On the coins thread, I posted a test photo of iron filings...
I took the iron filings, immersed them into Karo syrup on a well slide, then applied a magnet to it. Karo syrup is thick enough to keep the filing in place once I line them up with a magnet, but (mostly) optically neutral.
The only problem is that I wasn't patient enough to wait for the bubbles to disperse.
In the other thread I was like "do something with fucking magnets" then I realized that's probably what this thread was about, so I rushed over to see!
I didn't like the green background, and even though I've been stewing over it for a month, I finally got around to trying something slightly different - I put black construction paper underneath it. Even though it's black, it's quite reflective, so when it's out of focus, it looks like a mottled grey and black.
I put more iron filings in Karo syrup and applied a magnetic field to them. This time, I made a few changes to try to reduce bubbles.
First I soaked them in a 20% Karo syrup solution, then I immersed them in a 75% solution. This was thick enough to have the filing hold their shape, but thin enough to prevent a lot of bubbles getting stuck. Not all of them, though.
The first one is a bit busy - There's too many iron filings in a small place to make nice clear lines. This is about 40X, cropped a bit because the focus stack has some artifacts on the edges.
This is further to the edge. This is around 40x, not focus stacked, cropped a bit as well.
Then I tried a closeup on the bottom left quarter of the above, this is a focus stack at 100x, but also cropped it, so it's a bit larger.
I'm happy with the reduced bubbles, but I still have some work to do.
Well get busy! We want more close ups of iron. And bubbles.
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"Have no respect whatsoever for authority; forget who said it and instead look what he starts with, where he ends up, and ask yourself, "Is it reasonable?""
__________________
"Have no respect whatsoever for authority; forget who said it and instead look what he starts with, where he ends up, and ask yourself, "Is it reasonable?""