First decent DCG

MichaelH · Post by **MichaelH** » Sun Dec 23, 2007 9:15 pm

It's an H2 made from a multi-channel transmission master.

The emulsion was a 50ml water, 0.5g glycerin, 6g gel, 2g Kdi mix made this morning.
The 2x4" plate was mold coated and left to gel for 45 minutes in the fridge, plates were left out to dry with the room and a HEPA fan running. Exposure was made two hours after coating.
Fixed in dilute fixer for 1min, rinsed in soapy water and passed through 70,90,100% iso (all room temp to this point and somewhat cold) and then heated 100% iso.
The emulsion is a little milky but not too bad and the hologram is a really bright white. Some of you have seen the original subject and will recognize that the replay color is really close to the subject color. It's also very "DCG" bright.

Joe Farina · Post by **Joe Farina** » Sun Dec 23, 2007 9:24 pm

Wow, nice job Michael! That's really white and bright!

dave battin · Post by **dave battin** » Sun Dec 23, 2007 10:32 pm

wonderful work michael ! nice and white. im glad to hear/see the moldcoating is working well for you.

MichaelH · Post by **MichaelH** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 2:23 am

Joe Farina wrote:Wow, nice job Michael! That's really white and bright!

Thanks. It's taken a lot of trials to get to this point but it looks like I'm getting close to a reproducible process. It's still very home-grown, no clean hood, no dedicated work arear (all of the cooking and processing takes place in a bathroom) but I'm hopeful I'll be able to get something that will make sense for final holograms.

MichaelH · Post by **MichaelH** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 2:23 am

dave battin wrote:wonderful work michael ! nice and white. im glad to hear/see the moldcoating is working well for you.

It does take a bit of practice but I like it much better than I think I'd like the rod or spin methods.

DJ Mathson · Post by **DJ Mathson** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 6:59 am

Very nice!

BobH · Post by **BobH** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 8:36 am

Very nice workmanship! Nice, uniform plate and processing.

MichaelH · Post by **MichaelH** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 11:22 am

BobH wrote:Very nice workmanship! Nice, uniform plate and processing.

The trick with adding a bit of dish soap to the post-fix bath is what does it for evening out the processing. I imagine any kind of surfactant would do as long as the addition results in the water sheeting off the emulsion between the bath and first alcohol dip.

Dutchelm05 · Post by **Dutchelm05** » Mon Jan 14, 2008 6:35 pm

Lucky you Hans,
For a while with all the bottles and gizmos in the garage, my neighbors thought I was running a Meth lab.
Much more profitable than holography I hear

MichaelH wrote:I've also discovered that there's some ringing in my plateholder. I can't hear it with the finger-flick test, I get a nice dull thump,

I had simular problem Michael, John also suggested a very long settling time and that helped me a lot. I now do 20 minutes. It maybe be too long but it is better than going though the whole process to discover a moved image. I have reduced my swearing 65% since making that move.
Tony

MichaelH · Post by **MichaelH** » Mon Jan 14, 2008 6:54 pm

Dutchelm05 wrote:
MichaelH wrote:I've also discovered that there's some ringing in my plateholder. I can't hear it with the finger-flick test, I get a nice dull thump,
I had simular problem Michael, John also suggested a very long settling time and that helped me a lot. I now do 20 minutes. It maybe be too long but it is better than going though the whole process to discover a moved image. I have reduced my swearing 65% since making that move.
Tony

The problem with using settling as a solution to that particular problem is that if you do have some table-shaking event happen, you're likely to end up with a dimmer or ruined hologram depending on when it happens, how much it affects the table and how long your overall exposure time is.

You're better off by fixing the problem as much as possible so that any vibrations that reach the table are damped as fast as possible.

In my case it's particularly important since even something like the closing of a door anywhere in the house shakes the framing and can be seen at the table. Needless to say nobody moves during an exposure unless we're downstairs.