Method for determining the presence or absence of disposable pipette tips in selected pipette tip carriers on the work area of a laboratory work station, wherein each of the selected pipette tip carriers comprises a carrier plate with a regular orthogonal arrangement of receiving holes, in which respectively one disposable pipette tip can be inserted, wherein the laboratory work station comprises a robot arm with at least one pipette, which is configured for receiving and delivering liquid samples and for receiving and discarding disposable pipette tips, and wherein the laboratory work station comprises a digital camera which is disposed on a carrier device and which is operatively connected to an evaluation unit, and with which the work area of the laboratory work station can be completely imaged at least in a first direction, wherein by using the evaluation unit: a) pipette tip carriers arranged on the work area of a laboratory work station are selected; b) at least one digital image with a plurality of pixels is taken of each selected pipette tip carrier using the digital camera; c) in relation to at least one digital image of each selected pipette tip carrier, a grid consisting of grid elements is defined on the respective pipette tip carrier, wherein the grid is spanned by the four outermost receiving holes of the receiving hole arrangement; characterized in that the grid is an originally orthogonal grid with square grid elements adapted perspectively to the digital image, wherein: d) in at least one digital image of each selected pipette tip carrier, pixel areas which can be assigned to the individual grid elements are determined, whereby each grid element of the defined grid is divided into four quadrants; e) in each of the determined pixel areas of a digital image the respective number of pixels whose brightness lies in a predetermined range is determined; and f) it is determined that a disposable pipette tip is present or not in a specified receiving hole of a pipette tip carrier, when the number of pixels determined in step e) lies in a selected range relative to a predetermined threshold value. a) pipette tip carriers arranged on the work area of a laboratory work station are selected; b) at least one digital image with a plurality of pixels is taken of each selected pipette tip carrier using the digital camera; c) in relation to at least one digital image of each selected pipette tip carrier, a grid consisting of grid elements is defined on the respective pipette tip carrier, wherein the grid is spanned by the four outermost receiving holes of the receiving hole arrangement; d) in at least one digital image of each selected pipette tip carrier, pixel areas which can be assigned to the individual grid elements are determined, whereby each grid element of the defined grid is divided into four quadrants; e) in each of the determined pixel areas of a digital image the respective number of pixels whose brightness lies in a predetermined range is determined; and f) it is determined that a disposable pipette tip is present or not in a specified receiving hole of a pipette tip carrier, when the number of pixels determined in step e) lies in a selected range relative to a predetermined threshold value.