Laser Photography

[LASEYEYE]

Hi- New to posting on this forum but I have been lurking for a while, getting alot of info from you guys.
I have a friend that got me into lasers some years ago. She has made quite a few lasers for me and others.
She made me a red burning laser that is about 250mw or so, and a bluray burning laser at about 300mw I think, no way to measure them though. Both are adjustable and focusable. She is in the process of making me a yellow laser right now, I can't wait.
Anyway, I like to take photos with the lasers, but the green 50mw I have from LED Shoppe is a bit too bright for most photography that I do. It lights up the whole room. What do you guys recommend? I was thinking of a 12mw or 20mw or something like that.
I just ordered a 5mw one on Ebay from a member of this forum, but I suspect it will be a lot brighter than 5mw.
Here is my favorite photo so far:

 

[Arayan]

A warm welcome to LPF :beer: ... very nice picture but I reccomend to use safety goggles because also a direct beam from low powered laser could be dangerous

 

[jmgallego]

That's really a nice photo, at what speed did you take it?

 

[Meatball]

Hi Laseyeye! Welcome to LPF. Laser Photography is a trick that takes some practice. I suppose you already know about the fog method.

If you want clearer beams, try longer exposure times. These few tips and many others are simply found with the search button.

She's building you a yellow laser eh? Mixing red and green I presume? Good to hear that there are females out there building lasers!

 

[LASEYEYE]

Hi- That photo was taken with the sports mode on a Canon 50d DSLR.
I made him close his eyes, and he blew smoke and waved the laser back and forth through the smoke from below as best as he could. Of course in some of the frames I can see he had his eyes open, so I know what you mean about eye protection. (When I got my red burner I had a migraine from hell for about the first week I had it)
Out of all the frames that one was pretty much perfect, so it was really just a spur of the moment thing and we got lucky. I really want to set up more shots like this using a fog machine and a tripod and whatnot. I have a ton of ideas, it's just actually finding the time to do it.
Yes, the yellow is green and red mixed. She said I will be able to select either red, green, or both. The red should be powerful enough to burn while the green is low mw. She said it gets more orange after using it for a bit.
Here is the red she made me:
Hi- That photo was taken with the sports mode on a Canon 50d DSLR. I made him close his eyes, and he blew smoke and waved the laser back and forth through the smoke from below as best as he could. Of course in some of the frames I can see he had his eyes open, so I know what you mean about eye protection. (When I got my red burner I had a migraine from hell for about the first week I had it) Out of all the frames that one was pretty much perfect, so it was really just a spur of the moment thing and we got lucky. I really want to set up more shots like this using a fog machine and a tripod and whatnot. I have a ton of ideas, it's just actually finding the time to do it. Yes, the yellow is green and red mixed. She said I will be able to select either red, green, or both. The red should be powerful enough to burn while the green is low mw. She said it gets more orange after using it for a bit. Here is the red she made me:
[URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fb82XJj0pA"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fb82XJj0pA
Not sure how to embed in this forum yet.

 

[Codiejman]

Me and some buddies took my 5mW violet laser and my friend has a nice camera so we did some shots messing around with the shutter speed you can do some pretty neat stuff and you dont need a very powerful laser since the delayed shutter speed amplifies what light it picks up. sweet pic though id be interested in seeing more from you.

 

[LASEYEYE]

Thanks.
Yeah that's the thing with this 50mw green. It lets in too much light when you have the shutter open for long periods. Even with that pic, the shutter was not open for long at all and you can see that the room is pretty lit up in green.
Here is something we did with the red laser and a bush with an open shutter. I have more pics somewhere on one of my many hard drives. I really want to start getting into laser photography a lot more now that more lasers are available at cheaper prices. I have an artist that I am trying to get to help me with maybe doing some laser painting type stuff.

 

[Morgan]

Hey LASEYEYE,

Nice photos so far. They will get better with practise. I think you can make simple improvements though. With the first pic you posted, i.e. the green one with smoke you would have needed a certain shutter speed to allow you to capture the fan of the moving beam. However, IIRC, the Canon Sport mode allows for a large aperture to capture lots of light in a short time and a high ISO number, (probably around 800), to increase the camera's sensitivity to light. I would go for a manual setting, reduce the size of the aperture, (higher, 'f', stop number), and also reduce the ISO number as low as you can, (200 maybe even 100).

By doing both these things you will instantly see darker images. Reducing the ISO number will reduce the grainy effect that can be seen in the areas around the edge of the pic and reducing the size of the aperture will increase your depth of field, (more things in front and behind your point of focus will be in focus).

Try those things out and you should be able to post a new favourite picture!

[EDIT: VERY IMPORTANT! Don't be tempted to shine the laser into you camera at this point. It risks permanently burning the CCD sensor. I do do it in certain circumstances but it was risky finding out I just happened to be right about no damage; at those outputs; in that place; at that time and; they were not fixed pointer beams! I took that risk with MY camera, a Canon 30d, but don't do it with yours until you need the excuse to go buy a new one!]

Welcome to the forum too!!! :wave:

M

 

[Nanolaser]

http://laserpointerforums.com/f48/electric-mist-50034.html

 

[Morgan]

^ Useless post. This could be considered spam as the link is already a thread posted by you in the, "Multimedia", section. Please don't do this.

M

 

[Codiejman]

yThats pretty awesome. Photography is something ive always been interested in but its another hobby itself and lately ive been investing my time and money in lasers and learning more