Explorations in lighting glass - Icy Crush.

[drg]

Comments, critique, and questions welcome. This is part of a series exploring lighting, more of which is in the gallery. The only light source for this were multiple lasers in the 635nm range.

[polopaul69]

Works well for me. It does look very much like it is made of ice. Nice shot & composition Only thing i would have done would be to rotate slightly to left to make it more balanced. More of this please !!

[srobb]

Very cool image, drg. Will have to check out the others in the gallery.

The lighting is spot on, I think. My first impression was not so much that it was made from ice, but that a lot of ice had just been crushed in the bowl.

[CLKunst]

A cool image indeed! [Pun intended.] However I think you are having some hot spot troubles that are making it look odd and blotchy at least at a reduced size. Is that because it has been run through a filter in PS? I would also like to hear more about your laser?!? Are you painting with light using something handheld or what? Please illuminate me. [Pun intended again.]

[drg]

Thanks for the comments!

First let me say, what you see is almost entirely the result of lighting. The image was desaturated in RAW conversion. The only manipulation done is to resize and adjust the brightness and contrast. Well, the framing too.

Yes, there are some hot spots, but not for the usual reasons. Lasers are hot

Much of the patterning is a result of otherwise imperceptible flaws in the glass of the mortar and pestle. This is molded glass and the pressure in manufacturing makes it look this way when illuminated with a colimated laser. See the Lava Apple which is a blown or fired glass that has a very uniform surface and doesn't have the same kind of flaws in its surface structure by comparison. This exploits an inspection technique to produce the image.

The lasers are industrial Class III's made by Allied used for alignment and measuring purposes. For this photo there were two used, one in a point source mode and the other with a linear defraction grating (draws a line as opposed to a single point) for the only illumination. One was fired down the handle of the pestle (the point source) and the other was used to flouresce the base.

It has been years since I played with lasers to do this type of photography. Forgot all the effects that they were once used to create. It was about the only way to produce them prior to a Digital Darkroom. Then of course lots of time in the old chemical darkroom to adjust the negatives. Now the time is just spent setting up the picture.

On the matter of rotation, it may need it but I kind of like it this way. May 'straighten' the image later. Good suggestion.

The Gallery of the related photos can be found at:
Exploring Laser Lighting Series Check back for a few more as I get them posted.

Thanks again!