1. An apparatus for estimating a position of one or more particles, the apparatus comprising: an imaging system; a detector, in optical communication with the imaging system, configured to detect an image of a plane; a memory, operably coupled to the detector, configured to store a representation of the image of the plane; a light source configured to excite the one or more particles; and a processor, operably coupled to the memory, configured to: (a) perform a wavelet decomposition of the image of the plane to form a wavelet map of the image of the plane; (b) segment the wavelet map into multiple regions having intensity values above a predetermined threshold; (c) estimate the location of a centroid for each of the multiple regions, the location of the centroid corresponding to the position of a particle in a first dimension and a second dimension of the plane; (d) determine a total number of particles in the image of the plane based on the location of the centroid for each of the multiple regions; (e) adjust at least one of an intensity of the light source and a wavelength of the light source based on the total number of particles in the image of the plane such that a number of imaged particles in a subsequent imaging process is adjusted, and perform the subsequent imaging process by repeating steps (a)-(d); and (f) estimate the position for each particle in the image of the plane, in a third dimension, based on a fit of a point spread function (PSF) of the imaging system around the centroid for each of the multiple regions.