luzer Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 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? thanksCJ image by luzer, on Flickr image (1) by luzer, on Flickr M_Topel_Gravur by luzer, on Flickr Link to comment
msubees Posted July 19, 2014 Share Posted July 19, 2014 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. Link to comment
Andrea B. Posted July 19, 2014 Share Posted July 19, 2014 I will experiment with some scratched metal to see what happens in UV.Couple of days. Link to comment
Alaun Posted July 19, 2014 Share Posted July 19, 2014 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 Link to comment
luzer Posted July 21, 2014 Author Share Posted July 21, 2014 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 helpi am experimenting with a polarizing filter first- then maybe IR- the hopefully UV ! Link to comment
Andrea B. Posted July 22, 2014 Share Posted July 22, 2014 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_rubbingand also here: http://en.wikipedia....i/Brass_rubbing Link to comment
luzer Posted July 24, 2014 Author Share Posted July 24, 2014 thank you Andrea! i am planning to try some techniques this weekend.i am touched by the support this community has shown Link to comment
Andrea B. Posted July 24, 2014 Share Posted July 24, 2014 Let us know how it all works out. :) Link to comment
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