Unknown Tooth (?)

[psylus]

I found this tooth(?) in the Peace River, near Arcadia. I'm thinking its a tooth, but I've been wrong before.

It measures one and a half inches in length and three quarters of an inch wide.

The hollowed out core area extends approximately 1/4 inch into the object.

[PrehistoricFlorida]

Alligator.

[psylus]

Alligator! Wow, this is the biggest gator tooth I have then.

I thought maybe it might be a Crocodilian tooth because of a ridge that runs up one side, but it is different from the other Crocodilian teeth I have and thought it might belong to another type of critter.

Thanks for the reply PrehistoricFlorida, I appreciate it.

[MikeD]

psylus, could you please describe your photographic technique? Thanks.

[davehunt]

I was wondering the same thing even before I saw Mike's comment. What software are you using to create that collage of images? Very nice presentation.

Thanks

Dave

[edd]

Photoshop and a good camera?

[psylus]

Photoshop and a cheap digital camera actually. haha

I use a solid colored poster-board that I bought at a crafts store as my background. I then setup my shots outside in bright daylight. I use a Samsung L100 digital camera, 8.1 mega pixels, on a small tripod.

I use the following settings:

ISO - 80

No flash

Macro enabled, (the little flower icon), so I can get right up on the subject.

I take several shots of each subject then bring them into Adobe Photoshop where I remove the background from each shot, this is where the solid colored background makes things easier. Then I just copy and paste each shot into layers of a new blank image with a black background. Nice and easy.

I plan on doing up a majority of my collection this way, eventually. It takes a little time, but I think it's worth it. I think it makes the fossils stand out nicely. I'm glad you like the way I do it. I know I like the end results.

Here's a picture of an Equus tooth, the first one I ever did like this.

Edited September 27, 2009 by psylus

[davehunt]

Thanks. When you say "remove the background" are you just doing a manual trace/select around the object, cutting the object out (to clipboard), and then pasting into the new black background?

[psylus]

Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended has a 'Magic Wand' selection tool that allows one to select either a single color thoughout the entire image or just in areas you use the tool on.

I normally select the solid background then delete it, leaving only the subject of the shot. I then take just the subject, copy to clipboard, then paste into a new blank image.

Each pasting adds a new 'layer'. These layers can then be manipulated, (edited, moved, flipped, etc..), independently from the other layers.

The gator tooth image at the beginning of this thread, for example, has 6 layers. The base layer is simply a black background. Each image of the tooth is on its own layer as is the measurement illustration. Thus giving me 6 seperate layers to manipulte in any fashion I choose. I then just 'save as' a .jpg or .png.

Photoshop is not a cheap program. Not many non-proffesionals can afford it. I dabble with 3D graphics from time to time and found Photoshop Extended to be a necassary tool and therefore spent the many hundreds of dollars to get it.

There are other Image Editing programs out there that offer similar capabilities, but none really seemed to work for me as well as Photoshop.

[davehunt]

Thanks so much for the quick replies. I've been thinking about getting Photoshop for a while and this might push me over the edge.

[PaleoPutz]

Great photos and nice tooth...

Those of you who are enrolled in college can usually find software, like photoshop, for up to half of in the book store... Just a reminder.

[Ron E.]

Thanks so much for the quick replies. I've been thinking about getting Photoshop for a while and this might push me over the edge.

davehunt, if you aren't already using Photoshop, I'd suggest giving the Gimp a try. Its functionality is said to closely rival Photoshop. Its interface is different, but each release makes it closer to a Photoshop look. I haven't used it much, because my ancient copy of Paint Shop Pro 7 fills my needs.

Best of all, it's open-source, which means that it will always be free!

http://www.gimp.org/

Edited September 27, 2009 by Ron E.

[davehunt]

Thanks Ron, I will give it a try.

[John K]

Gimp is a nice tool.

Adobe "Elements" is also something to consider. It's a (much) lower priced consumer version of Photoshop. I've used PS professionally since vs 3.0, and I'd say "Elements" has everything that a non-professional would ever want in image editing software.

[MikeD]

Photoshop and a cheap digital camera actually. haha......

......I think it makes the fossils stand out nicely. I'm glad you like the way I do it. I know I like the end results.

Here's a picture of an Equus tooth, the first one I ever did like this.

I thought it was probably something like that, but it is nice to know the details. It does make for really nice pictures. A testament to photography in sunlight also. Thanks!

[psylus]

You're more than welcomed. I hope it was helpful to somebody out there.

I was actually thinking of writing up a sort of tutorial on how I create my images and posting it on my new web site.

But first I want to catalog my collection, and that may take a little bit of time.

Also, for those of you who offered up alternative software, where were you last year when I was looking around for an image editing program. You might have saved me a ton of jack.