Playing with a Microscope!

40x Objective

20x Objective

10x Objective

4x Objective


Lots of images today. This is from my first assignment in my Photo & the Microscope course. We had to "produce a minimum of 4 color digital image files from one sample using a variety of objectives ranging from the 4x (lower magnification) objective including and up through at least the 40x (higher magnification) objective. We also had to demonstrate correct exposure, density and color saturation (well duh to all three of those), proper use of Kohler Illumination and proper use of aperture diaphragm. In addition we were instructed to include a bar scale in each image, so we can figure out the magnification of the subject. Now, to be perfectly honest, I have no idea how to add a bar scale into an image... I just kind of winged it... But I think it worked.

Color balancing these was fun. In the first image (4x) there's a spot in the upper right hand corner that I used to balance that image... and then from there I had to find other places that were close to neutral and base the rest of the images off those spaces. (That probably doesn't make any sense... but basically the white spaces between the colors in the larger magnification images are not quite neutral, so I had to make the "white" spaces in the other images the same distance from neutral as the properly balanced photograph.) I found it to be rather challenging, but I'm glad I could figure it out.

On another note, I found it extremely hard to focus these images. Through a microscope, something may seem as though it's focused, but then once you take a picture, you find that it's not. And then sometimes when you think something is NOT as sharp as it can be, you find out that it in fact is. And that has to be the most frustrating thing... I cannot tell if my image has an optimized sharpness or not. I hear that I just have to train my eyes to see what the focus should be, and that eventually I'll learn what to look for. But as of now, I'm in this limbo state where I'm not sure if my samples are completely sharp. It makes me grateful that there's such a thing as a high pass filter (it increases the contrast, thus giving the appearance of a sharper image). Let me know what you think.

PS- my scales are wrong. oops.