Spring beach hunt

[old bones]

13 hours ago, Calvin Jenkins said:

Could you teach me (us) how you created your photos and added scaling?  Are you using a light box, photo shop etc?  Very impressive and hopefully I can learn something.

 

Thanks,

Kevin

 

7 hours ago, belemniten said:

 

I use normally gimp (a free software) to edit my photos ... but its a bunch of work and often not very accurate as "old bones" pictures !

So i would also like to know what he uses ! But nevertheless it looks like that he spent many hours in those photos 

 

6 hours ago, Ludwigia said:

Thanks for the report. I really enjoyed this. The photos are great. Hopefully you can give us a brief tutorial.

 

 Thank you all for the kind words regarding my photos.   I decided to type up my general procedure and have also posted it on my profile page as well.

 

 I am often asked how I make my fossil photos, so here is what I have learned so far about photographing and editing. Because I mainly focus on very tiny fossils, my set up is rather specialized (and homemade). 

 The camera is an old Sony Cybershot with a Super Macro setting. Photo size is set to maximum (5 meg). The photo stand pictured uses those nice new 'cool' temperature bulbs. The glass jar allows light to come from below as well as from the sides. The fossils sit on an opaque plastic lid (from a resealable grocery item) which eliminates pesky shadows.

 I do use a flash to take the place of noon outdoor light which works so well for large fossils. Plus, I feel that it helps bring out the details of texture and dimension. I take multiple pictures of the same fossil from all important views.

  The scale is photographed along with a batch of pictures taken at that height and then is replaced in the edited photos with a digital scale to match.

 

  Then comes the editing in Photoshop. No matter the software used, it only a matter of time and practice to be satisfied with the results. Looking back at my first attempts at fossil photography prove that. I do spend a lot of time on my edits. I enjoy that part almost as much as the hunt. 

 

  The most crucial part of the edit is the removal of the background. There are many tools to do that fast, but I am a stickler for detail and it is important to me that the final image is as true to the actual fossil as possible. So, I carefully isolate the fossil by cutting it out with the lasso tool following the edge precisely.  Photoshop's 'refine edge' setting does a nice job of imperceptibly smoothing the edges when adjusted correctly.  If contrast or colour need adjusting to match the original this is then done. Then the subject is placed on a neutral  background with the correct scale and resized and saved for the web.

 

  Of course it helps that I use Photoshop professionally, but part of my job is training newbies to use it, so I know that anyone who is determined can achieve good results with practice whatever the software.

 

  A good fossil deserves a good photo.

[old bones]

2 hours ago, Al Dente said:

Nice finds and photos. Your periotic is not odontocete but might be baleen whale. I would ask @Boesse his opinion to narrow down the possibilities for this fossil.

That would be very cool! Thanks, Eric. I do hope that @Boesse will be able to ID it further. It is rather beat up.

[old bones]

56 minutes ago, jcbshark said:

Wow Julianna, you killed it out there! Much more productive than our local beaches here for sure. Love the GW and that beaver tooth is an awesome find! Glad you could get out and congrats on 30 years: )

Thank you, Jeff 

[old bones]

7 hours ago, masonboro37 said:

Great report, pictures and finds! Thank you for sharing!

Thanks, Libby

[Boesse]

Hey all - the earbone is not a cetacean at all - matter of fact, it's a land mammal. The ectotympanic bulla is completely missing and the petrosal has been completely lost from the skull.

 

A brief word of anatomical nomenclature - periotic is a term used only for cetacean earbones, but is homologous to the petrosal. Many paleocetologists call it the petrosal in cetaceans in order to stop introducing too many synonyms.

[Coco]

Hi,

 

Old bones, your way of making your photos would deserve a special file so that we can find it !

 

Coco

[old bones]

6 hours ago, Boesse said:

Hey all - the earbone is not a cetacean at all - matter of fact, it's a land mammal. The ectotympanic bulla is completely missing and the petrosal has been completely lost from the skull.

 

A brief word of anatomical nomenclature - periotic is a term used only for cetacean earbones, but is homologous to the petrosal. Many paleocetologists call it the petrosal in cetaceans in order to stop introducing too many synonyms.

Thanks for looking at this, Bobby, and for the explanation of terminology. I sure wasn't expecting it to be from a land mammal. That's different!

[old bones]

3 hours ago, Coco said:

Hi,

 

Old bones, your way of making your photos would deserve a special file so that we can find it !

 

Coco

Coco, I saved it to my profile page as well. Saves me typing it again.

[Carl]

Great finds and OUTSTANDING photos!!

[old bones]

1 hour ago, Carl said:

Great finds and OUTSTANDING photos!!

Thanks, Carl. Now my dilemma is figuring out whose ear bone that is...

[MCG DAWG]

Great pics.  Haven't been back to Edisto in many, many years.  With hunting that good I need to make a trip.  

[Plantguy]

Enjoyed seeing the variety of the finds! Oddly its the ear bones and turtle pieces that especially grab my attention...I just started to figure out some of my turtle pieces...oh my we have a lot of that material here in Florida to sort thru. Good luck in the search for ID's! Thanks for showing us the latest. Regards, Chris  

[old bones]

On 5/22/2017 at 1:26 PM, MCG DAWG said:

Great pics.  Haven't been back to Edisto in many, many years.  With hunting that good I need to make a trip.  

Thank you

18 hours ago, Plantguy said:

Enjoyed seeing the variety of the finds! Oddly its the ear bones and turtle pieces that especially grab my attention...I just started to figure out some of my turtle pieces...oh my we have a lot of that material here in Florida to sort thru. Good luck in the search for ID's! Thanks for showing us the latest. Regards, Chris  

Thanks, Chris. I do love turtle bits myself.

[Plax]

On 5/19/2017 at 8:38 PM, old bones said:

 The majority of the fossils found on Edisto Beach are Late Pleistocene, ca. 50,000-10,000 old. They are from an undetermined offshore unit, Charleston County, S.C.

  Is this beach renourishment material? Great fossils and pics!

[old bones]

Thank you. No, thankfully that end of the island did not get the renourishment treatment.