Photoinhibition can be measured from isolated thylakoid membranes or their subfractions, or from intact cyanobacterial cells by measuring the light-saturated rate of oxygen evolution in the presence of an artificial electron acceptor (quinones and dichlorophenol-indophenol have been used).
The degree of photoinhibition in intact leaves can be measured using a fluorimeter to measure the ratio of variable to maximum value of chlorophyll a fluorescence (F/F). This ratio can be used as a proxy of photoinhibition because more energy is emitted as fluorescence from Chlorophyll a when many excited electrons from PSII are not captured by the acceptor and decay back to their ground state.
When measuring F/F, the leaf must be incubated in the dark for at least 10 minutes, preferably longer, before the measurement, in order to let non-photochemical quenching relax.