Popcorn salt on a penny

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DonBMichigan
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat Nov 20, 2021 1:51 pm
Location: Southeast Michigan, USA

Popcorn salt on a penny

Post by DonBMichigan »

I loved the idea HERE and tried my own version. I don't have a microscope objective but I piled as much stuff onto my lens as I could. Someday I'll get smaller!

I've done stacks before with hot pepper flakes and peppercorns, but not salt, and I love the cubular salt granules. If you can get them to line up, you could really pack your salt shaker.

Camera: Olympus E-M1 Mark II
Lens: Olympus 60mm f/2.8 macro lens
Extension Tubes: Meike 10mm + 16mm
Magnifying Lens: Raynox DCR-150 attached to lens with step-down rings
97 shots stacked in Zerene Stacker

Image

Don
Don from Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

rjlittlefield
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Re: Popcorn salt on a penny

Post by rjlittlefield »

Don, nice image!

Just so you know what happened, I split this off to make a thread of its own and tweaked your text to cross-reference the other thread where this was originally posted.

(Protocol at this site is that normally new images go in a new thread, except for technical discussions or people adding images to their own thread. More details HERE.)

--Rik

Bschnitzer
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Joined: Wed May 18, 2022 10:54 am
Location: Northern Virginia

Re: Popcorn salt on a penny

Post by Bschnitzer »

Looks great! I tried in vain to get a higher pile of salt (inspired by the painting “Sea of Ice” by Caspar David Friedrich), but the grains slowly flatten out during the stack.
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1. Olympus BH2 BHTU trinocular w/DPlan objectives, Risingcam 20mp 1” USB
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DonBMichigan
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat Nov 20, 2021 1:51 pm
Location: Southeast Michigan, USA

Re: Popcorn salt on a penny

Post by DonBMichigan »

Oops, sorry about the post manners... Also, full disclosure, I used regular table salt and didn't mention it, but so far no chemists have called me out on it, so maybe no one will notice. :D
Don from Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

colohank
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Joined: Sat Jul 24, 2021 6:07 pm
Location: Fruita, Colorado, USA

Re: Popcorn salt on a penny

Post by colohank »

A chemist or geologist would tell you that table salt is sodium chloride regardless of its marketing identity (sea salt, Kosher, iodized, etc). Trace elements may impart slightly different colors and flavors to the salt depending on its origins (I suspect that most table salt is mined in various ways from subsurface deposits, processed to ensure purity, and then milled to achieve consistency of grain size). The expensive boutique stuff touted on cooking shows is probably harvested from evaporite ponds.

Sodium chloride's molecular structure is isometric, and crystals are cubic. So are its cleavage planes. If you want a greater variety of crystal sizes, you can make them yourself by creating a supersaturated solution of salt in water and allowing it to slowly evaporate. To make a supersaturated solution, keep adding salt to water until it refuses to dissolve further. Then add even more salt and bring the solution to a boil. I use a little Pyrex cup in a microwave to heat it. When the salt is thoroughly dissolved, I pour a bit into a shallow plastic container such as the lid of a peanut can, and let it sit overnight so the crystals have time to grow. When dry, you can pick individual crystals out with a tweezers and stage them on whatever surface you desire as a background. You may even get a few so-called salt hoppers which exhibit internal ghosting and interesting surface details.

klevin
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Joined: Fri Dec 14, 2012 5:28 pm
Location: SW New Hampshire, USA

Re: Popcorn salt on a penny

Post by klevin »

You don't need a supersaturated solution. Just dissolve as much as you can at room temperature, decant from any remaining crystals and let it slowly evaporate. This works with a number of kitchen ingredients, including sugar, tartaric acid, alum (a classic...) and MSG.

Back to photography, great, interesting picture. The penny really adds an element to it.

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