Technical Image Analysis w/ PS

[lokki]

I posted this in another forum, but didn't get very far, so I figured I'd try here =)

I am looking for some good resources on using PS as a technical image analysis tool, especially taking calibrated length measurements and placing calibration marks.

Also, I need some info on reducing the steps to as few as possible. Perhaps using actions? The idea is to set up a few basic, routine tasks that can be accomplished by people with extremely little computer knowledge, and *no* experience w/ PS.

...anyone got something like this up their sleeve??

Thanks!!

[Raphael]

Lokki,

I think the reason that this didn't get very far in the other thread is because, we mere mortals don't understand enough about what you want to do.

How accurate is your scanning process?

What, exactly are you wanting to do? (Try posting some examples of before/after)

What specific things are you wanting of PS.

Give us details. (In lay terms please)

We probably still won't be able to help, but at least we'll know for sure.;}

}Raphael{

[lokki]

I guess this is one of those circumstances where I am too close to the problem, so I forget to relay it's import and scope. 8)2

...duh...

Ok, here's round 2;

I am using a digital camera mounted on a microscope to capture images (micrographs) of polished/etched metals at fairly high magnification (25x - 500x range)%0. Part of analyzing these images is knowing the sizes of objects or artifacts, so I need to calibrate using a known standard, and then place that calibration mark on the image to be analyzed. The other part is making scientifically 'legal' image corrections to enhance specific aspects, but I'll save that for another thread. For now, I need to calibrate :)

For example, I have a glass slide with a millimeter-long ruler etched into it. That millimeter is divided into exactly 100 segments. If I take a picture of it at 100x, I can reasonably see 20 segments, so I take a pixel measurement and associate, say, 1358 pixels to 0.2 millimeters. Do the same for other magnifications, and you have a set of calibrations (which eventually get converted to more suitable units).

So far, I have created a custom brush for one of the magnifications, but PS doesn't let me have a nice scheme for choosing brushes based on name (not that I've found, anyway). The people I work with aren't savvy enough to open the brushes menu and choose the right size (don't laugh...).

Ultimately, I'd like to be able to open PS, have a default action (only one) that will ask for magnification and colour, and paste the appropriately-sized 'stamp' on a new layer. After that, they usually just convert the RGB image to greyscale (though I finally convinced them to convert to gs *AFTER* doing other corrections - this only took 9 months...).

The rest of the colour correction and 'cleaning up' I can teach them incrementally. For now, I need to get them used to using PS, and to condense the requisite procedures down to one or two clicks.

About the example pics... I can't post most of what we actually work on, but I will try and take some representative pictures and post them this coming week. For now, you can get a vague idea here:
http://metallography.com/pictures.htm. These are not my pictures, nor is it my site f|

[Raphael]

So, what your saying Lokki is that you've got access to some REALLY cool textures to play with.;}

Sorry, couldn't resist. Those look great for playing with in comp images.

Anyway, I think I see what your after. I'll give it some thought. But I'm sure someone else who uses Actions and Batch Commands will be able to answer better than I.

}Raphael{

[sPECtre]

I once have seen a technical plug-in for photoshop, but it was for professionals 5the price was, at least, one more thing to search...

What, Raphael, you , a Mortal?

[Raphael]

Right Lokki,

If I've got this right you've already got your magnifications already (as brushes) so what I think you may be after is:

Save the magnifications as seperate .psd files within a folder somewhere on each hard drive.

Then create an action for each magnification. That goes something like:

OPEN {pick file from saved magnification}

SELECT ALL

COPY

CLOSE

PASTE

Put a stop in here with a message like "Position the Magnification"

Make sure 'allow continue' is NOT checked.

They'll need to restart the action once they've positioned the layer. (I hope you can teach them to use the Move tool.)

FLATTEN IMAGE

Then some form of save maybe or whatever else you need to do to these things.

Then set all your savvy-less people's action palettes to 'button mode'.

Hope that helps and I haven't got what you were after completely wrong.:)))

}Raphael{

PS. Pierre, I was talking in general terms.;}

[markzebra]

Hmmm ..

What your "callibrations" seem to be are measurements of scale. Am I right?

So for every .01 millimetre (a hunredth of your 1 mm ruler) you want to know how many pixels compose that length?

Have you considered RESAMPLING the images to a consistant resolution - which will mean that every image has the same pixel/millimeter ratio? Its very easy to set up actions for this kind of thing

A custom brush probably won't be your answer - your better off using rescalable vector Shape layers for your calibration rulers. you can save these in your custom shapes palette. They can also be pasted in as part of your action. I have attached a custom shape to show you how this would work. Just load it into PS in the normal way.

download the shape file (http://members.aol.com/markzebra/displace/callib-ruler.csh)

[sPECtre]

http://www.reindeergraphics.com/index.html

they seem to produce some professional class plug-ins for image analysis.

they've got a free plug-in to enhance contrasts, with a pdf explaining how it works... and how serious they sound :D
And also a free special custom plug-in.
Hope it'll help.

Raphael, you're killing me (well, it's ALSO an expression ;) )

[lokki]

Nessie - I forgot about custom shapes; that looks like a potential solution for some other projects I have coming up, too.

...however...

Pierre - you're gonna laugh...

I enrolled in an image analysis class for this coming June. When I called the number on that website, I found out that they are the ones putting on the class! I had the solution right under my nose, and it took someone across the ocean to point it out :)

ça marche!

merci!!!

[sPECtre]

In some ways, That's PsT ...