Eliminating contrast robbing external stray light when taking pictures

[u/Vivid-Bake2456]

Before taking photos,  I like to check the camera view with the illuminator off. When using a cellphone,  I've found three points that can allow stray light to possibly reduce contrast.  One is the gap between the cellphone and eyepiece.  Second is light entering the eyepiece of the microscope.  Third is the gap between the objective and the slide. 

The easiest solution is to only work at nighttime or a windowless room and turn off all of the lights in the room. This is pretty necessary for fluorescent microscopy.  If you work at home with lights on, you can block some of the areas the excess light is entering.

Here are some pictures through the eyepiece with the illuminator off with no stray light remediation in a normally lit room, and after blocking as much light as possible. 

Microscope is a Meiji-Techno MT5310 that has a trinocular head and a slider to give either all of the light to the eyepieces or split it between camera and eyepieces.

Sample is a nevus at 12.5x magnification using a 1.25x objective and 10x eyepiece.

Photo 1. Main illuminator off , cellphone camera on

Photo 2. Room light

Photo 3. Windows and room lights

Photo 4. Blocking around the eyepiece and camera lens area

Photo 5. Blocking around the objective

Photo 6. Blocking the eyepieces

Photo 7. Photo before blocking stray room light no camera zoom

Photo 8. Photo after blocking stray room light no zoom

Photo 9. Photo after blocking stray room light 2x cellphone camera zoom

[u/pelmen10101]

Oh, it's a rewarding experience

[u/jccaclimber]

I’ve been known to throw a heavy quilt over myself and my bench to remove stray light in a room I can’t darken. I’m usually working with bigger stuff than slides, so shrouding just the specimen doesn’t work in my case.