my first proper photomicrograph (unidentified)

Images made through a microscope. All subject types.

Moderators: rjlittlefield, ChrisR, Chris S., Pau

Adrian
Posts: 191
Joined: Thu Aug 24, 2006 10:27 am
Location: Australia
Contact:

my first proper photomicrograph (unidentified)

Post by Adrian »

hello

im a newcomer here on the boards, still newcomer to microscopes and photomicrography got my trinocular scope about 2 weeks ago.

this is one of my first proper photographs with my scope, its 4 photos stiched.

im not quite sure what it is of, after i had cleaned some slides and left them to dry, i prepared a slide with some thin fruit sections and stumbled upon this, all over the slide... it isnt visable with bare eyes or even brightfeild.

i thought it looked facinating, so i took pictures of it

allthough it dose remind me of a common native tree fungus we have down here in australia, the growth patterns just seem to look simular.. however i am not at all sure.

Image
darkfeild at 100x, 10x achromat with Canon 350d dslr.

i still have alot to learn reguarding microscopes and photomicrography
i am still new to microscopes so all advice is welcome and appricated

Ken Ramos
Posts: 7208
Joined: Thu Jul 27, 2006 2:12 pm
Location: lat=35.4005&lon=-81.9841

Post by Ken Ramos »

Well it did not take long for you to make that post Adrian. Looks as though it maybe some crystals that have formed from the juice of the fruit you used, maybe some sort of sugar or fruit acids maybe. I am not very familar with stuff like that but some of these guys on here are. A nice photograph there Adrian, I am sure some of the guys here can give you a little guidance as to what you have here. Thanks! :D

bernhardinho
Posts: 563
Joined: Sun Aug 13, 2006 6:28 am
Location: Germany
Contact:

Post by bernhardinho »

Hi Adrian,

very nice shot!! It's not a fungus, that's for sure. It's a cristallized substance, either sugar as Ken suggests, or ,even more likely, vitamin C. Do you have the possibility to use polarized light? ( simple plastic sheet filters will do). You're in for a lovely surprise!!

Bernhard

Adrian
Posts: 191
Joined: Thu Aug 24, 2006 10:27 am
Location: Australia
Contact:

Post by Adrian »

thanks for the comments ken and bernhard i had been taking alot of photos before that photo, thats the point here i came out with a proper photo, allthough i think my photos need more work, but i am quite happy with the color correction and cleaning on this photo.

yeah it dose kind of look like crystals yeah. and the way its cracking up on the right hand side.

i have heard people have made polarised light with equipment simular to mine, as i have an abbe condenser 1.25 which has a filter holder,
i have not tried polarised light though as i dont understand it very well.

i have made some Rheinberg illumination and darkfeild filters, i used the darkfeild peice of cardboard in filter for this!

i have tried some phase filters too, but i havent made phase filters that work as well as my rheinberg or darkfeild.

i would be keen to trying polarized light if it isnt to complicated, most of the polarised light walkthroughs ive seen look pretty complicated as they have a round stage and other things, it just looked to much, do you know of any simpler walkthroughs.

oh and i have allso seen that alot of the photomicographers here use a program called helicon focus to stack images at different depths of feild to make deeper focus-depth photos with more focus detail, am i correct?

should i get helicon focus? i guess i could allways try it out, and then when the trial peroid is over, if it works well with me, get it.

thanks.

Adrian.

bernhardinho
Posts: 563
Joined: Sun Aug 13, 2006 6:28 am
Location: Germany
Contact:

Post by bernhardinho »

Hi Adrian,

well, for basic experiments you don't need a fully equipped Pol Mic. All it takes is two polarizing filters put into the light path and to turn them in crossed position . You can get sheets of polarizing material at your local optician and you cut out circles fitting your filter holder. So one is either in the filter holder or on the light source and the other one underneath the tube. You can get understandable information on the subject on " Miscape": http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/indexmag.html

Just browse in the article library.

Here are two examples of Vitamin C with crossed polars that I made some time ago:
http://bernhard-lebeda.de/coppermine/al ... CN0303.JPG

http://bernhard-lebeda.de/coppermine/al ... CN0314.JPG

Bernhard

Adrian
Posts: 191
Joined: Thu Aug 24, 2006 10:27 am
Location: Australia
Contact:

Post by Adrian »

wow, i see the simularity to what ive got in your photos.

this reminds me when i first got my compound scope
i put a vitamin B tablet into a small container put in some water, and shook it untill the tablet disolved, then spread it on a slide, and i found that the sample had long yellow crystal shards in it, could those have been the vitamin B? :D

i will have to get me some of those polarizing sheets

Thanks!

bernhardinho
Posts: 563
Joined: Sun Aug 13, 2006 6:28 am
Location: Germany
Contact:

Post by bernhardinho »

Hi Adrian,

sorry I haven't seen vitamin B yet, but could well be. Let me add one thing, I told you to ask the optician, on second thoughts I think a good foto shop would be more appropiate. And make sure they're for linear polarization, the circular ones used in photography don't suit here.

Bernhard

Post Reply Previous topicNext topic