Maximum / Minimum intensity projection

Purpose

Maximum and Minimum projection display an entire image stack in a single plane. To display the projection, Neurolucida software identifies the maximum (or minimum) intensity value of each pixel along the z axis for projection onto the 2D plane.

Use the Maximum intensity projection with light-on-dark images (e.g., fluorescence)

Use Minimum intensity projection with dark-on-light images (e.g., brightfield).

If you perform any image adjustment on a projection (max/min projection, or deep focus), you'll need to toggle the projection off and then back on in order to refresh the projection image.

How it works

Maximum and Minimum projection identifies the maximum (or the minimum) intensity value of each pixel along the z axis is projected onto the 2D plane, whereas Deep focus identifies the pixels with the highest sharpness value.

See Deep Focus for a similar, alternative method.

Procedure

Displaying Min or Max Projection

The Min and Max Projection buttons toggle the minimum- or maximum-projection effect on and off.

  • Click the Min (or Max) projection button, located in the View section of the Image ribbon, to display the projection rather than the original image.
  • To view the original image stack again, click the Min (or Max) projection button again.

Saving a Min or Max Projection

You can save the projection image using either of the following equivalent methods:

  1. Go to File > Save As > Image

    Go to File > Save As > Image Stack > Current Plane

    You will get a warning message that you are saving only one image of the image stack; that's exactly what you want to do when saving a Max/Min Projection, so click ok to close the warning window.

  2. In the Save As window that opens, indicate the desired file name and location, then click Save.