Bio 236: Plant Biology

Digital Video Recording with NIH Software




HH 104 is an Imaging Lab that is for use by students enrolled in upper-level Biology courses. This lab contains 6 computer workstations, 5 of which have video camera attachments to B-MAX compound microscopes and one of which has a camera attachment to an Olympus SZH dissecting microscope with fiber optic illumination. You can also grab images from the Elmo unit in our lab. This setup allows you to capture only in black and white, but will be quite sufficient for collecting data on tomato gravitropic and phototropic respones. Using the software program NIH Image, you will be able to transfer images from the microscopes to the computer. You will also be able to manipulate these images in various ways using NIH Image and Adobe Photoshop (on the computers in BSB 104 and the CMC lMac Lab. The following brief set of instructions will enable you to perform basic operations with each software program. Manuals for each program are available in the imaging lab for explanations of more advanced imaging techniques. Storing your images on the server Etienne will allow you to access them from any networked machine equipped with NIH image and/or Etienne.

Using NIH Imaging
  1. An alias for NIH Image (look for the black microscope) should be on the right side of the desktop. If it is, double click on the icon to open the application. If the alias is missing, you can open the application by opening any of your NIH Image files or by directly opening the application file, which is located in the NIH Image v.1.57 folder in the Imaging Software folder on the hard drive.
  2. To start capturing an image, use the mouse to drag down to "Start Capturing" in Special. You will then get a live, B & W image. Scan the specimen for the field of view you wish to save, make final focus adjustments, and drag down to "Stop Capturing" under Special. The image is now frozen and can be treated like any computer file - saved, text added, etc. If you like the image and want to save it, read the accompanying handout on Accessing the College Server for instructions on how and where to save your images.
  3. If you want to save a color image, repeat the first part of step #2. Once you have made the adjustments to your live B & W image, drag down to "Capture Color" under Stacks to acquire the color image. Capturing in color immediately freezes the image - it is not possible to get a live color image using NIH Image. Even with the black and white capture equipment it is possible to use color. Ask us for help if you'd like to try this.
  4. Once you have a frozen image, you can then manipulate it in several ways. Many manipulations, such as adding text and drawing lines, can be done with either B & W or color images using the Tool bar to the left of your screen. You can also use the Tool bar in conjunction with other functions under "Analyze" and "Stacks" to perform quantitative analyses of your B & W images, make movies, etc. Some of these exercises will be demonstrated in lab. For the tomato lab you may want to use the angle measurement instead of a protractor. Later in the term we will work on more NIH image applications.
  5. The capabilities of NIH Image for working with color images is quite limited. However, the software application Adobe Photoshop allows you to get very creative with color images. Therefore, I recommend taking color images over to Photoshop as soon as you have grabbed them with Image, since I have been told that even those manipulations one can do with Image are easier to do in Photoshop.
  6. You will be shown some of the things Photoshop can do in lab. Currently, there is only one copy of Photoshop for student use, which is on computer #1 in HH 104. Very shortly, though, we will have additional (expanded) copies on all three Power AV Macs in HH 104, as well as on the Power Mac that will be located in BSB 202.
  7. To transfer color images from NIH Image to Photoshop, proceed as follows:
  8. The Image files are saved as Indexed Color files. To work with these images in Photoshop, you will need to change them to RGB (red-green-blue) images. Do this by highlighting "RGB color" under "Mode."
  9. The image will get grainier. However, when you are done manipulating the images, you can switch them back to Indexed Color. To do so, select "Indexed Color" under "Mode", which will open a window. The settings in this window should be "Adaptive" under "Palette", "8 bit" under "Resolution", and "None" under "Dither".
  10. It is not possible to paste text into Adobe Photoshop directly from MS Word (this is possible with NIH Image, though). So, you will have to type in any text in your Photoshop files with the Photoshop typing tool.
  11. Keep in mind that if you make a montage (either in B&W in Image or color in Photoshop), your text will shrink when the figure shrinks. So either make your text /lines, etc. bigger to start with or send over the original file with full-size text along with the montage (so I can read it).


Return to Bio 236 Home Page.