In this site are there any guideline about species-identification questions? Or any instructions about how to capture some important features of the organism (plant/animal/fungus/whatever)? How much should be the photograph's clarity? etc.
NB: I'm talking about this post from Earth Science, however that is about rock identification, not biology.
For those want to identify a specimen, yet could not find out a guideline.
There are a lots of interesting questions on identify X. But that often have a deficit of proper information.
However I have tried to made one sample, using common sense.
Though it depends quite upon guess, it is different sort of patterns, as a crude example, phyllotaxy (leaf-arrangement) in plants, Legs in insects, Gills in mushrooms, etc.
Need-not to know or use any descriptive-terminologies or codes before asking. Could write in plain language. .
Here are some tips for it.
a. use fast shutter speeds or speediest modes (such as sports mode)
b. If possible/ available /applicable, could try a tripod or stand.
c. If possible/ applicable, take photos on daylight.
d. Flash can interfere animal lifestyles, and sometimes officially forbidden. However when and where it is applicable (for say mushroom gills, tree barks etc.) could use that, with proper darkness or brightness settings in camera.
e. Sometimes compression or resize destroy lots of details. There is a trick to get better details in smaller file size. open the image on screen, adjust the display-size, and screenshot it with a screenshot tool. (To achieve that file size with direct compression or resize often blurs the image and kills many detail).
f. If the organism of interest is not clearly distinguishable from background or something else, you could use arrow mark or such.
Plants are easiest to observe, since they don't fly-away.
For them:
If the plant is not in flowering-condition, could wait for flowering if possible.
Try to avoid only a bunch of flower or only a short-portion of vegetative-body when you've scope to look at other-parts.
Best example I've ever seen here (SE), probably is this (hyperlink):
What is the name of this plant? .
(Germination could take a long time in cases. Once I planted some Bauhinia seeds whose seedlings were came out approx 2 years later they were put in soil! so don't lose hope.)
You could keep it inside a fold of newspaper or magazine.
For a small, single specimen the task is very easy, but for more large, fleshy or multiple specimen the task become more difficult. During the starting period, paper change at certain interval, requires. The frequency depends on many factors. For a very small specimen (say about 5 cm long herb), paper-change at 2 to 3 hour interval for 1 days, and then daily once paper change for 2 to 3 days or hardly an week, is usually more than enough (or sometimes no paper change may required at all). For larger, fleshier specimens or in humid weather, much higher rate of paper change is required, even up to 1/2-hour interval on starting-day and then 1 or 2 or 3 hour interval for an week or more may required. Do not use iron but could use hair-drier for non-professional work.
It is most challenging and luck-factor works a lot. Because animals change their place, an often in high-speed. Even a quite hazy shot is often an enough lucky shot. such as this and this.
But what you could
a. Try use sports-mode or any-such mode that can take successive photographs.
b. Use faster shutter-speed
c. Take several-photographs and select clearest-few, and those-few focusing special features structures.
d. Flashlight is forbidden officially in certain places and it could irritate various animals including mammals and wasps etc. However for bugs, moths, worms etc entered into home, could be photographed using flashlight, those usually doesn't attack in flash.
Fungus identification is undoubtedly difficult. It requires lots of experience and practice, too. Moreover it is practically impossible and dangerous to conclude from about certain strain of fungus is edible or not - just from eye-gaze. Because very slight difference in taxonomic position under same genus, could have huge difference in biochemical compounds.
However just for knowing-purpose, upto genus or species rank, keen observation on detailed structures help a lot.
*a: Habit in nature : on which substrate it has grown on? Single or in a troop? how much distant the fruit-bodies are? etc.
*b: Detailed structure: Focus on as much as possible extreme details. Cap, stipe, volva, cap-edge etc everything. If possible to bring one at home, must include a zoom-image of gills/ pores. Do some LS of cap and stipe and TS of stipe. Note is there any hollow-chamber or not. Notice colour of inner flesh. Photograph whatever seems important.
Wash hand carefully after watch. Best if plastic-gloves used while work. Stop direct touch if any irritation or allergy etc take place.
There is almost no-way to proceed a good distance from a macroscopic photo. However often there stays a way to guess from a spectrum, such as this-one. Information about affected organism/ substrate help in guess. Detailed observation on the microbial formation's property, including color, shape, size, smell (not recommended except strong enough to get from distance), texture (powdery/slimy/just color-changed patch on substrate, etc.) etc helps in such guess. (btw human disease / pathogens that can potentially affect human, is not appropriate for studying so casually).
If possible, a microscopic image at-least, is a must for microscopic specimen, as done for algae-identification by an SE user here.
Identification from childhood memory etc.
Identification question without photograph.
Photographs not showing effort to collect some important fingerprints. (Plant photo lacking reproductive structures, branching, phyllotaxy, leaf veins, close-up of tips, buds, axils etc. In case of mushrooms gills, stipe, base of stipe etc. In case of skulls or skeletons structural patterns including teeth, various folds etc)
Only photograph with no or poor text-information.
Identification of a small portion of body (teeth, feather, leaf etc) or a non-flourished body (a seed) etc. without any research-effort to find its source.
Highly distorted specimen (dried leaf, half-rotten animal etc).
Too unclear photograph when it was possible to give a clearer photographs.
in case of sound clips; too short/ noisy/both sound clip when it was possible to provide better.
In case of many organisms in a photo; or the target organism not well distinguishable from background; no marking in the photo about what to look for.
Fungus edibility queries.
