Making a scale bar

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Pat Thielen
Posts: 372
Joined: Sun May 08, 2016 5:02 am
Location: Saint Paul, Minnesota

Making a scale bar

#1 Post by Pat Thielen » Mon Apr 02, 2018 4:45 pm

Hey there!

I had posted this question to a group on Facebook and I'm still confused by it all. Some of you have these handy scale bars on your photos, which I think would be useful for my own work. The trouble is, I still am having trouble creating them. I have taken photos of my stage micrometer for each of my lenses, so that part is done. What I haven't figured out yet is how to actually create a template file that I can paste over the image I'm working on using a transparent layer. I've tried using the pen tool in Photoshop, but the line keeps disappearing when I save the .psd file. Any tips?

Thanks much!
Pat Thielen
Motic BA310, C & A Scientific Premiere SMZ-07, Swift Eleven-Ninety, Swift FM-31, Bausch & Lomb VM349, Olympus CHA
Nikon d810

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75RR
Posts: 8207
Joined: Sun Oct 12, 2014 2:34 am
Location: Estepona, Spain

Re: Making a scale bar

#2 Post by 75RR » Tue Apr 03, 2018 6:15 am

Try this: https://sciencetechblog.com/2011/08/19/ ... photoshop/
Actual steps seems to vary with the version of Photoshop one has.

Here is a youtube video on the steps to take in Vietnamese ;)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSmcHDAGuGo

I use a reticle and a stage micrometer to calculate the value of each division according to the magnification of the objective I am using.
It takes just a few seconds to pop the eyepiece (with the reticle) in and count how many divisions long or wide something is.
A simple multiplication with a calculator ;) and I have the size in Microns.
I then just state the size of the object along with the other details of the image - not a big fan of scale bars except on maps.
Zeiss Standard WL (somewhat fashion challenged) & Wild M8
Olympus E-P2 (Micro Four Thirds Camera)

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