Crystal "headdress" on the head of a small LED

I applied a thin film of colored varnish to the top of a small LED and then grew a crystal "headdress" around it.
I want to repeat the experience on a more powerful LED capable of sending light through a thicker layer of long, acicular crystals.

~23mm FOV, 90mm Macro lens on Sony a6300

3D Gunner wrote:

I applied a thin film of colored varnish to the top of a small LED and then grew a crystal "headdress" around it.

Fun. I love internally lit, additive processes.

But... no time lapse of the growing crystal?

I want to repeat the experience on a more powerful LED capable of sending light through a thicker layer of long, acicular crystals.

Have you considered playing with very long exposures. I've photographed things that would normally be considered "opaque" with exposures in the minutes, hours, or days. Seriously. Couple of thousand 1 minute exposures, averaged.

Same technique for very low fluorescence. I have this lovely triple-pyramid deep purple fluorite that usually needs hour long exposures to capture its fluorescence at 365nm with a woods filter on the light source and a 415nm high pass on the camera.

~23mm FOV, 90mm Macro lens on Sony a6300

3D Gunner wrote:

Joseph S Wisniewski wrote:

3D Gunner wrote:

I applied a thin film of colored varnish to the top of a small LED and then grew a crystal "headdress" around it.

Fun. I love internally lit, additive processes.

But... no time lapse of the growing crystal?

Thanks! 🙂

I planned a time-lapse scene in stereoscopic 3D mode several years ago, but I was lazy to prepare the scene, because it requires some special conditions to be provided over a longer period of time. 3D is "the thing" for something kike this. 🙂

Have you ever shot and processed for lenticular prints?

I've done some 6 and 10 viewpoint lenticulars with a semicircular track rig. The end results can be quite stunning.

The biggest problem is that in the first phase the solution is cloudy, just when the first crystals appear. That's when the fastest growth occurs.

Hmm... Electrodes and a bit of a charge to clear the solution just when you see that initial growth?

Or is that a silly thought?

If the crystallization process for the desired subject is triggered in a clear solution stabilized in terms of concentration and temperature conditions, the process evolves much more slowly and can take several days for a specimen with some decent size.

Can give a try. 😀

It never hurts to try.

I'm picturing a setup with 10 different tanks and a camera on a track sliding back and fourth grabbing shots of all of them. Or maybe the tanks on a turntable...