Digital image post processing techniques for taxonomic publications with reference to insects

Abstract

There exists substantial literature for capturing digital images of insect specimens for taxonomy purposes but very few papers are available on post processing of these images. We present a few techniques for editing digital images of insects using Adobe® Photoshop® which can be performed in a relatively short amount of time. The results clearly show that techniques using a combination of options like Curves, Dodge/Burn, Hue/Saturation and Lab Color mode in the software, enhance the quality of the original image without changing any taxonomic information. These methods applied in different combinations can be used for taxonomy of any insect taxon. We also caution the readers of the abuse of such techniques in context of taxonomy.

Keywords

• adobe® photoshop®
• beetles
• insects
• lab color
• purple fringing