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UltravioletPhotography

UV Help in NYC: Identifying a WWII Artifact


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hi

 

i am an amateur photographer in NYC (D7100) looking for some advice:

 

i recently came in to possession a WWII artifact that belonged to my grandfather, Mordka Topel: after he was liberated from the Flossenburg Concentration Camp in April of 1945- he stayed in a barn in the nearby town- and left a camp-issued vessel (or pot) there. after almost 70 years, we were able to identify and reunite it with my family

 

the problem i have is the 'etching' that he performed has worn off. the bottom sketch below shows how it should look

 

do you believe an UV camera would reveal the actual scratching?

 

thanks

CJ

 

 

 

 

 

14493251300_9afdfa9f26_o.jpgimage by luzer, on Flickr

 

14679619932_401b37dbbd_o.jpgimage (1) by luzer, on Flickr

 

14679662422_9d11b2abc6_o.jpgM_Topel_Gravur by luzer, on Flickr

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I have not tried metal, but it is worth trying...I do not know if anyone here with a UV camera is near NY or not.
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I will experiment with some scratched metal to see what happens in UV.

Couple of days.

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Looking quite often at surface defects on aluminium and trying to document them my experience is :

 

You will need a very uniform ambient light, which does not make reflections. You can not get rid of the reflections by a polarizing filter, because the surface is metallic (there is no polarizing effect on metallic surfaces). (A completly clouded sky gives a very nice light for this kind of task).

 

A further difficulty is the large and wavy surface. It might be easier, to run a kind of patchwork photography, because the visibility of surface defects is very sensitive to the angle of view.

 

Something I have never tested myself would be to use a fluorescent liquid, which sticks to the pores from etching and scratching, and then use an UV-light to get the fluorescense and take the picture (visible light). This method is used in material characzerization to make pores and cracks visible.

 

Werner

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Looking quite often at surface defects on aluminium and trying to document them my experience is :

 

You will need a very uniform ambient light, which does not make reflections. You can not get rid of the reflections by a polarizing filter, because the surface is metallic (there is no polarizing effect on metallic surfaces). (A completly clouded sky gives a very nice light for this kind of task).

 

A further difficulty is the large and wavy surface. It might be easier, to run a kind of patchwork photography, because the visibility of surface defects is very sensitive to the angle of view.

 

Something I have never tested myself would be to use a fluorescent liquid, which sticks to the pores from etching and scratching, and then use an UV-light to get the fluorescense and take the picture (visible light). This method is used in material characzerization to make pores and cracks visible.

 

Werner

 

thanks all for their help

i am experimenting with a polarizing filter first- then maybe IR- the hopefully UV

 

!

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Hi Luzer -

 

I did a little experiment of photographing a metal pie pan with some embossed lettering and lots of scratches and deteriorated areas on it. You can find the write-up here: http://www.ultraviol...bossed-letters/

I made UV, IR and Visible photogrphs.

 

Perhaps it will help a bit.

 

Have you made a relief using paper and a graphite pencil? That might be an easy way to verify the details on the bottom of your vessel.

See here for details: http://en.wikipedia....i/Stone_rubbing

and also here: http://en.wikipedia....i/Brass_rubbing

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