A structured morphology filtering method is disclosed for filtering an image for high precision machine vision metrology using specifically-determined structuring elements to precisely preserve the location of specific features in the filtered image. A selected structuring element shape generally exhibits geometric similarity with at least a portion of the feature to be preserved in the filtered image. The structuring element may be oriented to corresponds to the orientation of the feature to be inspected. For example, for a linear feature to be inspected, the optimal structuring element is a line or narrow rectangle at the same orientation, while for images of circles, it is a circle. The orientation of the structuring element may be determined or adjusted automatically during a set of automatic inspection operations, based on an automatic determination of the orientation of the feature to be inspected.