Post by dave pauls on Mar 23, 2018 6:38:27 GMT -6
Okay, I'm far from an expert on this but I decided it was about time to figure it out. With the recent advancement in phone cameras, getting a good accurate picture showing the fin rays is actually pretty easy!
I asked Gary Lange for the low-down on this and he told me that "Don’t count the first spiny ray and then all of the others. Last one if it has two coming out of one base is counted as one." And provided the first picture.
It makes perfect sense and is fairly easy but when do you count two as one? So I put a sample picture in an app called "Sketch" which is essentially a smart phone version of MS Paint. Increase the contrast or "pop" as sketch calls it. It's easy to put lines on the drawing by zooming right in on the fin and drawing with your finger. By putting lines between the rays right where they hit the fish, you can count the gaps. Because you skip the first hard ray, counting the gaps gives you the same answer as counting the soft rays and it makes it crystal clear when two rays come from the same base. Easy peasy.
I asked Gary Lange for the low-down on this and he told me that "Don’t count the first spiny ray and then all of the others. Last one if it has two coming out of one base is counted as one." And provided the first picture.
It makes perfect sense and is fairly easy but when do you count two as one? So I put a sample picture in an app called "Sketch" which is essentially a smart phone version of MS Paint. Increase the contrast or "pop" as sketch calls it. It's easy to put lines on the drawing by zooming right in on the fin and drawing with your finger. By putting lines between the rays right where they hit the fish, you can count the gaps. Because you skip the first hard ray, counting the gaps gives you the same answer as counting the soft rays and it makes it crystal clear when two rays come from the same base. Easy peasy.