Hi,
I need to dye bivalves to bring out the details of the shell and to be able to take good photos. I have heard that there is a gaseous compound that allows this and doesn't damage the samples, but I cannot find any literature on this. Could someone help me? Or do you know any other way to do it?
Thank you very much in advance.
The solution isn't to dye your fossils but to "smoke" them - cover them with a thin film of white material (various chemicals used) that can then be washed off. I do not have access to my office or lab right now so I cannot send a copy of our exact procedures, but I learned this technique at the Smithsonian when I worked there while in graduate school and photographed hundreds of fossils for my supervisor.
Below are a couple of links to get you started. The best apparatus for smoking is a very specialized glass tube with a bulb hooked up to an air flow valve to carefully control the distribution (think of it like an air brush used by artists), but many people just use squeeze bulbs. Also, for safety, this must be done in a hood. Once the specimen is coated, the details seem to be highlighted by the camera, but lighting from different angles is always key. We use three light sources. Hope this helps!
Article A Practical and Historical Perspective of the How and Why of...
And a 1960 article from JStore: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1300976?seq=1
You can use low-angle "counter" lighting to bring out shell detail
Thank you very much for the contributions, I will try which one is more suitable for my samples.
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