Micrograph



A micrograph or photomicrograph is a photograph or digital image taken through a microscope or similar device to show a magnified image of an item.

Micrographs are widely used in all fields of microscopy.

Photomicrograph
A light micrograph or photomicrograph is a micrograph prepared using a light microscope, a process referred to as photomicroscopy. At a basic level, photomicroscopy may be performed simply by hooking up a regular camera to a microscope, thereby enabling the user to take photographs at reasonably high magnification.

Roman Vishniac was a pioneer in the field of photomicroscopy, specializing in the photography of living creatures in full motion. He also made major developments in light-interruption photography and color photomicroscopy.

Electron micrograph
An electron micrograph is a micrograph prepared using an electron microscope. However, the term electron micrograph is not used in electron microscopy. Common designation is a micrograph.

Digital micrograph
Digital micrograph is a digital picture obtained either directly with microscope or by scanning of a photomicrograph. The terms usage is somewhat confusing, since today “photo” usually means digital photography anyway.

Magnification and Micron Bar
Micrographs usually have micron bars, or magnifications, or both. Magnification is a ratio between size of object on a picture and its real size. Unfortunately, magnification is somewhat a misleading parameter. It depends on a final size of a printed picture, and therefore varies with variation in picture size. Editors of Journals and Magazines routinely resize a figure to fit the page, making any magnification number provided in the figure legend incorrect. Scale Bar (or Micron Bar) is a bar of known length displayed on a picture. The bar can be used for measurements on a picture. When a picture is resized a bar is resized with also. If a picture has a bar, the right magnification can be easily calculated. Ideally, all pictures intending for publication/presentation should be supplied with a scale bar; magnification is optional. All but one (of a limestone) micrographs, presented on this page do not have a micron bar; supplied magnifications are the wrong ones (they were not calculated for pictures of present size).