Laser art installation

[wouterjesse]

Hi there,

I have been playing around with a 5mW pointer laser and shining it through a slowly rotation shot glass with an uneven surface. The reflection of the light is pointed at a wall or object. The result is an interesting '3d' shape that constantly morphs.



Indoor looks great and would like to move this device outdoors. My plan is to use it at night in a forest and point the morphing shapes through the trees.

A. is a 5mW laser bright enough to be visible when shining through trees 5 meters away?
B. if I use a +5mW laser what are the chances dry branches or leaves catch on fire?

For the viewers standing behind the device, I will make use of a protective cover for the reflected light shining backwards. The device will be hidden behind this shield. And the laser will be out of focus to be able to create larger shapes.

 

[WizardG]

A: No, not really. Green trees don't reflect red light very well.
B: You'd need to use a LOT more than 5mW before you need to worry about being a fire hazard since this type of lumia diverges the beam diluting the power landing on any one spot.

 

[julianthedragon]

If the forest is really dark and you can keep your setup and camera still, you could workaround the lack of laser power by taking a long exposure photo to make the light appear brighter. Don't worry about the fire, but it is smart to protect viewers' eyes

 

[Eidetical]

For $40 one can buy a christmas yard projector with RGB lasers in it (with many tens of mW in each) and rotating diffractive optic pattern generators, with a remote control. Replace the pattern generator disks with bathroom glass and you have a nice and safe lumia projector. Get two and you have lots of parts to play with.

Just checked. The one I took apart was $140 from Home Depot.

 

[wouterjesse]

A: No, not really. Green trees don't reflect red light very well.
B: You'd need to use a LOT more than 5mW before you need to worry about being a fire hazard since this type of lumia diverges the beam diluting the power landing on any one spot.

Would 50 or even 100mW be a better choice for me?

 

[WizardG]

Would 50 or even 100mW be a better choice for me?

50 would look pretty decent. As mentioned above, just make sure to aim the thing so it won't shine in anyone's face. I've done this kind of thing with '303' type pointers before (~70-80mW) and it looked great on .....any relatively flat surface. Trees........YMMV.

 

[julianthedragon]

Here is a picture I happen to have of four different wavelength 50mw lasers on trees (red is 637nm)


Results may vary with different equipment and settings but I’m generally confident 50mw will show up

 

[CurtisOliver]

It looks like you are wanting to do something similar to what Radim used to do on here.

Radim's laser painting

Radim's Laserpainting Art, Complexity Philosophy and The Surreal World Radim's Laserpainting Art, Complexity Philosophy and The Surreal World "The darkness is my canvas..." First Book Download for Free: Ladies and gentlemen, Let me introduce... The TaoLiim...

laserpointerforums.com

Sadly a lot of his images have now disappeared. However this is his instagram which shows what he was up to.

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