Criteria for EBSP selection can be one or a mixture of:
* Selecting from points with low GND density or low Kernel average misorientation (KAM) based on the Hough measured local grain misorientations;
* Selecting from points with high image quality (IQ), which may have a low defect density within its electron interaction volume, is therefore assumed to be a low-strained region of a polycrystalline material. However, IQ does not carry a clear physical meaning, and the magnitudes of the measured relative lattice distortion are insensitive to the IQ of EBSP;
* EBSP can also be manually selected to be far from potential stress concentrations such as grain boundaries, inclusions, or cracks using subjective criteria;
* Selecting an EBSP after examining the empirical relationship between the cross-correlation parameter and angular error, used in an iterative algorithm to identify the optimal reference pattern that maximises the precision of HR-EBSD.
These criteria assume these parameters can indicate the strain conditions at the reference point, which can produce an accurate measurements of up to 3.2×10 elastic strain. However, experimental measurements point to the inaccuracy of HR-EBSD in determining the out-of-plane shear strain components distribution and magnitude.