Pretty rock and technique progress of the day: Pietersite under glass
Pietersite, oh pietersite, what heartache you've caused me. Since my first look at a piece of tumbled pietersite I've wanted to get in and take a closer look, but it's really resisted my efforts to capture its beauty. I've made some pretty pictures, but it's been frustrating knowing how much better they could be. But gradually I've come closer and closer, and today made another advance.
First a quick recap (and in some ways a recap of a recap because I'm pretty sure I've used some of these interim images before to describe earlier advances in technique). Meet tumbled pietersite, round, shiny and interesting:
Then I bought a slab of the stuff and tried out the microscope on it. Rather to my disappointment my early efforts were rather washed out:
Later I improved the camera settings and got better colours, but because of the amount of water required to provide coverage on this hydrophobic rock (and perhaps my unsteady hand) a lot of these pictures came out blurry:
Enticing hints of Van Gogh's Starry Night, but not quite there yet. Damn surface tension!
I had experimented with linseed oil elsewhere but decided to not pursue the technique. Messy as all hell and probably worse for unwanted shine. Here's what happens if you try less water: in places you can see hints of greatness, but the water won't cover the surface evenly, and the lights can bounce all over the place:
Today I took delivery of some fine glass microscope slide covers, designed to keep the water evenly distributed, but at minimum depth for best focus. I'd originally been in the market for a suitable piece of plastic to do this (I'd tried all sorts of options from glad wrap and celephone to stray bits of plastic in my art stashes). I'd though of overhead transparencies but they're monstrously hard to find; unscarred ones even more so. But when I realised I was trying to emulate the functionality of proper microscope slides I went hunting for them on eBay and lo, a box of slide covers arrived today. I <3 eBay.
For comparison purposes here's a shot showing half wet and covered by glass, and half dry:
For bonus there's also some tissue paper dust and possibly a bit of fingerprint on the glass. The process is a bit fiddly but I'm getting the hang of it. It rather defeats the entire purpose if you get water on the top of the slide as well as below, but if you mop too enthusiastically it leeches away from the edges. Some sort of tiny rubber dam might help, if it becomes an ongoing problem.
So, here's a contact sheet of pietersite shots I took this evening, all with glass slide covers, which are 22mm x 22mm, for those playing at home:
As usual for these contact sheets the images are raw and likely to need a bit of balancing to see them at their best, but I'm pleased to see the image quality improving as I go along. This is an individual shot that's very close to useable:
When I get a bit closer to print I'll probably have to brighten everything up a bit; for now I'm satisfying my eye as the image appears on the laptop screen.
The biggest limitation I've discovered so far was one I'd anticipated and was the reason I was looking at flexible plastics - this only works on really flat surfaces, so it does limit one to only certain parts of slabs. Getting the right amount of water in the spot you want is also a bit of a challenge, but I'm using a syringe in lieu of a pippette (or the usual garden spray bottle) and practice will make better.
Oh, and hopefully I won't injure myself on lost slides - they are *designed* to be invisible and I had to hunt around more than a few times today.
First a quick recap (and in some ways a recap of a recap because I'm pretty sure I've used some of these interim images before to describe earlier advances in technique). Meet tumbled pietersite, round, shiny and interesting:
Then I bought a slab of the stuff and tried out the microscope on it. Rather to my disappointment my early efforts were rather washed out:
Later I improved the camera settings and got better colours, but because of the amount of water required to provide coverage on this hydrophobic rock (and perhaps my unsteady hand) a lot of these pictures came out blurry:
Enticing hints of Van Gogh's Starry Night, but not quite there yet. Damn surface tension!
I had experimented with linseed oil elsewhere but decided to not pursue the technique. Messy as all hell and probably worse for unwanted shine. Here's what happens if you try less water: in places you can see hints of greatness, but the water won't cover the surface evenly, and the lights can bounce all over the place:
Today I took delivery of some fine glass microscope slide covers, designed to keep the water evenly distributed, but at minimum depth for best focus. I'd originally been in the market for a suitable piece of plastic to do this (I'd tried all sorts of options from glad wrap and celephone to stray bits of plastic in my art stashes). I'd though of overhead transparencies but they're monstrously hard to find; unscarred ones even more so. But when I realised I was trying to emulate the functionality of proper microscope slides I went hunting for them on eBay and lo, a box of slide covers arrived today. I <3 eBay.
For comparison purposes here's a shot showing half wet and covered by glass, and half dry:
For bonus there's also some tissue paper dust and possibly a bit of fingerprint on the glass. The process is a bit fiddly but I'm getting the hang of it. It rather defeats the entire purpose if you get water on the top of the slide as well as below, but if you mop too enthusiastically it leeches away from the edges. Some sort of tiny rubber dam might help, if it becomes an ongoing problem.
So, here's a contact sheet of pietersite shots I took this evening, all with glass slide covers, which are 22mm x 22mm, for those playing at home:
As usual for these contact sheets the images are raw and likely to need a bit of balancing to see them at their best, but I'm pleased to see the image quality improving as I go along. This is an individual shot that's very close to useable:
When I get a bit closer to print I'll probably have to brighten everything up a bit; for now I'm satisfying my eye as the image appears on the laptop screen.
The biggest limitation I've discovered so far was one I'd anticipated and was the reason I was looking at flexible plastics - this only works on really flat surfaces, so it does limit one to only certain parts of slabs. Getting the right amount of water in the spot you want is also a bit of a challenge, but I'm using a syringe in lieu of a pippette (or the usual garden spray bottle) and practice will make better.
Oh, and hopefully I won't injure myself on lost slides - they are *designed* to be invisible and I had to hunt around more than a few times today.