Maximum / Minimum intensity projection

Purpose

Maximum and Minimum projection display an entire image stack in a single plane. To display the projection, Stereo Investigator Whole Slide Edition 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).

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.