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Date: Fri, 17 Nov 1995 13:34:15 +0100
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To: paleonet-owner@nhm.ac.uk
From: Stefan.Bengtson@nrm.se (Stefan Bengtson)
Subject: Re: Plate Techniques
>Sorry to shift from the philosophical to the mundane, but could someone
>suggest references on preparing photographic plates for publication,
>specifically multi-specimen plates with black backgrounds. Thanks.
To make things really black (or really white) using traditional
reprographic techniques, it is necessary to cut an overlay mask. A bit
tedious, but no more complicated than painting (second best alternative) or
cutting (worst alternative) to the edges of the individual photographs, and
the result is better (see Bengtson, S. 1986: Preparing clean backgrounds in
published photographic illustrations. Lethaia 19, pp. 361-362).
But in this day and age I cannot recommend you strongly enough to go
digital. If you have access to a flatbed scanner (or other means of getting
your photographs into digital format) and a computer that can run Adobe
Photoshop or some other image-editing program, you will (with a wee bit of
learning) get superior quality, not only of the backgrounds but (presumably
more important) of the individual pictures. Only one caveat: Check with the
intended printing-house first that they can handle your files.
Stefan Bengtson _/ _/ _/_/_/ _/ _/
Department of Palaeozoology _/_/ _/ _/ _/ _/_/ _/_/
Swedish Museum of Natural History _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/
Box 50007 _/ _/ _/ _/_/_/ _/ _/ _/
S-104 05 Stockholm _/ _/_/ _/ _/ _/ _/
Sweden _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/
tel. +46-8 666 42 20
+46-18 54 99 06 (home)
fax +46-8 666 41 84
e-mail Stefan.Bengtson@nrm.se
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