When using light for steering micromachine components and generating multiple optical traps for microscopic particles, laser beam modes offer a convenient tool as they conserve their structure both upon free-space propagation and at the focus of a spherical lens. Another benefit is that mode symmetry can be adjusted by varying certain parameters and passing from symmetry in the Cartesian coordinates to circular symmetry via elliptical symmetry. For this purpose, Ince-Gaussian (IG) modes can be utilized, as they are transformed into either Hermite-Gaussian (HG) beams or Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) beams when the ellipticity parameter is changed.