Print photographs (intact & broken spores)

Photographs of reference isolates of each species, together with photos of type specimens, are organized in ringed binders with published descriptions for rapid access by staff or visitors. All photographs are numbered and entered with associated information on the fungal organism into a Microsoft Access database. With the purchase of a dye-sublimation printer, we no longer use film for photography.

Digital photographs (intact and broken spores)

Since 1998, all photographic vouchers are saved as digital images. These files are stored on three computers in Cumulus databases (Canto software) in three formats: (i) archival image in Photoshop's native uncompressed format that allows layers (.PDF), (ii) compressed jpeg image at 72 dpi and optimized in Macromedia Fireworks for web publishing, and (iii) gif image for thumbnails. Once a reference isolate of a species is identified, photographs are organized in html "species datasheets" which document all of the properties about which we have direct knowledge.

Steps taken to capture images and modify them for web pages or for archival purposes can be viewed here.

	click for larger image Example page in Cumulus of the photo database of mycorrhizal fungi in the collection. Photos include those in TIF (original), JPG (compressed), and GIF (thumbnails) formats. Cumulus allows input of metadata and up to two pages of notes on each image for thorough documentation.
		Images from Cumulus database are used for web pages (example above of species datasheet), manuscripts (after conversion to black and white in Photoshop), and color print photos.