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c10h12n2o
serial dilutor



Registered: 01/21/15
Posts: 3,200
Loc: the abyss
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Photographing Agar 1
#23469173 - 07/23/16 12:29 PM (7 years, 6 months ago) |
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Hello lovely people, I just noticed that there isnt a comprehensive thread on photographing agar / petri dishes, so i figured i would share a few things i have learned. Any additional info is very welcome! i hope this thread is useful to others new to photographing agar, and i hope to learn from people with more experience
Like many people, when i first started trying to photograph agar plates, i got horrible results that looked nothing like what i was seeing. So I read around for a while and learned two things that greatly improved my shots:
Quote:
RogerRabbit said: Holding a dish to the light is one way as shown on the left below. Another is to simply put your light source at a 45 degree angle to the top of the petri dish so that the light doesn't reflect back up to your camera lens as shown on the right below. RR
So I started taking photos in sets including a backlit shot and also a shot sitting on a black surface with the light held at different angles, like this:
 better, but still not pretty
one of the threads discussing this, a user mentioned light boxes. Upon further investigation i found that these are indispensable for photographing agar.
A light box is like what the dentists use to show you xrays, and like an architect uses to trace drafting work. It can be thick or thin depending on light source and application, and some are huge. They allow you to evenly light your plates from behind, making photos show myc well even when there is some condensation on the plate's lid

you can easily make a small lightbox by placing a round LED touch light (or any other flat light) inside a small clear plastic container (like this) 
alternatively, you can build a nicer one using led strips and a small power supply + plexiglass (link to that guid), or you could buy one already made.
I found several lightboxes on craigslist cheap (search "tracing box", "light box", "lightbox", and "tracing pad"), but they all were quite large. I will probably build a custom one into my SAB at some point, but for now i ordered this crayola tracing pad from amazon:

this crayola tracing pad has worked great and greatly improved the quality of my shots. But what seems to improve it the most is enabling manual focus with the micro focus feature (which zooms in on something so that you can fine-tune the focus), which allowed me to focus on the myc, whereas the autofocus kept trying to refocus on the dish lid or something else.

Another useful trick is holding a magnifying glass up to the dish and refocusing the camera through that, though it can get tricky to hold a light, at 45 degrees magnifying glass, and manually focus

so the main things i have learned: 1. use a tripod if possible 2. use manual settings if possible (low aperture, long exposure time, remote shutter or selfie timer to reduce vibration) 3. take shots against different backgrounds: backlight, and also against a solid surface (many like black) 4. use a lightbox for backlit shots when possible 5. either set a custom white balance using a sheet of paper, or touch up the white balance in photoshop/camera raw 6. Often auto ISO settings will be way too high. its hard to see while taking the shots, so adjust this after the fact in photoshop. often i find that as i scale back the ISO a lot more clarity shows up in the myc (sectors, type of growth, etc) 7. a magnifying glass can aid in macro shots, but be sure to refocus
any additional tips or ideas are welcome!
warm regards
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  C10's Agar Guide + Tips and Tricks | c10's Flow Hood Build Guide "Partial knowledge is more triumphant than complete knowledge; it takes things to be simpler than they are, and so makes its theory more popular and convincing." "Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies" ― Friedrich Nietzsche
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PrimalSoup
hyperspatial illuminations



Registered: 11/17/09
Posts: 13,568
Loc: PNW
Last seen: 1 year, 5 months
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Re: Photographing Agar [Re: c10h12n2o]
#23469371 - 07/23/16 01:44 PM (7 years, 6 months ago) |
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if you stand too close to the machine it'll start to eat youPrimal's simple tested teks and projects: Wheat Prep 2.0 Acidic Tea Tek Potency Project!
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c10h12n2o
serial dilutor



Registered: 01/21/15
Posts: 3,200
Loc: the abyss
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looks like there is something shiny on top of that plate
beautiful growth
that agar in the grain jar pic in your sig looks ravenous
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  C10's Agar Guide + Tips and Tricks | c10's Flow Hood Build Guide "Partial knowledge is more triumphant than complete knowledge; it takes things to be simpler than they are, and so makes its theory more popular and convincing." "Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies" ― Friedrich Nietzsche
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PrimalSoup
hyperspatial illuminations



Registered: 11/17/09
Posts: 13,568
Loc: PNW
Last seen: 1 year, 5 months
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Re: Photographing Agar [Re: c10h12n2o]
#23470333 - 07/23/16 07:15 PM (7 years, 6 months ago) |
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Yeah it was some hungry PE jumping off there. 
Some people add food coloring to the agar to get better contrast.
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if you stand too close to the machine it'll start to eat youPrimal's simple tested teks and projects: Wheat Prep 2.0 Acidic Tea Tek Potency Project!
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c10h12n2o
serial dilutor



Registered: 01/21/15
Posts: 3,200
Loc: the abyss
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beautiful thats quite an ambitious piece of agar 
i forgot to mention food coloring! I actually just started doing that, and using a different color for each agar recipe. It really helps the myc stick out. i will take some pics of my current set of transfers to show the difference
edit:
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  C10's Agar Guide + Tips and Tricks | c10's Flow Hood Build Guide "Partial knowledge is more triumphant than complete knowledge; it takes things to be simpler than they are, and so makes its theory more popular and convincing." "Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies" ― Friedrich Nietzsche
Edited by c10h12n2o (07/23/16 07:58 PM)
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