This guide was made specifically for Leica programs and microscopes. The microscope we used to create this how-to guide is the Leica M205 C, consisting of z-stacking capabilities and a motorized column for effortless imaging.
The Image Tab
This tab has two categories of settings: Standard and Advanced. It is important to understand all settings in this tab, as they will help the user take high-quality images on the Leica M205 C.
The Standard settings tab controls exposure, gain, contrast, and saturation.
Exposure is the amount of light that reaches the camera’s sensor. This critical element controls how bright or dark the specimen is. Higher exposure can allow the camera to pick up more detail, but be careful not to overexpose your specimen (see Section 4).
Gain produces more noise or grain in the image, meaning less detail! (We want to be able to see as many details as possible)
You will see 6 symbols under the Standard settings.
The first one is the Auto-Exposure button. When selected, the program will choose an exposure based on the specimen you placed under the microscope. You can then adjust the Brightness. This can be a great tool if the user’s understanding of exposure is limited. Note that auto-exposure works best when using a white background. For a dark background, we recommend manually adjusting the exposure.
The next one is the Histogram, which controls the amount of contrast in the image.
Contrast is the ratio of different tones in an image. It indicates the depths of blacks and is important for image quality. This affects the clarity, colors and textures in a photo.
A high contrast ratio makes the blacks darker, which can improve the image quality. That said, too high of a contrast ratio can make the image oversaturated with black.
A low contrast ratio does the opposite. It creates an image that lacks blacks, color, and texture, which can look dull.
You can use the horizontal and vertical sliders to manipulate the histogram. Note: We recommend only using the vertical slider, as the horizontal slider seems to create a bug in the software when taking images. Most seeds will look their most realistic with a contrast set between 0.50 and 0.70.
The Show/Hide Preview button opens a separate dialog window, ‘Image Previews,’ where preview images for your specimen are displayed using various settings.
This can take time, depending on the exposure time and image size. We recommend to avoid pressing it.
Color controls enable users to control an image’s color, saturation, and white balance.
The color wheel on the left-hand side allows the user to add tones of any color to an image.
Saturation is the density/strength of color in an image. Increasing the saturation will increase the intensity of color, making the image appear more vivid. Saturation levels between 25 and 30 tend to look most natural.
White balance establishes the true color of white in an image. It adjusts various colors to make the image look more natural. To use this function, slide a plain white piece of paper under the Microscope and click the button. The software will white-balance the image.
The next button corrects and controls shading at the edge of the field of view. It is not necessary for our purposes.
This last button opens the camera preferences. Below are the settings we use.