DIGITALLY IMAGING PARASITIC HYMENOPTERA (or other small, less interesting, insects)

Home Calibrating the Progress3008 AutoMontage the Images
Photoshop post-processing



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Software/Hardware Specimen/Light Setup Image capture (Progress3008)




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Project
Create a completely in-focus image of a parasitic wasp (or part of that wasp) for publication on the web or in print.

Introduction.  The capability to quickly image insects parts for illustrative purposes is proving to be a tremendous boon to insect (and other) systematists.  Recent technology, in particular the software AutoMontage, has increased the capability to produce high quality in-focus images digitally.  This page follows for "steps":
  1. Setup
  2. Image capture
  3. Montaging the image
  4. Post processing of montaged image 
Because equipment obviously varies from lab to lab not all steps will be of use to all labs.
Before beginning
You may want to calibrate the gamma of your monitor.   Accurate Image Manipulation for Desktop Publishing page has a nice calibration page as well as many useful post-processing tips.

Disclaimer. This page is a work in progress and undoubtedly has many oversights and errors.  All errors and misinterpretation of ideas first provided to me (Matt Yoder) by others, or incorrect documentation of the functionality of any of the software packages listed below are completely my own.  Many of the insights and methods provided here were first mentioned to me either in full or in part by other workers in the field. Several critical insights were provided to me by Klaus Bolte at the Canadian National Collection of Insects, Ottawa.  Comments at various points in the process were also provide by Jim Ehrman, Mount Allison University, Sackville, New Brunswick.  By no means is this the only or most correct way of doing this type of project, many other solutions clearly exist. Suggestions, insights, and comments are encouraged and may be posted, with credit given to the submitter, they can be sent here .



top - these pages best viewed in 1024x768 with Netscape 6.0 or higher - last updated: march 20 2003