A method of imaging a sample using a stimulated emission depletion fluorescence microscope , comprising an imaging process in which the fluorescence microscope is controlled by means of a microscope controller such that an illumination focus is generated by superimposing a focused de-excitation light distribution on a focused excitation light distribution for stimulated emission depletion, whereby the sample , when illuminated with the illumination focus, is excited to emit imaging fluorescent light only within an effective excitation focus, the extent of which is reduced relative to the extent of the excitation light distribution, and within a target area of the sample , a plurality of sample segments are successively scanned by means of the illumination focus with a first spatial resolution defined by the reduced extent of the effective excitation focus and imaged into a corresponding plurality of image segments from which a raster image is generated, wherein the fluorescence microscope is further controlled by means of the microscope controller such that before the imaging process, an overview image of the target area is generated with a second spatial resolution which is lower than the first spatial resolution and higher than a third spatial resolution defined by the extent of the excitation light distribution, and the overview image is analyzed to identify image areas without relevant image information, and during the imaging process when scanning those sample segments which are assigned to the image areas without relevant image information identified in the overview image , at least the radiant power of the de-excitation light distribution is reduced, characterized in that the overview image is generated with the second spatial resolution by first capturing a raw image with a spatial resolution which is lower than the second spatial resolution and then performing image processing on the raw image to increase the spatial resolution, the second spatial resolution being increased by a factor of between 1.5 and 2 compared to the third spatial resolution. an illumination focus is generated by superimposing a focused de-excitation light distribution on a focused excitation light distribution for stimulated emission depletion, whereby the sample , when illuminated with the illumination focus, is excited to emit imaging fluorescent light only within an effective excitation focus, the extent of which is reduced relative to the extent of the excitation light distribution, and within a target area of the sample , a plurality of sample segments are successively scanned by means of the illumination focus with a first spatial resolution defined by the reduced extent of the effective excitation focus and imaged into a corresponding plurality of image segments from which a raster image is generated, wherein the fluorescence microscope is further controlled by means of the microscope controller such that before the imaging process, an overview image of the target area is generated with a second spatial resolution which is lower than the first spatial resolution and higher than a third spatial resolution defined by the extent of the excitation light distribution, and the overview image is analyzed to identify image areas without relevant image information, and during the imaging process when scanning those sample segments which are assigned to the image areas without relevant image information identified in the overview image , at least the radiant power of the de-excitation light distribution is reduced, characterized in that the overview image is generated with the second spatial resolution by first capturing a raw image with a spatial resolution which is lower than the second spatial resolution and then performing image processing on the raw image to increase the spatial resolution, the second spatial resolution being increased by a factor of between 1.5 and 2 compared to the third spatial resolution. <EOS>