Date: Tue, 22 Aug 1995 22:22:29 -0500
From: LINGAFELTER STEVEN WAYNE <lingafel at FALCON.CC.UKANS.EDU>
Along a similar thread, I took a bunch of slides of types and was
disappointed to find them all very dark. Some color and most structures
are visible, but these aren't good enough to use to answer many questions
about these taxa. Is there affordable software that is available to
capture some of the hidden information? In other words can I refine
the dark areas into a broader spectrum of colors via some digital
manipulation?
You might be able to do that. It depends on _how_ dark the important
detail areas are , and how much detail is actually contained in the
photo slide (i.e, if you studied the slide with a strong backlight and
a 12-15X handlens or dissecting scope, could you see important detail
in those dark areas?). If the detail is there, then with some hardware
(scanners; different brands/models have varying dynamic range
characteristics just like film does) and software (image-editing
programs), you might be able to capture some of that detail (at the
cost of losing some of the detail that in is the lightest areas of the
photo; but, you could scan a second time to optimize capture of the
light-area detail, too).
I assume that you _really_ want to scan those dark slides because
you have no practical opportunity to go back and re-photograph them?
The last question, how do you scan a slide? Do you need
special hardware,
Yes (a scanner of some sort; as well as imaging software).
or can you just place it on a scanner?
Yes, also (I assume that you mean some kind of flatbed scanner; if it
has a "transparency" option/feature). The issue is, an noted above,
will the particular scanner have the characteristics you need to handle
these particular dark images. Peter
8 messages in edu.ku.nhm.mailman.taxacomdigital images of type specimens
