Radim's laser painting

Thanks, Paul and Oliver. I also post them on FB, but still here on LPF there are usually both sources (Insta and FB) used to feed this thread. If you click on any artwork you should be able to get higher resolution (as on FB). Some more value here on LPF is, that I post also additional stuff.

Working on projects…

It has been some time I posted latest stuff here. So, here I got back to this thread…
I’m currently busy at work (as always, but really it is more deadlines to meet now), sleeping a little and trying to find some time to relax during evenings to be ready for next day. Some projects are being finished at work and my schedule is still changing and I‘m trying to adapt. I need to be effective and with open mind, as my head is working more than hands (but even these have something to do ). But not only work projects, but as a relaxing activity also laserpainting projects and other stuff I do. Here I put some of them, to keep you looking forward:

My classic style laserpainting
I have drawings and notes for my classic style laserpainting, but with different effects taking a main role and maybe new tool used – I did a lot of experiments with it already, but still trying to find the right methods to meet my needs. This one is about ready. Now I’m waiting for intersection of right conditions, mood and enough time to make it.

Link to famous artist
In my head, phone, drawings and notes, one longer term project of laserpainting artwork focussed to my favourite artist. More accurately - his one well known artwork, which I basically love. A very famous guy and a very famous artwork with a very special meaning. I’m currently developing various methods on paper and in ideas how to perfom it, looking for right place and new objects on scene to be used. This project needs a lot of time to develop as it is very complicated to reproduce his artwork with my laserpainting methods, but it is definitely possible! Anyway it is not coming soon…

I even need to acquire some new stuff to perform it. I have two options how to do the effects I need, still one seems to be much more practical, but I need to find a very special optic elements for it. Currently looking for them…

New methods
I’m also trying new stuf and experimenting with coherent light as well. For that purposes I take my Wicked Lasers Evo with me with some stuff… I mentioned it several times on LPF, I really love this extremely versatile greenie. Maybe I should write another review or my experiences so far with it.

I play with it a lot and I try new things everywhere during my forest trips after work. Today I played with my favourite diffraction grating effect.
See the photo below. It is a mobile phone cam pic – captured right from my hand and just adjusted a bit in brightness and contrast. So, sorry for quality, but still it is just an experiment of some new methods. I used it on only one artwork published here just briefly… Anyway I gained enough experience with them to apply them more. Here you might see it applied:


The Philosophy of the Surreal World
Not only artworks, but I’m currently writing a concept of some intro into my philosophy of the surreal world, to let you understand true meaning of my art. Just a brief (and not complete) overview to start as there is enough stuff in my mind to fill several books with it – but it needs enourmous amount of time to write a book, so maybe this project could start it. I’ll be happy for your opinions, constructive critics and follow up discussion. I like to educate myself as well as the others and I like to hear what other think about that (I’m always surprised…). Even I feel I’m consistent it is really hard to get and even harder to explain it in deed. It is not obvious, very mind bending and seemingly contradictive… Let’s see, I’ll do my best to explain it as simple as I can…

What's more?
Of course I have constant flow of ideas, so I have a paper notebook to just take some notes, when the idea seems interesting enough to capture… About everything, work, laserpainting practicaly and in artistic way, ideas for threads here and various other stuff…
For example I’m even thinking about putting my various and now extremely messy excel laser calculators in some nice spreadsheet for my purposes (I have various hazard distances calculators, divergence, wavelength to RGB converter with wavelength combinations to color function and much more...).

So many ideas, so little time…

Finally I have no time to be bored, that’s good and keeping me improving… So, stay tuned… And many, many thanks for your motivating support.

Really looking forward to your future laser painting artworks.

Last night I got few ideas for possible "tools" for you:
Glass line generator rod from Odicforce and I wonder would it be possible to adapt some sort of silk projection screen for capturing diffraction grating effects e.g on "mid-air" for your artwork?

ArcticDude said:

Really looking forward to your future laser painting artworks.

Last night I got few ideas for possible "tools" for you:
Glass line generator rod from Odicforce and I wonder would it be possible to adapt some sort of silk projection screen for capturing diffraction grating effects e.g on "mid-air" for your artwork?

Click to expand...

Thanks for tips!

To be honest some projection screen is very related to the project I wrote above (I have some drawings of setup using it). And I already use line generators, still this one seems to have clearer line. So thank you again.

Also I'm looking for a special diffraction gratings set producing single circle of various diameters (as measured for same distance). Possibly without central dot, but I cannot imagine how this could be made. Still I have a solution how to remove the dot. I have also other option not using the grating and without central dot, but it is quite bulky and not very practical especially for long exposure shots. I know Laserlands offer some circle gratings on ebay, but these look to be quite thick. I'm looking for thin line of the circle.

Edit: I owe you a rep. I cannot give it to you right now - still I need to spread more.

I like those patterns you created on those branches. :gj:

Thanks, Oliver. You might look forward to enjoy diffraction patterns laserpaintings quite soon.

I'll look forward to see them.

Radim said:

Thanks for tips!

To be honest some projection screen is very related to the project I wrote above (I have some drawings of setup using it). And I already use line generators, still this one seems to have clearer line. So thank you again.

Also I'm looking for a special diffraction gratings set producing single circle of various diameters (as measured for same distance). Possibly without central dot, but I cannot imagine how this could be made. Still I have a solution how to remove the dot. I have also other option not using the grating and without central dot, but it is quite bulky and not very practical especially for long exposure shots. I know Laserlands offer some circle gratings on ebay, but these look to be quite thick. I'm looking for thin line of the circle.

Edit: I owe you a rep. I cannot give it to you right now - still I need to spread more.

Click to expand...

I have bunch of Laserlands diffraction gratings, they are really small and thin plastic 9mm x 9mm size and maybe 1 mm thick. Those look way much thicker and bigger in eBay. (Personally I would not put more than 150-300mW trough them)

You could try for as a cheap alternative projection screen Ikea Lill lace curtains, some folks are using them as home laser projection show screen as well. You can't go too much wrong with 5$ investment (If you think you can adapt silk screens in your artwork, you can by better quality laces later).

Well, 300 mW should be Ok for my need, still it is a limiting a bit for further use. But for a few bucks they cost I do not care toasting them by too much power. Anyway, they have some gratings for stage lighting, where I expect they should handle more power.

I also found this looking perfect for my needs:



Link:
http://www.holoor.co.il/Diffractive_Optics_Products/Ring_Generator/Diffractive_axicon.php

Maybe I'll ask in separate thread for recommendations.

And thanks for Ikea curtain recommendation.

I have some very cheap flexible gratings and they have no trouble even at 3W (as long as you avoid the opaque borders, of course).

Radim said:

Well, 300 mW should be Ok for my need, still it is a limiting a bit for further use. But for a few bucks they cost I do not care toasting them by too much power. Anyway, they have some gratings for stage lighting, where I expect they should handle more power.

I also found this looking perfect for my needs:

Link:
http://www.holoor.co.il/Diffractive_Optics_Products/Ring_Generator/Diffractive_axicon.php

Click to expand...

These are Bessel function diffraction gratings used for beam profiling in scientific/industrial use. Not sure they will do what you want them to do and they may be much more expensive than you thought. The ones i saw were for 1064nm, or Nd:YAG lasers. You might want to stick to stage lighting diffraction gratings. Just a thought.

paul1598419 said:

These are Bessel function diffraction gratings used for beam profiling in scientific/industrial use. Not sure they will do what you want them to do and they may be much more expensive than you thought. The ones i saw were for 1064nm, or Nd:YAG lasers. You might want to stick to stage lighting diffraction gratings. Just a thought.

Click to expand...

That's pretty much the case, as they do not say the price. What I have seen scientific quality gratings (standard - lines) are like hundred to two hundreds bucks - not reasonable for my purposes... It also depends if they can make circle/ring pattern, the only reasonable, but not perfect are Laserlands, what I'm aware of:




https://www.laserlands.net/doe-design-for-dg/10x-circle-diffraction-gratings-coated-glass-lens-red-green-650nm-532nm-laser-ld.html

But what will happen if I use them with blue/violet? For DPSS I think it is ok, but I'm affraid of killing the diode lasers from back reflections...

Also they have this:



https://www.laserlands.net/doe-design-for-dg/1pc-diffraction-gratings-coated-lens-6-patterns-for-laser-module-stage-lighting.html

And this:



https://www.laserlands.net/doe-design-for-dg/1x20in1-diffraction-gratings-coated-plastic-lens-for-laser-module-stage-lighting.html

BTW: I saw once beam profiling through kind of LCD like spatial filter. Awesome! They were able to shape the beam of 532 nm labby and move pollen grains under microscope and do other stuff like this... Any beam profile was possible with this, even changing on demand dynamicaly... Such a great thing... Maybe I need this.

I wouldn't worry about back reflections killing your blue laser diode as these gratings are mounted on a glass square and needn't be against the diode's emitter. As long as it is post collimation lensing you should be okay.

Thanks, Paul. Even if my math/physics intuition says me it should be ok, I'm worried. I solved also this problem for using light painting brushes with lasers by putting lens to diverge the beam as much as possible. Works perfectly.

I've even read some stories here, where people killed diode by direct hit reflected from window (in wall). So not only mirrors but even window is able to kill it. I also do not want to reduce its life time or power by doing that, you know - the little damages in diode's active region.

If it is worrying that much, just keep the grating a few inches away. It isn't easy to get a serious back reflection using a diffraction grating. Sure, defocusing the beam, or just remove the lens entirely will give you the color of the laser, but more like a flood light. I can see where that would work for you.

Yes... I use the defocussed beam already. Various purposes. For example here:

Radim said:

Dynamic soul

The souls are dynamic and change by views and time.
This majestic tree welcomes those who enter the forest. Its wide branches perform the magic of light and shadows.


Enjoy this series of four laserpaintings of single tree.

Real laserpainting photos, no computer graphics.
(For higher resolution click on the image.)





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On the top of the tree, the 635 nm is done by defocussed beam with lens. It looks like a cone of flashlight light.