripod with mounted camera. This setup is positioned by a window. To be honest I am too lazy to make the setup more complicated. For simplicity I assume that you are at least as lazy as I am and therefore appreciate simple solutions. Even if it is a dark day, and the light is far from ideal, the setup can be created in a minute and we can still have good results shooting pictures. After all, our tripod prevents the blur from the slow shutter speed under these conditions of low light.
The setup from the example
Spend enough attention to the angle where the light comes from. If you let the light come in a little from the side, you will have more depth and detail in your picture. When the light shines directly on the front of the fossil, you miss a lot of small details because they have no shadow. If too much light comes from the side you will lose information because of too many shadows. This becomes clear in the illustration below:
(These pictures are not made with the camera from the example)
The sea urchin on the left is over exposed. It looks dramatic, but a lot of information is lost in the shadow. The picture on the right is taken with the light source (in this case the sun) shining directly on the fossil. The urchin looks 'flat'; details and depth are not really emphasized. Not ideal. For the sea urchin in the middle the exposure is just about right.
|
|
3 Photographing
For most fossils you use the highest resolution in the macro-function (unless you are lucky enough to get to shoot fossils that are a half meter tall all the time). Almost every digital camera has this function nowadays. You can recognize them by the symbol of a flower (a tulip, typical Dutch). Usually this symbol can also be seen in the camera display, when the macro-function is turned on. If necessary, check your camera's manual.
How do you use the macro-function? After you have switched on your camera, switch on the macro-function. After this the camera will no longer zoom in or out. The camera is ready to take a picture and will try to focus on the nearest point. It is best to take the picture as near to your fossil as possible, but
far enough so you can still focus your camera.
The latter is often forgotten (for the minimal distance, check your camera.s manual).
The picture may be blurred if it is taken too close to the fossil. A picture must foremost be sharp and therefore the picture must be taken from a distance at which the camera is able to focus. For most small cameras this is somewhere between 10 and 20 centimeters from the object, for new cameras this can be much closer (sometimes to <5 cm). Experiment a little to find this point and then lock your camera on to the tripod.
So always keep this in the back of your mind: first, a picture must be sharp (I cannot emphasize this enough). If not you always miss the vital details. Rather take a sharp picture from a longer distance than a blurred one from close up. Our primitive setup will then look something like this:
As you can see, the camera is quite close, there is no zoom and the macro function is turned on. If we return to the examples at the start of this tutorial: the good one is taken with this setup. The bad one is taken with the following: camera a bit further away and zoomed in! That way you won.t get it properly focused, unless you stand so far off that the fossil is no more than a dot in the distance.
(the wrong setup)
The average camera tells you when a picture is sharp. On this camera the rectangle that indicates the picture area turns green when the camera has focused. Some others only warn you if the picture tends to become blurred. Pay attention that the fossil is centered in the picture, so that the camera will focus on it.
Also notice that the measuring stick is just as far from the lens as the fossil itself. If the measuring stick lies in front of the fossil it will seem as though the fossil is somewhat smaller because the measuring staff will then look bigger in the picture.
Finally, an illustration of blur caused by motion. The light in this example is far too low to take a sharp picture with a handheld camera. Therefore I used a tripod in the setup. This solves the biggest part of the problem. Take a look at the following two pictures:
At first glance there seems little difference between both pictures, but the bottom one definitely contains more detail. The only difference is the use of a tripod.
|
|
4 Editing the picture
A next step is editing the picture, so that it can be uploaded to, for example, the forum. We will focus in particular on editing the composition by
'cropping',
and saving the picture as a JPEG file. We can also improve the quality of the picture by changing the brightness and contrast. This process will be discussed for different types of commonly used software.
When we edit the picture, we perform three steps:
- 1. croping: cutting the irrelevant parts or edges of the picture away.
- 2. resizing: it used to be necessary before you could upload a picture to the forum, but nowadays this is done automatically when you upload the picture to the server.
- 3. Compressing the picture by saving it as a JPEG file.
These three steps are discussed in detail for the most commonly used software (Adobe Photoshop, Irfanview and Microsoft Photo Editor). Photoshop earns my (personal) preference, because it offers more options (note that I am not sponsored by Adobe®). Irfanview, however, is completely free. Note: A newer Adobe software called Photoshop Elements offers the same capabilities discussed here and also organizes your photos too.
- Adobe Photoshop
Photoshop is a standard in the computer graphics sector; it offers very extensive options for editing a picture. The software is quite expensive, and the changes we need to make are quite simple, so don't panic if you don't have Photoshop, there is plenty of free software (like Irfanview, see below) that can provide us with the same results.
First open the picture in Photoshop (choose 'file'>'open'., then select your picture).
Notice that Photoshop also offers you the possibility to change the brightness and contrast of the picture under 'image'>'adjust'>'brightness/contrast..' Also useful in Photoshop are filters, especially the 'sharpen' filter. Using this filter can bring the details in the picture a little clearer. For that, choose 'filter'>'sharpen'>'sharpen'. Use this filter ideally only once.
Cropping in Adobe Photoshop: Once you have opened your picture, you can select the 'crop tool'
in the buttons on the left. Alternatively you can press the 'c' key, then this tool should appear. If you put your cursor over the picture now, you see it has changed in the crop tool.
Now draw a frame over the part of the picture you would like to keep. This part will be bright, while the rest of your picture goes darker. You can edit the frame by dragging the corners and sides. When satisfied with your selection, click on the crop tool
again and select 'crop'. The picture will now be cropped.
Resizing in Adobe Photoshop (no longer necessary for uploading a picture on the forum): Choose 'image'>'image size'. on the top of the screen. You will now see a menu where you can edit the size of your pictures. Fill out the desired height in 'pixel dimensions' (units are standard pixels). Usually the other value changes along automatically, so that the proportions are preserved. Click 'ok'. The size of your picture has now been changed. If you save it as a JPEG file the file size will usually be below 200 kb.
Saving a picture in Adobe Photoshop:
Select 'file'>.save as...' Choose 'JPEG (* .JPG; * .JPE)' as 'format', now name the picture and choose where you wish to save it. Click 'save'. Now you'll see a menu where you can edit the JPEG quality. Select below 'image options' quality 'high', or put an 8 or higher (this will give you good results). Then click 'ok'. Your picture is now ready to be uploaded on, for example, the forum!
- Irfanview
Irfanview is free software you can download for editing pictures (see http://www.irfanview.com).
Open your picture in Irfanview: 'file'>'open...' or simply press 'o' on your keyboard. With this software you can improve your picture by editing the brightness and contrast, too. You can do this as follows: 'image' > 'enhance colors'.
Cropping in Irfanview:
Once you have opened your picture, you can crop it with 'edit' > 'create custom crop selection...'. You will see a menu in which you have to give the coordinates of the eventual left top corner, and the width and height of the cropped image. As you see it is not as easy as in Photoshop. Units are in pixels. You will have to trial and error until you get it right. If you are not satisfied with the result, you can always undo a crop with 'edit'> 'undo' and try again.
Resizing in Irfanview:
Now you choose 'image' > 'resize/resample...' in the top menu. You will now see a menu with which, among other things, you can resize your picture. Units are standard in pixels. Give a maximal value. Click on 'ok' and the picture is resized.
Save picture in Irfanview:
Select 'file' > 'save as...'. Choose the option 'JPG-JPEG file' in 'Save as type', name the picture and choose where you wish to save it. If you check 'show options dialog' at the bottom in the middle, you can change the quality of the compression. A good standard is 8. Click 'Save'. Your picture is now ready to be uploaded to, for example, the forum!
- Microsoft photo editor
Microsoft Photo Editor is standard in many systems and allows for simple picture editing, just enough for our purposes. Open your picture with 'file'> 'open...'.
Notice that this software also allows you to edit the brightness and contrast, in the menu 'image' > 'balance...'.
Cropping in Microsoft Photo Editor:
Once you have opened your picture, you can crop with 'image' > 'crop...'. You will see a menu in which you can enter how much you remove left, right, top and bottom (under 'crop margins'). This is not at all as easy as Photoshop. Units are standard in cm, so it is better to set this to pixels in the top right corner. Then it is a matter of trial and error until you get it right. If you are not satisfied with the result, you can undo the cropping with 'edit' > 'undo' and try again.
Resizing in Microsoft Photo Editor:
Next you choose 'image' > 'resize...' in the top menu. You will now see a menu where you can resize your picture. Units are again standard in cm, so set that to 'pixels'. Give a maximal value. Click 'ok' and the resizing is done.
Save picture in Microsoft Photo Editor:
Select 'file' > 'save as...'. Choose 'JPEG file interchange format (*.JPG;*.JPEG)' as 'format', name the picture and choose where you want to save it. If you click 'more' on the bottom left, you can change the quality of the compression. Click 'Save'. Your picture is now ready for upload on the forum!
|
|
5 Using the picture
After the steps described above, your picture should be sufficient for the
Forum
or the Photo
page.
You can also email the picture to other people (make sure your picture file doesn't occupy too much space!), or use it in your register of fossils.
A perfect way to find out more about your fossils, is by placing your pictures on the forum of this website. Other forum members can then help you with the identification. This is completely free and seriously worth the effort! For an elaborate explanation about the forum, check the
Help
page.
Before you can submit messages yourself, you must first register ones, and then log in.
>> Go to the Registration
page of the forum immediately!
|
|
6 Scanning Fossils
When you are scanning fossils, you must first make sure you don.t damage your scanner. A fossil can leave scratches on the glass, so be careful. Before scanning, make sure your fossil is clean and avoid getting plaster or dust on your scanner. The plaster will otherwise be visible on the scan, that not only spoils the picture, but can also be misleading and make some details unclear.
The advantage of scanning is that it is relatively easy to get a sharp picture of a midsized fossil. The picture will always need editing, though (cropping, changing brightness and contrast, see above). Furthermore, this method is unpractical for extreme-sized fossils (very small or large). Besides, a scan naturally has a shallow depth of field or sharpness. That means that everything on the glass is clear, but everything that hangs above the glass, even a little bit, is inevitably blurry. This method therefore, is better for a Solnhofen-fish than for an ammonite with thick ridges.
The possibilities are thus much more limited than with photography!
|
|
7 What to do with very small fossils?
If you wish to photograph very small fossils (less than one centimeter), you need a bit more than a digital camera or scanner. I believe you have two options, and both use a reflex camera (analogue or digital):
Either invest a lot of money in a real macro-lens to put on this camera and work with the above-described setup,
or invest in a stereomicroscope (preferably in combination with a macro-lens). For each brand of lenses there are adaptor-rings for connecting the camera on the ocular of your microscope (one of the two, in case of a stereomicroscope). Usually this also requires putting an adapter on your microscope. For every combination of brands these rings are available. A good (cold fiberglass) light source is essential. The photographing itself now becomes a bit more technical. I will briefly review some points that require attention:
- Make sure you have enough light of high quality. Use preferably a cold light source, that you can aim if necessary, using optical light conductors. Several light conductors on one source enable you to light up the fossil from multiple angles and thus avoid deep shadows.
- Avoid unnecessary vibrations, because they can cause a blur. Therefore, take the picture using the delayed action shutter or the distance action shutter (usually as s cable you can screw on the action shutter button), so that vibrations caused by your touch when taking the picture do not occur. A possible second source of vibrations is the mirror inside the camera. When you take a picture it rotates fast, causing the camera to vibrate some seconds afterward. The more sophisticated mirror reflex cameras have a way of opening the mirror before taking the picture, so the vibration wears off as you wait a moment. Some cameras automatically do this when you are using the delayed action shutter.
- Create a clean environment and a clean fossil. With a lot of enlarging, even the smallest pieces of dust or a tiny scratch appear the size of a rock.
These seem like minor details, but if you work with great enlargements any action is enlarged while you also need more light. Therefore you must avoid any vibrations and use a good light source.
For taking such pictures you therefore not only should know what you are doing, but also posses the right materials (preferably in that order).
|
|
8 What about big fossils?
Consider yourself lucky! You have not only found a fossil worth photographing, but you also do not have to worry about macro-settings. Create a good background, a scale (perhaps decimetres), enough light (daylight), and photograph preferably from a tripod. For photo editing, follow the steps of point 4 (see above).
|
|
9 Advanced editing
Advanced editing can be done with full featured software. Here we assume you use Adobe Photoshop.
Advanced editing can be done with full featured software. Here we assume you use Adobe Photoshop. You can go beyond cropping and resizing in Photoshop. In the following steps I show you the way I edit pictures before I upload them. Of course, you don't have to be as fanatic as what is shown here. In this manual I will also use the measuring scale below (right click + save as.):
- A. The original picture, 3008x2000 pixels, is a bit too big in my opinion. Furthermore, the sea urchin only occupies a small part of the picture, the rest (except for the measuring staff) is actually lost space. On the right is the result we need
- B. First, the picture is cropped. I make sure the measuring staff is sufficiently in the picture (at least 2 cm).
- C. I open the measuring staff in Photoshop, choose 'select' > 'all', and copy the selection (control+c). Then I click on the sea urchin and I paste the measuring staff (control+v). Currently it shows very small in the middle of the picture. Note that it's a separate layer ('layer 1'). You can see it below. We can edit it separately.
- D.
The size of the measuring staff must now be set according to the picture. Do this with 'edit' > 'free transform'. Then I drag the measuring staff until the left side corresponds with the '2 cm' on the pocket knife, and next I drag one of the right corners until it corresponds with '0 cm' (in this case the circular end of the pocket knife).
- E.
I drag the measuring staff to a more suitable spot and crop the picture some more.
- F.
In the 'layers' window (standard on the bottom right of your screen) I now select 'background'. I also click on the eye besides 'layer 1' to make the measuring staff invisible. With 'image' > 'adjustments' > 'brightness/contrast..'. I change the brightness and contrast if necessary. The color balance, the saturation, and the like can be found and edited in 'adjustments' if necessary. This way you can even make a strongly underexposed picture reasonable.
Furthermore, you can use "Levels". With this command you can change the color.
- G.
You can also use filters. A very useful filter here is the 'sharpen' function. You can find this by 'filters' > 'sharpen'. Don't use this too much (1 time, in rare cases 2 times), or your picture will look abundantly blurred. The sharpen filter exaggerates the difference between light and dark pixels that lie next to each other. This principal is digital sharpening.
It is better to use the filter unsharpen mask. You can use this filter the following way: start with a radius of 0,4, threshold of 0, 1 or 2, then use 50% and raise this value, also raise the radius somewhat and see what happens to the picture. Do make sure that you always look at 100% image (actual pixels). The image must now be sharpened without clearly changing the contrast.
- H.
Now we will delete the background. In this case we will simply use the lasso tool and the pencil. Some patience and skill are necessary. First, we will do the rough work. Select the lasso, draw a circle around the sea urchin and choose 'select' > 'inverse'. I have now selected the area around the sea urchin. I left a small edge that I will remove with the pencil. Now choose 'edit' > 'clear'.
An alternative method for manually removing the background, is using the "Magic Tool".
You can save a lot of time using this. By selecting the magic wand in the menu you can click on the background. Then right click on the background areas that are not yet selected and expand with "Add to Selection".
Do this until the entire background is selected. If you select a piece of fossil, you can undo with CNTR+z, or right click and use "Substract from selection"
Using the magic tool only works well with pictures that have enough contrast between fossil and background. Good exposure is important!
- I. Undo your selection with the lasso tool or the magic tool by clicking somewhere in the picture. On the bottom left you can choose the factor of enlargement. Set it high enough so you can easily work with the pencil. Now carefully remove the rest of the background.
- J.
Now click on the eye next to 'layer 1' once more, select 'layer' > 'merge visible', save the lot and your picture is done. Of course it becomes a lot better if you repeat this for three sides of the fossil, and put them all together in the same image on the same scale. It is your choice how far you wish to go (perhaps your wife has a say in this matter as well).
|
|
The following information about fossils is available:
|
|
|
|
