Conch-lers,

Brief note on macrophotography (not necessarily of 2 mm shells): for those
considering a copy stand, I have been using for the last three decades copy
stand setups that include tungsten lights in conjunction with 35 mm Kodak
T-160 color slide film. The lights are off-the-shelf 150 watt bulbs (four
used on the Shell Museum Bogen copy stand). The T-160 film is corrected for
the color temperature of the tungsten bulbs, which means to say that the
final result is as good as slide shot under daylight. Tungsten film costs
about the same as your regular daylight stuff. I prefer to use "hot" light
sources instead of flashes because of the control I have over differential
lighting of the shell surface. It also allows the use of a calibration
table, which may substitute for the light meter in case you run out of
batteries, etc. (meaning that you can find and "write in stone" the most
likely combinations of aperture/exposure for light-colored shells vs dark
shells, etc., without having to actually measure the light) Evidently,
software packages used in digital photography allow for automatic
correction of color temperature, reason why folks using digital cameras
don't have to worry about using different light sources. Digital
photography however is still limited in resolution when compared to film
stuff, particularly when top-of-the-line optics are used in conjuction with
the right film; but that is another story (try to project a slide made from
a digital image on a 30 x 20 ft screen).

Best wishes,

Jose
__________________________________________________________________________
José H. Leal, Ph.D.
Director, The Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum
Editor-in-chief, THE NAUTILUS
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