Photographing fluid-preserved specimens

Abstract

There is an important trend among museums and universities to digitize their collections both to help with archiving and allow remote access to their specimens (Olsen Museum specimens find new life online. The New York Times, 2015). While taxidermied animals, casts, and insect samples can be positioned and lit relatively easily, those that are preserved and stored in glass or Perspex jars need special lighting and a carefully thought out studio in order to get the best images. The photographs then need to be archived and stored to avoid loss. Many institutions are seeking to prepare 3D images, but this does not work for specimens contained with transparent vessels. In this chapter, we describe our approach to photography of fluid-preserved specimens.