Openlab is a camera capture software for Apple Macs. I don't recommend learning to use Openlab if you are a new user because development of the software stopped in 2010. The software still works on Macs running OSX up to and including version 10.6.8 but not newer versions, so if a computer running Openlab is replaced or if the version of OSX is upgraded then Openlab will stop working. In that situation you would then need to learn how to use another capture software. Any data you have in Openlab format can still be opened and converted into other formats using Fiji and other software.

Make sure the camera is switched on before opening Openlab, then click the Openlab icon in the dock.

The Openlab interface consists of a main menu, a document window and several free-floating palettes. The adjacent image shows the menu and document window. The document window has a bar on the left with tools that you can use to get a live preview (the screen icon), capture images (the camera icon), digitally zoom on images, colourise them, etc. Initially the document window will be empty but the live preview and captured images will appear in here. There should be a few free-floating palettes. The most important ones are the Video Contols and Layers palettes. If they aren't on the screen they might have been closed or minimised to icons at the bottom of the screen. You can open them again by going to Windows in the main menu and selecting Palettes. All the available palettes will appear in a drop-down list but you only need the ones I've mentioned.

There may also be floating 'palettes' the most important of which are the Video Controls and the Layers palettes. The Video Controls palette is where you set camera controls such as exposure, gain, etc. The exact controls in the palette will depend on the camera. The layers palette is where icons of your images appear as you capture them. It also allows you to select images to be colourised, merged or exported.