Not everyone who wants to study the collection can visit in person. A scientific photographic database opens the collection to researchers working offsite, to educators and students, and to anyone curious about begonias.

Begonia Collection Curator Glenn Dickerson and Living Collections Director Seth Hamby launched the Begonia Scientific Photography Project in 2023. Their goal is to visually document the entire collection and to later develope a photographic database available for public viewing and study.

Each image is captured at high resolution to clearly show the plant’s botanical anatomy. The photos pay particular attention to the diagnostic features that taxonomists rely on to identify and classify species. The project is led by Living Collections Associate Victor Mozqueda, who specializes in macro photography. Victor has guided multiple cohorts of interns through the photographic process and helped refine a standard protocol that can be applied across the full collection.

The project began with an inventory of every plant in the Begonia Species Bank. As plants come into flower, they are brought to the photo studio. Priority goes to species and to U-numbered plants, which are wild-collected begonias that have not yet been formally named and are tracked by a number assigned by the American Begonia Society.

To capture fine detail across the whole plant, the team uses a technique called focus stacking:

• The photographer starts at the point closest to the camera.
• The focus shifts in small increments, called steps, with a photo taken at each one.
• The stack ends when the farthest point is in focus.
• A single stack can include anywhere from 3 to 100 images, which are blended into one fully focused photograph.

Each stack is captured using Helicon Remote, software that connects the camera directly to a computer and automates the shooting process. The images are then blended into a single, fully focused photograph using Helicon Focus.

Before editing begins, Helicon Focus analyzes each stack for quality issues such as plant or camera movement. If the problems are significant, the stack is reshot. Photos that pass this review move on to manual editing, which can take two or more hours per image. Common edits include:

• Cropping and rotating the image
• Adjusting the background to true white or true black
• Removing tripod legs or support needles
• Refining exposure, texture, and clarity to bring out detail
• Reducing haloing and correcting stacking errors caused by variations in brightness
• Comparing against the original source images to correct remaining errors