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Here's another case study.

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I simply put two pieces
of paper overlapping.

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These papers are used for
particular medical analysis.

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So I captured it, once again,
at a very high resolution,

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so that as we zoom
into the image,

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we can actually see the
fibers in the paper.

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Here's an image where I
added background color.

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Now, I'm not changing
the important information

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in the image-- the structure.

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The structure is the data.

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I'm just adding an
additional component

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to allow the viewer to
see the material better.

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We'll be looking at adding
backgrounds in the how to do it

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section.

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I want to spend a few
minutes on backgrounds.

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I am a bit of a
background collector.

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And, frankly, I think
you should be one, too.

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Really, it helps a lot
to imagine your images,

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even while you're not
even working on it.

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Whenever some interesting
envelope or card

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arrives in my mailbox, I
keep it, believe it or not,

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thinking that it might
help with an image one day.

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Or platters.

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Or wired thingies.

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Anything that might be
appropriate for a background

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for small devices.

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And besides, it's
fun to think about.

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So let's take a look
at one particular idea.

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Take this simple graph paper,
which I tried as a background

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for this device.

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Looks OK.

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Here I tried some bubble
wrap, of all things.

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Definitely over the top,
and doesn't work quite well.

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There should be some sort of
intelligent visual connection

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between your device
and your background,

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and bubble wrap
doesn't quite cut it.

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In the end I finally landed
on using simple green paper

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with this device.

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And because the
image was captured

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with the scanner sitting
at a high resolution--

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it was about a 400-meg file--
I was able to zoom in, crop,

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and finalize the image.

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I think that both the
simple colored background

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and the composition works.

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Here we see three
microfluidic devices,

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which I initially lined
up in a pretty boring way,

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as you see here.

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And once again, I'm always
playing with composition,

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so what I did was I used
two of them instead.

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Just the two of
them really visually

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say what you need to say.

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We don't need three.

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You might think about
that in your own work.

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So I captured it at a
very high resolution,

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putting the devices
on an angle--

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a much more interesting
composition.

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And because of the
high resolution,

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I was able to zoom in
and crop the image.

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Now, watch what happens when
I enhance the image using

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a sharpening tool.

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We'll talk about sharpening
images in the how to do it

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section.

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This is an important technique.

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The sharpening filter is
not changing your data.

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If your data is about
form and structure,

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it's permitting you
and your viewers

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to see the image clearly.

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But whenever any of
these filters are used,

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it's imperative
to always indicate

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the process in the caption.

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Something that I
encourage you to consider.

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Because I captured this
at such a high resolution,

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we can zoom in and see
30-micron structure.

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Here is again.

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First, the original image.

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And here it is sharpened, where
you can really see the detail.

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It's pretty neat.

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So this is our first week,
imaging with a flatbed scanner.

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Think about it.

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It's not an expensive
piece of equipment,

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and if used properly, you can
achieve high-quality images

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without spending an
inordinate amount of time.

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In the next weeks, we'll
talk about cameras,

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lenses, lighting, approaches
to imaging science

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and engineering.

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We'll also discuss
how to graphically use

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these images for figures
and potential cover designs.

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So lots more ahead, and
I look forward to it.