Some of the images on the website were taken with old-fashioned cameras using slide film. These images were scanned in and formatted for digital presentation. However, most of the images (current and future) are taken with DSLR (digital single lens reflex) cameras. Using digital cameras greatly streamlines input of photographs into the website. However, digital images as viewed with a monitor do have a few limitations. The primary limitation is the display of color. Your monitor cannot display nearly as many colors as the human eye can see. Because of this, unless new technology is developed, the color you see on screen is almost never exactly what you would see in real life. It may be very close, but sometimes it is different enough to be noticeable. We have made our best effort to ensure that the images you see are accurate representations of what we saw when we were taking the pictures. However, they are not perfect. If you would like to do what you can to make sure you are seeing as accurate a picture as possible, you should calibrate your monitor (this is outside the scope of this website).
Digital images also have a smaller dynamic range than film and slide images. The dynamic range refers to the amount of highlights and shadows that can be captured in one image. Because highlights can be blown out, and shadow details can be lost in darkness it often is beneficial to photograph in soft light. Of course, light conditions are not always perfect. However, all of the photographs on this site were taken under ambient light. We do not use flashes or other artificial light sources. Although the images on this site are interpretations of what we have seen – we strive to ensure that they are accurate interpretations. We perform a minimal amount of editing to our photographs. For those who are familiar with photo editing, we only make minor adjustments such as cropping, using curves and levels, adjusting white balance, and performing some sharpening.
We delete approximately 90% of the photographs we take. This is because we are trying to make sure that we present only quality images on this site. We judge our images for composition, focus, and exposure as well as less tangible aspects. For plants that we have few images of, we tend to be more forgiving of quality for the sake of documentation. But overall we strive for photographs that inspire.
Please feel free to browse all images and text on the website. However, the images and text are the property of plantstudy.com. If you would like to make reproductions of the images, please contact us for further information. Text from the site may be used freely as long as it is clear that it is quoted and plantstudy.com is credited as the author.