Radim's laser painting

Wazup

Composition is ready. Waiting for black canvas and lasers will open the portal into the Surreal world.

Edit: Laserpainting has been done! Finally at home. It took me from 7pm when I left home till midnight, when I got back. One hour fifteen it took me to build composition and get everything ready. One test shot and four paintings, the last one is exactly as I imagined. I'm happy with that. So, now just to postprocess it and write caption. Therefore it is coming soon. I'm tired as hell. :crackup:

Radim said:

Wazup

Composition is ready. Waiting for black canvas and lasers will open the portal into the Surreal world.

Edit: Laserpainting has been done! Finally at home. It took me from 7pm when I left home till midnight, when I got back. One hour fifteen it took me to build composition and get everything ready. One test shot and four paintings, the last one is exactly as I imagined. I'm happy with that. So, now just to postprocess it and write caption. Therefore it is coming soon. I'm tired as hell. :crackup:

Click to expand...

I can't wait, Radim!! Go get some sleep first!

Behind the scenes - story for LPF

This artwork I approached a bit differently. I prepared it as always, but with improvements in organization of exposure itself. This saved me a lot of time (sic it is a limit in reality of course) and I was able to do one test shot and four paintings, from which I step by step analyzed errors untill the last one was perfect and exactly as I had it in my mind and which you can see above. Almost all of these errors were in exposure times of some lasers, one that I forgot to illuminate remote part of the scene and a few in precise alignment. Anyway I left home at 7pm and returned at midnight exactly to give you some idea of time of doing this artwork. Still there was one attempt spending a night in the forest on test paintings and many hours of thinking, drawing on paper to get the idea possible to paint in reality. BTW: You can notice a short story through my two previous laserpaintings showing the same tree starring.

Laserpainting process improvements

I clearly divided the scene into two sectors and stages A and B for static beams and one stage C for dynamic beams. Each sector was carefuly selected in terms of positions of lasers used, their needs for alignment and accesories I had and of course the key factor was safety as this composition setup was very complicated. Basically there were no safe zones if I would try to have all lasers switched on at same time (usual for my compositions). I started with sector A at exposure beginning. Then I moved to sector B. Finally I went for stage C - dynamic beams. These were in both sectors, but since only one laser was in operation, safety was easier to reach. It was quite easy to perform as everything was ready before - I spent one hour and quarter on preparing lasers and accesories and building the composition and doing adjustments. Interesting is I used only one tripod, everywhere else I used what I found in the forest to fix stuff (with help of things I had).

With sector approach I significantly reduced handling times and was able to move on scene fast. Since this tree is my favourite - I know it and its surroundings very well. I was also much more safe as glasses were needed only for sector A. Still special care had to be taken as the glasses were not able to cover all wavelengths used - but it is much easier to take care about just one laser than all three in sector A. Anyway without glasses it would not be possible.


Making my laserpainting more safe

When speaking about safety, as it is almost summer I noticed higher traffic in the forest in the evenings. During my trips there. Therefore I started my earlier idea with putting warning signs on paths leading to scene in distance beyond NOHD of beams used in that direction. I of course end the beams within the controlled environment but it is not 100 %. Still those beams are of lower intensity as coming for example from diffraction grating in higher orders of maximums and therefore NOHD is much lower. You might see first version of sign here:


During the night I of course heard and saw many animals. I heard even my old friend deer - roebuck "barking" several times. One of this it seemed as he was really close (cold sweat), but shining 800 mW above the expected source of barking made him likely scared. Once I heard steps on the path beyond the sign. I was thinking of somebody not respecting that, but it was just deer. Another one than my friend - I saw him clearly in flashlight light at about 20 meters distance from me - one handclap and he ran away.

Still I assume people will have flashlight to see the signs. I consider putting small led flashlight above to illuminate it and make sure it is visible and attracts attention.

What is your idea about the warning sign? How would you do it? BTW I know it is not perfect, but I wanted it simple and carrying all information needed to make me aware of someone approaching and keep the safety in the highest possible level.

Quite good, Radim. I don't suppose there are any predators in the forest where you work. We have some here. Bears, mountain lions, poisonous snakes, etc. I was just wondering as you posted about your animal "friends". Thanks for sharing this. Can't rep you again so soon.

Very nice pic! It is great you got the result you were after.
As far as the sign I think that is a bad idea. Even though you are doing no harm in your mind, someone will see that sign and call the police on you. You are advertising you are up to no good (as far as most think with high power lasers). Where I live you would need a permit to display that sign or get yourself in trouble. And the last time I photographed my lasers outdoors my wife was freaking out that someone would call the police. My advice would be to photograph between midnight and dawn. When I do my NYC photography I mostly go in at 4am to avoid people

Thanks guys.

Paul, there are some predators like foxes, some birds etc. Still nothing like bears, mountain lions and wolves. From time to time wolves or bears are reported from nearby mountains for example, still they are rare. Mountain lions only if they escape captive environment. And from poisson animals we have just viper and a few spiders AFAIK. From predators only foxes and stray dogs with rabies might be dangerous, but it is also rare here as foxes are vaccinated every year, what I see (warning signs on trees). So, I'm very safe in my night forest compared to yours and firegun is not needed as majority of wildlife can be detered easily. Still the biggest predator there is human. I'm more scared of meeting human than wildlife. And that deer of course, as when he attacked last summer it was nothing what I really enjoyed. Also it is considered that hogs with little ones might be dangerous. But I've had no problem with them. You just need to watch them and let them do their stuff. Usually when mother sees you, she looks for a way to leave the spot as fast as possible. But if you put her baby in danger - very, very bad for you. The conclusion is I have not much to be aware of.

Even when I was scuba diving with wild sharks - it is ok if you keep some rules. Well, I could not resist to touch them as they were close, but not agressive as well as little crocodile in Mexico, but this one was only half wild. These sharks I touched were not known to attack people often, still when I met those of the four most dangerous in Egypt, I kept them away by pushing them with my fin, when they became too curious. If they touch you, they are basically tasting or sniffing you and testing how easy prey you are. In the sea there are much more dangerous various poisson carrying animals and other predators.

Brucemir, I'm not sure. Here it is not illegal AFAIK. Still somebody might think it is illegal. When considering pros and cons, I think it is much better to warn those coming, than risk their injury. If they call police, I at least have argument that I'm responsible. Maybe I'll adjust the sign to omit "high powered". That is a good idea, thanks for that. I also bet on people's curiosity and instead of calling police, they will be interested more of what I'm doing there (how often you meet guy with lasers in nature?). Still, the likelihood of somebody coming is very low. And if so, that would be likely somebody more easy going in these day times, as police callers usualy watch news for murders and accidents or sleep. And even there is a light on sign photo, it is just when I put it on, just before the darkness came - usually noone is in the forest by that time.

Edit: When looking into our law related to various radiations (including lasers) I'm even obliged to mark up areas, where permissible exposure might be exceeded. So, it might be even better to keep the signs, but adjusted. If somebody sees me, might call police anyway and here I have even one more argument to tell the police. So far I follow the law here quite well, as I even educate myself as laser operator, I have the safety protocol, I continuously evaluate potential risks and take the prevention to keep my lasers in safe use, what is also requested by law.

I really like the idea of the sign! I've put signs on doors when I'm using lasers inside rooms, but people don't seem to pay much attention.

Yes, that's true. I believe this is due to too much signs used everywhere. This causes not respecting those really important. I wanted to beat this by making those seeing it by natural curiosity. It is unusual to see such a sign in nature, there is a warning with laser warning symbol and fast explanation of risk, below the line there is a closer explanation if the activity beyond with kind request to let me know and ensuring the area is safe and thanks note for respecting it. Also for those interested more and not going to approach - link with more, followed by asking leaving sign.

I plan to adjust the first post to serve more the purpose of basic info and fast orientation in this thread soon. Since it's purpose of entering the thread is not needed anymore. I'll leave the original version of course, but the first post has to change. I think this thread is pretty well known here and I link it in my signature as well. Also I use the link to give my friends and other people interested and on social media as well. One of the reason is making LPF more known for those not aware of it. Since some people might feel intention to try laserpainting - I would like to give them good source of the laser and safety information - LPF. I feel responsible for those potentially inspired for their safety awareness at least.

Going back to the sign I think it is not boring and solving potential risk identified. Hopefully it get respected once it is needed and fulfil its purpose well. I even have small pics of artworks to reward those respecting that and being interested. I have pen with me, so I can write them link on back side if needed. I'm willing to stop the exposure not making them wait too much, unless there is supposed something unexpected captured on the painting in progress. I even do not mind spending some time explaining the people what I do, show them lasers in controlled conditions. And explain a bit of safety in case they start to think about it. I think it would make good impression on them as this would be unexpected and unusual experience for them likely. Basically if they leave with something new learned and safe of course (necessary), my time was not wasted.

BTW did you try to lock/block the door or put at least warning light in front of door when laser is in operation? You might even connect it with remote switch of course with individual button to swith it in cases laser does not support remote switch. You just need to incorporate in your personal lab safety protocol as one of the steps, before laser is activated (even if not in operation yet).

The room I use has a broken door lock but I put a box in front of the door to give me time to react. I also wasn't using particularly high powered lasers, around 100mw greenies on tripods but I still didn't want people barging in to an experimental environment.

Yes, Sean. I understand your concerns. Maybe its time to change the lock. Even cheap and simple one is sufficient. Luckily I can use lasers outdoors and have sufficient private space for them. Even in garden house there is a good place as I do not need to put beams in direction of entrance and there is a simple slide lock which I use to get time to switch off lasers when someone is getting in. I have also one cellar room reserved for further use, which can be locked. Still I was worried when I used my projector facing at wall next to door in my room (not the cellar). But more I'm worried someone leaves door opened in my room where I store lithium batts and our dog might access them when charging. I need to improve this.

Oh, thanks man, this is a honour for me.

Are you satisfied with colors on print? Especially with green. If you look on those diffraction patterns on the tree (these many green circles with tiny dot in the middle), this is 532 nm laser (100 mW, EVO). These usually look very bad in CMYK prints I tried. I did not print this artwork yet, but from testshots and my previous artwork printed already, they are disaster. Even I used proffesional photo printing service (they use CMYK).

It looks like God's hand that stands up to this protection, and behind it is the blue color as if it were the Blessed Virgin !!!!! Watching this work of art for a few intense moments, it takes you out of your head!

3DLaSeRBuiLDeR said:

It looks like God's hand that stands up to this protection, and behind it is the blue color as if it were the Blessed Virgin !!!!! Watching this work of art for a few intense moments, it takes you out of your head!

Click to expand...

Oh, thanks, 3D. That is very warming for me. :thanks:

I intended the 473 nm laser (blue) to disturb the dark black reality of the forest and open the portal into the Surreal world as it was used as way in my recent The Portal artwork.

Further once the Surreal world has been reached, the soul of the tree appears in contrasts of red (635 nm) and green (532 nm - circles on the tree and lines and 520 nm - that flat "liquid" sky) merging into yellow (589 nm and a bit of composed from 520 nm and 635 nm - seen under zoom at a few places). The soul is spreading out of the picture in beams representing its eternality and independence on space. There is even 405 nm (violet/purple) used to represent kind of vascular system of the tree hidden inside and representing living creature, link to life is even in those green lines and illumination of leaves and tree in the background, as all souls are interconnected. The blue laser is further placed on stump - dead tree, representing the death is just an illusion in reality and opens the portal. Dark places (even part of the tree) represent depth of the Surreal world as there is always something hidden. Further there are many interference patterns used, laser grain (kind of "noise") representing quantum essence of the surreal world. Trees I love, since their souls are not as complicated as human souls, but their life is as long as human life, or longer. They are fixed and remind non living matter without soul, but that is wrong. There is basically no difference between livning and not living matter as even non living matter has some (maybe not as complex) soul. There are more meanings, even colors were selected to have some. If you go through captions, they might be found there. Still I'm writing article presenting the philosophy of the Surreal world more deeply, but still simplified. One of my ongoing projects.

Just some of the meanings I intended to capture... Still you might perceive it differently, what is completely allright and if it does, it serves its purpose well as the Surreal world (even it is the only world in existence according to my philosophy - reality is just illusion/projection) is perceived differently by everybody. Still there are common things in these perceptions.

BTW: Seven lasers were used. Basically all my portable collection except 445 nm Arctic. Several optics ellements were also used as it is evident.

Anyway your answer / explanation is like reading a book that speaks of nature, chromatic, and poetry! I come to tell you that I feel more of a poem than an answer!
My boy, you will make a long way!

Thanks. That's just a philosophy of the artworks.

In coming article I'll focus more on scientific background, but just briefly. It is important to explain it, as there is the sense of the story I tell by the artworks. It's really hard to get in "short" text only as there would be book(s) needed to get it. So I'm writing just a very simplified and not complete version and keeping it understandable for common reader. The difficult part is to put all thoughts together not to make it too confusing and compose it more like a puzzle building an entire picture. Starting from edges and going to center.

Still there will remain some large part of the picture in the middle incompleted. It is impossible to put everything at once, there are even things I do not want to talk about.

One of the artwork concepts in progress is however touching it slightly, but it is really just at concept stage and is not nearly ready to be done and put into photo yet.