Merritt Island / Frog Toe update

[old bones]

Kim, thanks for the compliments on the photos, but I am still studying to identify the rest. I cannot yet be sure of the differences between the molars / mandibles of the shrew, mole and bat in the above group. I have been reading PDFs and books which focus on the smaller animals of the Pleistocene. There are all the lizards and amphibians to work thru as well... This is an ongoing process! LOL  

[GeschWhat]

1 hour ago, old bones said:

Cool, Lori. I am glad that you were able to use my photos for identifying the shrew incisor. Aren't they the strangest teeth!? I wish I had more photos ready for upload, but it is taking me a while...

Meantime, why don't you post a few of your mysteries? I would love to see what you have found.

They really are - like a little sickle. I was going to post one last night, but when I looked at my photos, they were a little blurry and will have to reshoot. 

[Pagurus]

It really is quite a challenge to get good photos of these tiny fossils. It's been hard for me to get good lighting on them, from several directions, without my camera lens getting in the way. I have been making progress though. I'm trying to add to my little micro card collection, but it sure does take some time. It's a fun challenge though! I'm looking forward to seeing some of your photos, Lori. I haven't identified any shrew incisors yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if they're in there somewhere. Thanks again, Julianna for all your research! 

[digit]

Lighting for macro photography is always a challenge. For years they have made a special device to light extreme macro shots called the "ring flash" or "ring strobe". In the old days these tended to be Xenon strobes which can kick out a bunch of light but also tended to be an expensive. With LEDs becoming the dominant light-form on the planet prices have been dropping as high output LEDs start finding their way into photographic applications. If you do a simple internet search for "macro ring flash" or "macro ring flash smartphone" (or add in your particular model of smartphone if that is what you are using for photography, you will find a wide range of lighting devices for macro photography. Since LEDs can be powered continuously and don't need to build up the high-voltage charge needed to discharge a Xenon strobe, they have the advantage of being able to light the subject during focusing as well as image capture. Many of these are now available for not a huge outlay in cash. If you are trying to optimize your macro photography, I'd recommend getting some ring lighting for your camera. By lighting from all angles around the lens the photos tend to have very even lighting without shadows caused by single-source lighting (or the camera getting in the way).

 

When you find cool micro-fossils you might as well show them off to their best. We have Juliana @oldbones and Marco @MarcoSr to aspire to as they've set the standard for quality macro photography.

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

 

   

 

 

[Pagurus]

41 minutes ago, digit said:

When you find cool micro-fossils you might as well show them off to their best. We have Juliana @oldbones and Marco @MarcoSr to aspire to as they've set the standard for quality macro photography.

 

Thank you for your macro ring flash suggestion. That's an excellent idea. I certainly agree about Julianna's and Marco's photography skills, and of course your incredible skill at underwater photography along with all your other "nature" photos. You've all shown us what is possible to achieve. Maybe.

[FossilDAWG]

While I agree that often ring lights do a great job of illuminating small objects for photography, sometimes I find the lack of any shadow a disadvantage.  Shadows can be useful to bring out the surface texture, and the complete lack of any shadow makes an object look washed-out and flat.  The convention for photography in paleontology publications is lighting from the top left, not even lighting from all directions.  The convention also exists to deal with the issue of what is "in" and what is "out" on a specimen; you can make an impression look like a "positive" by playing with the light, and you can do the reverse as well, so having a standard direction of lighting makes things less ambiguous.  Also, it is common to coat specimens with a white material such as aluminum oxide to enhance surface detail and remove misleading effects of surface coloration.

 

I think a really useful ring light would be brighter in one quadrant, so there would be a directionality to the light to create some shadow/depth to the image while still having enough light from other directions to prevent the shadows from being completely dark, allowing detail to still be seen in shadowed areas.

 

Don

[digit]

Agreed, directional lighting can sometimes be of great advantage--Mazon Creek nodules, for example, are often so subtle that extreme side-lighting is often useful for bringing out detail that would otherwise washout in direct front-lighting. In many cases micro-fossils with complex shapes (like shrew teeth ) might cast distracting shadows when lit from only a single source but I can see the advantage of using a ring flash along with an additional directional light to provide a bit of 3D fullness to "unflatten" the subject. Professional model/portrait photography (where poorly placed shadows can be disastrous) spend more time arranging an array of different light sources than they do behind the camera pressing the shutter.

 

No single lighting system is optimized for all situations but ring lighting is great to have in your toolbox when dealing with the cramped setup often found in micro-photography (oddly known as "macro-photography" in the biz). For those who do extreme macro (think full-frame aphid sucking plant juices on a stem) where lenses are reverse mounted on cameras with special adapters and image stacking software is a must due to the razor thin depth of field, ring flashes/lighting are sometimes the only way to get light on the subject.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[Pagurus]

A quick search for "directional ring light" listed a model made by Amscope:

"This is a 64-LED intensity & direction adjustable ring light with mounting size up to ~2-1/2" (61mm) in diameter. The light ring is consisted of 4 portions. You can turn on/off each portion of the ring light separately so that you can control the light direction. "

[digit]

See, seek and ye shall find...

 

Sounds like a decent product so let us know how it works if you decide to try it.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[MarcoSr]

On 4/3/2018 at 8:34 AM, digit said:

Lighting for macro photography is always a challenge. For years they have made a special device to light extreme macro shots called the "ring flash" or "ring strobe". In the old days these tended to be Xenon strobes which can kick out a bunch of light but also tended to be an expensive. With LEDs becoming the dominant light-form on the planet prices have been dropping as high output LEDs start finding their way into photographic applications. If you do a simple internet search for "macro ring flash" or "macro ring flash smartphone" (or add in your particular model of smartphone if that is what you are using for photography, you will find a wide range of lighting devices for macro photography. Since LEDs can be powered continuously and don't need to build up the high-voltage charge needed to discharge a Xenon strobe, they have the advantage of being able to light the subject during focusing as well as image capture. Many of these are now available for not a huge outlay in cash. If you are trying to optimize your macro photography, I'd recommend getting some ring lighting for your camera. By lighting from all angles around the lens the photos tend to have very even lighting without shadows caused by single-source lighting (or the camera getting in the way).

 

When you find cool micro-fossils you might as well show them off to their best. We have Juliana @oldbones and Marco @MarcoSr to aspire to as they've set the standard for quality macro photography.

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

 

   

 

 

 

Ken

 

Thank you....... but it is all about having the right equipment/set up to get good pictures.  Since I'm normally taking pictures of micro specimens, lighting for me is really not an issue.  I get plenty from the LEDs in my microscope tip.  I used to have microscope depth of field issues taking pictures of the micro specimens but my current microscope has built in picture stacking software which solves that problem.  My biggest issue now is always the background.  Backgrounds that work great for macro specimens usually look terrible under the magnification needed to take pictures of micro specimens.  So I'm typically playing with several microscope settings like exposure to wash out the background so I can replace the background in the picture in a simple application like paint.net.

 

Marco Sr.