water drop on CD

Charles Krebs · Post by **Charles Krebs** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 2:36 pm

I was looking around for something to photograph while waiting for my printer to grind out a large number of prints when I remembered the lovely abstracts Aynia posted recently. (And also recalled mgoodm3's post about "CD reflection spectrum")

So I sprinkled a little water on a CD and took a look. I liked one drop that was near the edge of the disk. The upper image is a from a stack of 15, the lower is a single image focused on the outline of the drop.

Harold Gough · Post by **Harold Gough** » Tue Dec 23, 2008 12:43 am

You made the right decison. Powerful colours!

Harold

Gérard-64 · Post by **Gérard-64** » Tue Dec 23, 2008 1:22 am

Beautyfull Charles!
Could we have informations about the lighting?

Aynia · Post by **Aynia** » Tue Dec 23, 2008 2:28 am

Amazing. Second one looks definitely other worldly!

Charles Krebs · Post by **Charles Krebs** » Tue Dec 23, 2008 10:51 am

Gérard-64... the light was a single fiber-optic light guide positioned above and behind the drop. The guide by itself didn't provide a wide enough reflection, so I taped a piece of tracing paper in a broad "U" shape over the end. This gave, in effect, a "micro-lightbox" with about a 1 inch diameter bright white circle of illumination. This light really needed to be very easily moved about. Positioned just a fraction of an inch to the left or right, up or down, made for a completely different picture.

After I did the drop pictures, I took the CD and randomly scratched up the surface. I like the "drop" pictures better, but these were interesting as well.

(... hmmm... come to think of it, I'd like to give this treatment to some of my daughter's CD's...

Gérard-64 · Post by **Gérard-64** » Wed Dec 24, 2008 2:00 am

This is really very interesting Charles.Thanks a lot for the informations.

Cyclops · Post by **Cyclops** » Wed Dec 24, 2008 8:05 am

Great shots!

Aynia · Post by **Aynia** » Wed Dec 24, 2008 10:54 am

I knew when I mentioned what I did that someone here would come up with exceptional pics!!

I love the scratches.

Before I accidentally started taking abstract nature photos, I wasn't really interested in abstract art of any kind.

Seems somewhere along the line I have done a complete U turn.

Great work Charles!

Jbailey · Post by **Jbailey** » Sat Dec 27, 2008 6:41 pm

Extraordinary series, Charles!

I really need to get over the Winter doldrums and make some interesting photos so I can forget about all the near-record snow we have been getting this season.

Thanks again for the inspiration.

Jim

mgoodm3 · Post by **mgoodm3** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 11:50 am

Great pictures.