Scott, I saw your post while on vacation. Fabio offered excellend
advise. Thought I'd add my own two-cents.

A few time savers:

1. (For the benefit of others) if using CS2 or older version of
Photoshop, upgrade to latest version (CS4). CS3 and CS4 excel with
regard to masking (and selection) for composite imaging and save you
time.
2. Before taking photos of shells, correct for white balance in-camera
using a gray card. If shooting *.jpeg, this is a must. If shooting
RAW, you can correct post-process but my experience is that it can
take more time.
3. Make sure you have as clean a separation between the shell and
background as possible.
4. During your photo session, shoot shells of similar sizes and work
your way from small to large (or vice versa). Then you only have to
make small, incremental changes as you progress.
5. While shooting a single specimen, take care to keep magnification
the same from start to finish. Then the composite images should nicely
match and align with one another during post-processing.
(Auto-alignment saves time.)
6. Photoshop offers ability to perform non-destructive editing (such
as use of smart layers). While requires a little extra work initially,
it can save time if there possibility you may re-edit work at a later
time. I'd recommend this approach if preparing images for future
publication.
7. If using a D-SLR, make sure your sensor and lenses are clean.
Post-process work to remove dust/dirt spots is tedious and time
consuming.

Hopefully this helps?

Regards,

Bob Abela
Guam

> I keep going to all these fabulous websites with incredible pictures of both the top and bottom (and often the spire) of a specimen composited into one picture. I am able to take digital pictures, and using photoshop (CS4, Mac), I can composite them into one of these fabulous photos. Only problem is it takes me forever to select, align, clean up, isolate the shells and composite them together. There must be a faster solution. Otherwise, some dealers would be doing nothing but photoshop! I would be very appreciative of just how to accomplish this more quickly. Is there a trick I don't know? Can you recommend a photoshop/image/learning site/article dealing with compositing shell pictures? Many sites have hundreds of pictures, and I have to believe that there is a faster way. I am wanting to add pictures to my database, but I have over 800 Oliva to do.
>
> Please feel free to contact me privately if your reply is not for the general list.
>
> Scot Lewis
> [log in to unmask]

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