Euastrum (oblongum ?), small stack with MicropicS 2.10

Gerd · Post by **Gerd** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 2:20 pm

spring colour is green !
Euastrum from a Garden pond.
6 pictures stacked with MicropicS (http://www.bewie.de/Download/MicroPicS/000_Einstieg.htm),
a German stacking software of Dr. B. Wiedemann.
Objective 40x, DIC, flash.
Thanks,
Gerd

Frez · Post by **Frez** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 5:13 pm

Hi Gerd

Very beautiful! Desmids are so nice to image. It does look like E. oblongum. It also looks like an aerial photograph of a tropical island. A nice place to visit.

Frez

Ken Ramos · Post by **Ken Ramos** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 5:37 pm

Reminds me of "Gummy Bears" Gerd but I am sure they would not taste the same. Gummy Bears and little bear shaped candies here.

Beautiful shot!

Wim van Egmond · Post by **Wim van Egmond** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 1:48 am

Very nice result Gerd! That software works very good. I have not stacked desmids yet but I am looking foward to do the smaller threedimensional species liek Staurastrum.

It could well be E. oblongum but I know that there are some very similar species. Please take a look at this site:
http://www.desmids.nl/maand/english/0603_marcheng.html

Wim

Charles Krebs · Post by **Charles Krebs** » Fri Apr 07, 2006 10:35 pm

Very nice Gerd! I downloaded the program, but my very rudimentary German would not allow me to get very far with it. How do you think it compares to Helicon Focus and CombineZ?

Gerd · Post by **Gerd** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 3:43 pm

Hi Charly,
sorry for my late response, i had been away from home for some days....
There is a new version of micropicS available (2.10), B.Wiedemann implemented
some improvement on the stacking section of this program.
http://www.mikroskop.info/indexx.php?Ha ... dunkel.php
The history of this program based on the desire to create a picture browser
for individual use. In his occupation as a technology writer in life sciences he developed
this program for his personal use. So the GUI of this program us quite unusual, he prefers drag and drop, and
you have to do a lot of trying until the program does, what you have expected....

Step by step the author added several functions of image editing like colour management,
contrast enhancement and so on. When i met him in Darmstadt 2005, ( http://www.lebendkulturen.de/Divers/Tre ... fen05.html )
he had implemented a stacking capability comparable to CombineZ, ver.3. The stacking results were
a little bit rough with the typical artifacts of the hard stacking methods. I showed him the easy handling
of Heliconfocus and he was very interested to implement the easy handling into his program.
So version 2.10 was developed. The stacking section is completely new with the ability of a one push
stacking, comparable to Heliconfocus with several default settings like micro, macro and so on.
There is the possibility to edit the computed sharpness masks or to export them into Photoshop as well.
Several screws to tune, even more than in CombineZ. However, it's all in German language.....
The computing time is comparable with CombineZ, 20 pics take 15 min to compute (3000x2000 pix).
Gerd

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 4:59 pm

Gerd,

I'm presuming there is some reason other than language that you are using micropicS instead of Helicon Focus or CombineZ5. Maybe you are testing for a friend, or maybe just curious, or maybe you have found something micropicS does better than the others, or maybe something else I haven't thought of.

If there is something that micropicS does better, even if you're not sure why, I would be interested to know about it.

I do know that between Helicon Focus and CombineZ5, sometimes one gives better result and sometimes the other. But after a year of use, I still find it hard to predict which one will win. So for difficult stuff, I run both and pick the better result. Should I consider adding micropicS to the mix too?

--Rik

Gerd · Post by **Gerd** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 2:45 pm

Hi Rik,
I'm still a beginner in using micropicS, so i can't evaluate the details of this program.
The mean reasons for using it are: it is in German language, the author is a friend of mine, it is
freeware, there are useful default settings, you can use it with photoshop as you described it
for CombineZ on your website. I agree in your workflow for stacking, i always use all programs and then
take the best result. Nothing more and nothing less....

Gerd

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 6:53 pm

Sounds good, thanks for the info!
--Rik