Happy Weekend, Everyone! Probably Nothing, But Who Knows..

[JonUte]

Hi, Fellow Fossil Folks.  Are any of these things more than rocks?

[Fossildude19]

Pictures are too blurry - need individual shots, from directly above, preferably on a lighter background.

 

 

[Harry Pristis]

3 minutes ago, JonUte said:

Hi, Fellow Fossil Folks.  Are any of these things more than rocks?

  

Could be, Jon, but it's difficult to distinguish object and shadow from that blue background.

Here are some photography tips that will get you more responses and identifications:

 

The following basic things will improve anyone's images:

 

GROUP IMAGES of more than a few fossils are not effective. The more individual fossils in an image, the greater the amount of table-top is in the image. Viewers cannot see the details of a fossil that might take up less than five percent of the total image. Photograph a single fossil (or two or three, if they're tiny), and post that image.
 
DON'T OBSCURE details of the fossil by pinching it between your fingers. If you want to use fingers to provide scale, support the fossil from below ... that is, on top of your fingers. To improve the focus, rest your hand with the fossil on a stable surface like a table or desk.

 

SCALE is important.  Provide measurements of your fossil in millimeters and inches for the widest audience.  Don't use a coin for scale; there are many foreign subscribers who don't know your coin's size.

 

LIGHT IT UP. Use as much ambient light as possible to reduce shadows...two light sources are a minimum. Eliminate yellowed images caused by tungsten filament bulbs by switching to the new compact fluorescent bulbs. CFLs come in a "daylight" (6500K) version that you can use in any (non-dimming) fixture and produce very little heat. Some LEDs produce a near-daylight effect.

 

ELIMINATE SHADOWS by elevating the fossil on a glass or colorless plastic stage a couple of inches above the background. Illuminate the fossil AND THE BACKGROUND in this configuration. There are numerous things around the house to use for this purpose, from scrap window-glass to disposable plastic food/drink containers.

 

BRIGHTEN AND CONTRAST. BRIGHTEN the image until the fossil appears slightly washed, then adjust the CONTRAST until the fossil is bright and sharp and is a good color-match. Practice this until you get a feel for it.

 

CROP, CROP, CROP. Again, use the image-editing software to crop the image to only what is pertinent. Leave only a narrow margin around the fossil. The more of your kitchen counter-top in the image, the smaller the fossil image will be.

 

REDUCE THE FILE SIZE. The images directly from a camera may be too large for posting directly to a forum, or you may be limited in the number of images you can post. You can constrain the proportions of your image to produce exactly the size that works best (I routinely use 700 Kb - 1.0 Mb for my images now). I save in JPEG format.

[JonUte]

How about now?  I’m sorry about the background color but it’s then only thing I have handy with any sort of index.

 

[Fossildude19]

Place a white paper underneath the fossils.

Need to see multiple angles .

 

 

[Fossildude19]

Still too blurry, when you increase the size.

Can't see detail.   This is why photographing individual items is better.

 

 

 

[patelinho7]

If we could get multiple individual shots of 1 and 5, that would be great. White background, if possible. Those are the only ones that *might* be something.

[JonUte]

Here’s number 1

 

[JonUte]