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Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Sat Sep 14, 2019 1:56 pm
by Roldorf
Sweet Basil growing wild in the garden must have seeded itself from last year (we never planted it).

Pollen is an unusual shape:-

Edit included stem cross section

Image

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Sat Sep 14, 2019 2:07 pm
by mrsonchus
A nice image too. That is an unusual surface, it seems to have depressions with little 'peaks'.
I''ll look it up and see what they are if possible.

Another nice interesting post my friend. :)

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Sat Sep 14, 2019 3:21 pm
by Roldorf
Hi John,
That's what I thought and the reason I decided to post it. I checked it out on PalDat and it looks exactly the same. The image under the scope was much clearer unfortunately the stack didn't turn out as good, I think I rushed it a bit. (was so excited Ha :D )

Reminded me of a pineapple.

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Sat Sep 14, 2019 3:35 pm
by mrsonchus
Have you snuk-in that nice stem section.... :D

Yes I also had a peek, it's a distinctive grain once seen.

Good post as always Roldorf.

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Sat Sep 14, 2019 4:24 pm
by david_b
Roldorf wrote:
Fri Jul 19, 2019 2:02 pm
Yes if I could donate (to Micam) with anything other than PayPal, I would have done it, a very nice piece of software.

Pollen from Nasturtium but not Nasturtium:
Possibly common ragwort?

http://www.northumbrianbees.co.uk/polle ... -jacobaea/

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Sat Sep 14, 2019 6:01 pm
by Roldorf
Hi David_b

Thanks for the suggestion of ragweed. It was (and is) the correct flowering time for them, however from what I could find on the internet the Ragweed pollen is only 15-25 um in diameter which would rule out this enormous grain. If I am wrong on the size please let me know.
I have to admit it does look like them.

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Tue Sep 17, 2019 6:32 pm
by Roldorf
Out in the forest on Sunday and found this. It's amazing how many plants were used for medical purposes in the past.


Image

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Mon Oct 14, 2019 3:46 pm
by Roldorf
Almost run out of flowers but found this one in the forest while looking for mushrooms and interesting stones.

Image

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Mon Oct 14, 2019 4:01 pm
by mrsonchus
What a beautiful little plant! I like the hidden pollen-grains too.
Nicely-done.

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Wed Oct 16, 2019 2:54 pm
by Roldorf
More from our garden. This plant is on the black list for invasive species in Germany, maybe I should pull it out, only its so pretty (I think I probably have the wrong identification ;) )

Image

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2020 8:00 pm
by Roldorf
First one of the year, from the garden of course. It took me four hours to remember how I combined the images and still haven't remembered the whole thing try again tomorrow with a different plant :-

Image

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2020 12:56 pm
by Roldorf
A favorite among children at this time of year (me included). This growing in the cobbles in our garden is however the biggest I have ever seen at 153 cm.

Image


Sorry no crossections as I didn't want to maul such a magnificent specimen. :(

As usual you can see the image in all it's glory by clicking on it. :D

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2020 10:25 pm
by mrsonchus
Very nice - a superb image of the foxglove.
I like the presentation very much, with the example pollen-grain included.
Nicely-done!

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2020 2:21 pm
by Roldorf
Another from our garden.

Image

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2020 2:28 pm
by Roldorf
As I was stacking the pollen images I came across a peculiar thing with Photoshop.

It would seem that PS increases the size of the image by 50%. I had wanted to put some comparison image stacks from Picolay, Photoshop and CombineZP. When I came to measure the pollen grains with Micam after stacking I noticed that the size on CombineZP and the Picolay images were the same, however the stacked image from Photoshop showed a 50% increase compared to the others, 21 micros as opposed to 32 in photoshop.

So:- I am now going to grab some images of my grad scale stack and compare.

Anyone else noticed this?

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2020 3:08 pm
by Roldorf
Ok it's done here are the results:- All use the same 4 images from the microscope.

Image

CombineZP


Image

Picolay


Image

Photoshop

It would seem that Photoshop showing a distance of 76 um which should be 50 um is as I suspected scaling the image by 50% when stacking or saving.

CombineZP and Picolay both show the correct size and do not scale the image.


So 'Be warned' if you need to measure after stacking be careful which software you use.

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2020 7:27 pm
by Mraster2
I dont know Micam or Photoshop but is it significant that Ps is rotated 90deg cf the other two ?
How does micam do its pixel counting, is there an aspect ratio problem maybe.

Just throwing out wild guesses !

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2020 9:33 pm
by Roldorf
I had the same questions, which is why I used the microscope calibration slide.

I didn't rotate any of the images, they are as they came from the camera and as the program's display them, but you are correct the original images are in portrait mode (and show as that on the windows properties details 3456x5184 pixels), even though the camera was in landscape mode when the images were taken.
Micam is a software program for Microscope Image Capture and Measurement hence the name MICAM. The main function is to measure, enhance and document images (I stack them first in other software (Photoshop, CombineZP, Picolay) then import them into Micam for documentation purposes, this is where I measure the pollen grains and where I found the discrepancy in Photoshop. It makes no difference which way round the images are, it still shows the 50% increase in size.

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2020 9:42 pm
by Roldorf
My next step is to use a single image in photoshop make a small edit then save it to see if it distorts it, a task for tomorrow.

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2020 10:16 pm
by Mraster2
yes, sorry, I was a bit brief in my reply, what I meant was that although I knew of those two progs. I didnt know them intimately through use, nor how they went about things, their assumptions etc.

I have only just started measuring things in my imaging (having only just discovered a stage graticule in the box of bits that I inherited !)
Simply experimenting with an image of the scale (taken with the same settings etc !!) overlaid in a partially transparent layer in Gimp on top of my pollen images. Then constructing by hand a line or other marker if I want to keep a record of it on the image.

I am interested in your findings, I do have Micam downloaded (just rountuit problems ;) ), so thanks, I will be paying it close attention in my Picolay etc.

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Wed Jun 03, 2020 5:17 am
by Roldorf
No Stack just a single image with text added edited in Photoshop CS4. Should read 50um still the 50% increase.

Now back to images of pollen.



Image

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Wed Jun 03, 2020 10:07 am
by MichaelG.
Just came across this excellent paper from the ‘Journal of Pollen Ecology”

https://www.pollinationecology.org/inde ... h%5B%5D=57

... duly downloaded for more careful study.

MichaelG.

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Wed Jun 03, 2020 11:08 am
by Roldorf
Hi thanks for that.

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Wed Jun 03, 2020 12:39 pm
by 75RR
Roldorf wrote:
Tue Jun 02, 2020 9:33 pm
I had the same questions, which is why I used the microscope calibration slide.

I didn't rotate any of the images, they are as they came from the camera and as the program's display them, but you are correct the original images are in portrait mode (and show as that on the windows properties details 3456x5184 pixels), even though the camera was in landscape mode when the images were taken.
Micam is a software program for Microscope Image Capture and Measurement hence the name MICAM. The main function is to measure, enhance and document images (I stack them first in other software (Photoshop, CombineZP, Picolay) then import them into Micam for documentation purposes, this is where I measure the pollen grains and where I found the discrepancy in Photoshop. It makes no difference which way round the images are, it still shows the 50% increase in size.
I wonder if the problem might be that you are reducing the width (3456) to 1202 and the height (5184) to 800 rather than the other way around.

i.e. try reducing the side that is 5184 to 1202 and the one that is 3456 to 800.

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Wed Jun 03, 2020 1:05 pm
by mrsonchus
When calibrating the measurement system with MICAM and indeed with ToupView, which is also able to measure images not captured with the program, the pixels per inch value is the factor that sets the measurement calibrations per defined objective....
So, if the PPI value is different from when measurement is defined for a particular objective, the measurement will be wrong.

I don't know if this helps, but this is what I've experienced, and setting the PPI did correct the problem when I measured an imported image with ToupView.

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Wed Jun 03, 2020 3:40 pm
by Roldorf
More tests. :geek:

Hi 75rr and John the image that I used comes direct from the camera and is 3456 x 5184 at 72x72 dpi and was the same for Picolay and CombineZP. It opens in Photoshop at the correct size and resolution. Saving the image saves it at it's original size. All of the images are in portrait mode.
When opening the images in CombineZP and Picolay they are automatically rotated counterclockwise into landscape mode, I have no idea why. After stacking they show the correct sizes in Micam 2.4.
If I rotate the image CCW in Photoshop and save it, when opening the image in Micam and measuring it shows the correct dimension. :?: :?: :?: :?: :?:
I have just opened the previously dimensioned Photoshop edit no stack, rotated 90CCW, saved, opened in Micam put in a new dimension and GUESS WHAT:-

Image


However I still don't understand what is happening. :evil: :evil: :evil:

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Wed Jun 03, 2020 3:47 pm
by Roldorf
Photoshop must put some kind of marker in the file that causes Micam to open it as displayed in Photshop, whereas an image opened in Micam from Combine ZP Picolay or direct from the camera gets rotated 90 CCW. Rotating the previous image by 90 brings back the 75. Rotating it 180 brings it back to 50 clockwise or counterclockwise.
So in conclusion it must be the 2:3 ratio in the camera that causes the problem with Photoshop and Micam.

Glad I sorted that out. :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2020 6:11 pm
by Roldorf
One from the garden amazing how many plants are used for medicinal purposes.

Image

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Sun Jun 14, 2020 5:31 am
by MichaelG.
Here’s a fascinating little story for Hay Fever sufferers:
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/hay-fev ... =applenews

MichaelG.

Re: Pollen. There's lots of it about.

Posted: Sun Jun 14, 2020 1:21 pm
by Roldorf
An update on the foxglove growing in our back garden. When I did the first post it was 153 cm tall. It is now 184cm and still has half the flower stack to blume.