While at a trade show recently I came across an unusual form of portraiture. A "scanning" digital camera is used to produce a three-dimensional image of the subject. Exactly how this works, I don't know as there is only a single lens on the camera, but the image produced is literally 3-D. The image data are then sent to a machine that etches the image into the heart of a block of glass crystal using two lazer beams. Where the beams converge, the crystalline structure of the glass is altered to become translucent white, and thus the image appears to have the characteristic of acid etched glass, a frosty white.
Is this a new form of photography? I think it is - all of the elements are there:- subject, light, camera & photographic medium. A search of the web brings up a company in China:
http://lasermachine.en.ecplaza.net/that evidently supply the equipment, and who also manufacture those key-fobs and paperweights with images of flowers, insects and script in them. Is this the ultimate in archival imaging?
The kind people on the stand allowed me to photograph one of their sample portraits. The crystal block is about 3 inches cubed, and I used my Olympus OM2n fitted with the 50mm f1.4 MC Zuiko and a +3 dioptre close-up lens attachment. I had to rest the camera on a small box and use the self-timer. Flash was out of the question as I could not predict what the effect of the crystal block would be. The camera was loaded with Kodak Ultra 400 colour neg, which I rate at 320iso. Lighting was quite low, only the ambient lighting of the exhibition hall, and exposure was aperture priority auto at f16, shutter sounded like about 3 seconds.
Portrait in Crystal
What do you all think?
