title: Feature detection on a small, noisy image with OpenCV
body: <p>I have an image that is both pretty noisy, small (the relevant portion is 381 × 314) and the features are very subtle.</p>
  
  <p><img src="https://i.imgur.com/TUsJoeT.jpg" alt="relevant area"></p>
  
  <p>The source image and the cropped relevant area are here as well: <a href="http://imgur.com/a/O8Zc2" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://imgur.com/a/O8Zc2</a></p>
  
  <p>The task is to count the number of white-ish dots within the relevant area using Python but I would be happy with just isolating the lighter dots and lines within the area and removing the background structure (in this case the cell).</p>
  
  <p>With OpenCV I've tried Histogram equalization (destroys the details), finding contours (didn't work), using color ranges (too close in color?) </p>
  
  <p>Any suggestions or guidance on other things to try? I don't believe I can get a higher res image so is this task possible with the rather difficult source?</p>