We investigate the feasibility of using rare-earth iron garnet films grown on (111)-oriented substrates as magneto-optic indicator films for the visualization of magnetic leakage fields in non-destructive evaluation. In most cases the leakage field of the defect has a strong component in the film plane. The influence of this in-plane dc magnetic field on the image formation is investigated. It is shown that the presence of a strong in-plane magnetic field allows one to extend the dynamic range of the out-of-plane field imposed by the uniaxial anisotropy field HA. On the other hand, an in-plane field reduces the sensitivity. The guidelines for selecting parameters of magneto-optic indicator films are given.