Coral ID photos?

[JHemdal]

All,

I've been working on a project to photograph coral skeletons in order to preserve the structure of the corallites so that better species identification can be made. We all know that gross morphology simply doesn't work for ID'ing corals - they change shape and color too readily under different conditions. The problem with photographing white skeletons is that there is no contrast. I worked with a series of 8 dyes and came up with one that seems to work. I then took the picture into Photoshop and enhanced the contrast some more, and cut out any extra material (background, areas of soft focus, etc.)
Does anyone have any other ideas as to how this process could be improved?

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=162629&papass=&sort=1&thecat=500

Thanks,

Jay Hemdal

[shaw]

Jay,

do you have Corals of the World, by Dr. Veron.
Check out his coral skeleton pics, they may help

thanks

shawn
wonders of wildlife

[gregr]

It would save you some post processing time to shoot the corals against a black background (duvatine for instance). Meter the background and open up 1 to 2 stops from there. Use a tripod, self-timer/mirror lock-up and a small aperture... that's what I'd do :p