icycatelf Posted August 18, 2016 Share Posted August 18, 2016 (edited) I found this Lepidodendron fossil the other day and would like to keep it because it's my largest yet, but it's difficult to make out unless held at certain angles in the right lighting. I can't see it at all in my room. I was wondering if there was a way to make these details pop without damaging the fossil. It might be too weathered to mess with... Edited August 18, 2016 by icycatelf Casual surface-collector and Pokémon fan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herb Posted August 18, 2016 Share Posted August 18, 2016 try a spray bottle of water and wet it lightly and shoot it when it drying and looks the best. Experiment with one light source from the side maybe. "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence"_ Carl Sagen No trees were killed in this posting......however, many innocent electrons were diverted from where they originally intended to go. " I think, therefore I collect fossils." _ Me "When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."__S. Holmes "can't we all just get along?" Jack Nicholson from Mars Attacks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmaier Posted August 18, 2016 Share Posted August 18, 2016 You already mentioned the answer, tangential lighting. I use a pair of gooseneck lamps. Keep moving them around until it pops out at you, and that is where you take the photo. Sometimes color of the light makes a differnce, too. Normally you want to shoot with full specturm lighting, but you might find a redish, greenish, or blueish light actually accents something in the fossil that you are trying to illustrate. Look at the Kelvin rating on LED bulbs, and they will tell you what color they throw. Higher Kelvin ratings are blue, and lower ones are red. In the middle is green. If you can see the fossil but can't photograph it, try to analyze what you are doing when you see it, and do that for the camera. The only ones that you can't photo to replicate the eye are the ones that have a 3D component to them that is tricky, like an Escher drawing. Playing with shadows can add a lot of depth information to the shot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CraigHyatt Posted August 18, 2016 Share Posted August 18, 2016 (edited) You already mentioned the answer, tangential lighting. I use a pair of gooseneck lamps. Keep moving them around until it pops out at you, and that is where you take the photo. Sometimes color of the light makes a differnce, too. Normally you want to shoot with full specturm lighting, but you might find a redish, greenish, or blueish light actually accents something in the fossil that you are trying to illustrate. Look at the Kelvin rating on LED bulbs, and they will tell you what color they throw. Higher Kelvin ratings are blue, and lower ones are red. In the middle is green. If you can see the fossil but can't photograph it, try to analyze what you are doing when you see it, and do that for the camera. The only ones that you can't photo to replicate the eye are the ones that have a 3D component to them that is tricky, like an Escher drawing. Playing with shadows can add a lot of depth information to the shot. Arca_wagneriana_Venice_Beach.jpg At my last job, I had a stock of RGB LEDs in my lab. As an educational programming project, a co-worker made a camera flash that he could adjust to any color. I think after playing around with what we had in stock he wound up ordering an LED light ring from Adafruit for his final model. You can probably get something like that online cheaper than you can make it. Edited August 18, 2016 by CraigHyatt Info: Craig Hyatt, retired software/electrical engineer Experience: Beginner, fossil hunting less than a year Location: Eagle Pass, TX USA on the border with Mexico, hot dry desert Formation: Escondido, Marine, Upper Cretaceous Materials: Sandstone, Mudstone, Shale, Chert, Chalk Typical: Thalassinoides, Sphenodiscus, Exogyra, Inoceramus Reference: http://txfossils.com/Txfossils.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minnbuckeye Posted August 18, 2016 Share Posted August 18, 2016 As I read your post, I had the impression that you were asking suggestions of what to apply permanently to the specimen to allow better visualization of the Lepidodendron. Most responses were how to take a better picture. Maybe you need to clarify if not for photo purposes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmaier Posted August 18, 2016 Share Posted August 18, 2016 Yeah, he is asking about display, and I'm wandering into photography. The tangential lighting could still be used for display, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CraigHyatt Posted August 18, 2016 Share Posted August 18, 2016 My impression, re-reading the post, is he wants some permanent treatment, say, a nice walnut stain, to make the faint fossil visually pop. Info: Craig Hyatt, retired software/electrical engineer Experience: Beginner, fossil hunting less than a year Location: Eagle Pass, TX USA on the border with Mexico, hot dry desert Formation: Escondido, Marine, Upper Cretaceous Materials: Sandstone, Mudstone, Shale, Chert, Chalk Typical: Thalassinoides, Sphenodiscus, Exogyra, Inoceramus Reference: http://txfossils.com/Txfossils.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry Pristis Posted August 18, 2016 Share Posted August 18, 2016 MacFall & Wollin, in their FOSSILS FOR AMATEURS, A HANDBOOK FOR COLLECTORS, recommend yellow dextrin. It comes in powder form. Mix it with hot water, and paint it on the fossil. Erase mistakes with warm water. Get it at . . . well, search the web for it, but I got some from a taxidermy supplier. (I confess, I have no experience with the stuff . . . it sits on a shelf here untested.) In the case of the plant leaflets(?), you might consider dusting the whole face with yellow (white won't work) dextrin, then dry-squeegee the excess from the surface. The powder left behind in the plant tracings might then be lightly misted with hot water. If that doesn't work well, you can always start over with painting each trace with an artist's brush. PM me if you want to get a sample of yellow dextrin. 3 http://pristis.wix.com/the-demijohn-page What seest thou else In the dark backward and abysm of time? ---Shakespeare, The Tempest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icycatelf Posted August 18, 2016 Author Share Posted August 18, 2016 *snipped* Thanks! Something like this is exactly what I was looking for. I'll look into getting some. Casual surface-collector and Pokémon fan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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