"Scott Coutts" <scott.coutts at med.monash.edu.au> wrote in message
news:uQ6Ae.36633$oJ.18937 at news-server.bigpond.net.au...
> First of Three of Six wrote:
>> Hi can anyone share tips and tricks on capturing images of bacteria
>> stained by Gram's method.
>> I'm using an Olympus BX51 with a DP70 and capturing the images using
>> Olysia BioReport.
>> While I'm finding the process excellent for larger organisms via a 40
>> objective, when using oil 100 focusing and sharpness have suffered.
>> Everything looks good on the screen, but then I transfer the image (saved
>> as tif and usually around 36 MB)
>> What are you doing with them? You probably dont need to photograph them at
> such high resolution (well, with such large file sizes I should say).
>> >
>> and attempt some manipulation with Photoshop to resize to 96 dpi and save
>> as jpg (10/10 quality) the picture degrades a little.
> >
>> Why do you want them at 96dpi? Do you need large image sizes? You may find
> that the images are better when recorded in lower resolutions to begin
> with if you dont need the print size.
>> >
>> Thanks in advance. I'm mostly keen to get any help on the best focussing
>> techniques people use.
>> Well, for focussing, I just focus until it's as sharp as I can get. Not
> much you can do once you've done that.
Now that memory is so cheap I record the material at the best quality I can
and use photoshop to resize for a variety of purposes. I usually resize to
20 cm by 15 cm and 72 or 96 dpi for Intranet pages that I use for education.
For printing (examinations, quality assurance or just for fun) I resolve to
300 and vary the size according to the print size I want. These smaller
image files are usually deleted and I retain the original file on a server
and portable media. I don't keep everything, just the images I like. This
doesn't just apply to photomicroscopy but all forms of image capture.
Thanks for answering my questions, I just wanted to make sure I was doing
everything possible to optimise my material.
As for capture as a lower magnification, it's a bit hard to see things like
polar staining or vacuolation in a bacterium at less than using a 100 oil
immersion objective.
