Photomicrography

photomicrography

Photographing microscopic images. Like regular photography, photomicrography has transitioned from analog to digital.

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photomicrography [¦fōd·ō·mī′kräg·rə·fē]

(graphic arts)

The photography of the image formed by the microscope.

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Photomicrography 

still or motion-picture photography of objects at a magnification of 20–3,500 X with an optical microscope or up to 100,000 X with an electron microscope. Photomicrography is used to study the external appearance and structure of objects, and also processes that transpire within them. Therefore, it is widely used in science, technology, and agriculture as a method of objective documentation.

In photomicrography, the optical system of the microscope is controlled in a special way. The image is produced on a photo-sensitive material by the optical system of the microscope alone or by a system consisting of a microscope and the objective of a still or motion-picture camera. Photomicrography is frequently done with photomicrographic attachments (such as the MFN). Large research microscopes have built-in still cameras.

The simplest photomicrography unit is a combination of a microscope with a 16- or 35-mm motion-picture camera. Complex photomicrography units, such as the MKU, are manufactured for scientific research. The use in photomicrography of a broad variety of photosensitive materials, light filters, and special methods of lighting and filming, especially slow-motion filming, makes it possible to obtain images of the details of objects that are invisible during visual observations with a microscope, and also to accelerate slow processes during reproduction. In photomicrography using an electron microscope, the magnified ima2? is projected in an electron beam directly onto the photographic plate, which is located in a vacuum, or onto a fluorescent screen, from which the object is filmed with a still or motion-picture camera.

REFERENCES

Kudriashov, N. N., and B. A. Goncharov. Spetsial’nye vidy fotos”emki. Moscow, 1959.
Kudriashov, N. N. Kinos”emka v nauke i tekhnike. Moscow, 1960.
Kravchenko, A. T., V. N. Miliutin, and O. S. Gudima. Mikrokinos”emka v biologii. Moscow, 1963. (References.)
Fedin, L. A., and I. la. Barskii. Mikrofotografiia. Moscow, 1971. (References.)

I. B. MINENKOV