Having only been a holographer for a few years now, it's not difficult for me to remember the time when I found myself ready to graduate from the small 2.5x2.5" glass beginner plates to slightly larger-format emulsion. In order to keep costs reasonable, I slid my way around the learning curve of tri-acetate based film. I recall it being incredibly nerve-wracking having to familiarize myself with the finer points of mounting and index-matching, to say nothing of the skills I had to develop (pun not intended but tolerated) when it came to processing.
Recently all the effort required to learn how to use film has become the basis of a fantastic system I am adopting and see no reason to keep under my hat. Flexible film needn't be a mediocre compromise as compared to expensive glass plates.
Flexible film becomes a plate when laminated properly to a sheet of glass.
Thanks to the patient tutelage and generosity of good friend and colleague Dave B, I have recently learned how to, with the use of clear laminate and the guts of a laminator, apply both finished and unfinished film perfectly to glass in order to create a permanent filmplate that combines all the savings of flexible film with the flatness and class of holographic plates. Please note that a laminator to be used for this should have any heating element disabled and whatever material it may automatically apply removed.
The finished product, when executed with care and precision, can be as flawless as a factory-made glass plate and also gives you the option of protecting the emulsion.
The technique goes something like this: Start with a piece of clear two-sided laminate of good quality that has been cut a bit larger than your film. Peel back the protective cover of one side about 1/2 inch or so, crease the protective cover so it doesn't want to stick itself right back on the exposed laminate. Place this prepared piece of laminate facedown on a sheet of cardstock. The creased protective cover should be lifting the exposed sticky slightly above the paper so it doesn't stick accidentally. Press just the very end of the exposed laminate to the paper in a stripe. Now just the edge of the laminate is adhered to the cardstock carrier, with a bit of the sticky still hovering above the paper, held aloft by the creased protective cover. You may now insert your film. Dust it off very thoroughly, then slide it under the laminate so that the edge of the film touches against the point where laminate is adhered to the cardstock carrier. The creased flap of protective cover is now atop the film. Dust off your film again. Reach under the laminate sheet with clean, steady fingers or tweezers and get a hold of the creased flap. Dust off your film again. Now, simply feed your cardstock carrier/laminate/film assembly through the laminator starting with the stuck edge. Peel the protective cover from under the laminate as it feeds through.
What emerges from the other side is your film with laminate perfectly applied to one side. It will be very thoroughly taped-down to your cardstock carrier by the laminate around the edges of the film. Simply run a razor blade around the edges to cut it loose from the carrier.
Provided everything went well, you now have a piece of film ready to be applied to clean glass. It's not a bad idea to test your chosen piece of glass in your laminator to ensure that the machine can handle material that thick. When you are ready for final application, peel a short part of the protective cover from the film and crease as before. Dust glass thoroughly. Dust glass again. Position film sticky/flap side down on glass. Dust the film and glass then press the very end of the exposed sticky to the glass in a straight stripe across. Again get a hold of the creased flap, dust and feed through laminator. It might take a healthy shove to get it feeding. Peel the protective cover from underneath as it feeds and prepare to be amazed at the flawless results that emerge from the other side.
Enjoy!
This post is to appear on Ning as well.
Filmplates made easy!
Filmplates made easy!
very useful Justin. If you can post a video some time that will be even more useful. 
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Justin W
Filmplates made easy!
That's a great idea, Kaveh. I will make an effort to arrange for just that very thing real soon.
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Dinesh
Filmplates made easy!
This has actually been done. I don't mean to dismiss your idea, it's just that holographers keep re-inventing the wheel.
Perhaps it might be an idea for those who've done it to go over their experiences. To the best of my knowledge, the Olsen's do this routinely, but I have no details of what they actually do. Danny has also done this; in fact he came over to our lab and demonstrated the technique about 5(?) years ago. Whether or not he's done it since then, I know not. Danny? We've done it for a particular large job in 2006, that is the hologram had to be large (12" x 16"). To save ourselves money, we though of doing it on film. However, we kept getting motion problems, so we thought of this laminating technique (we know that the Olsen's laminate on 12" x 16"). In our case, we had to laminate emulsion down, so we had to separate out the laminated film in order to process it. This couldn't be done cleanly, there was always traces of glue on the emulsion side. Eventually, we just bit the bullet and got 12 x 16 glass.
Have you thought of emulsions used by astronomers? They need a fairly low ASA rating for their work (~ASA 50) and you may be able to use that for holography if you keep the reference angles within about 30 degrees. I suspect that these emulsions may be large format and cheaper than the standard holographic film.
Perhaps it might be an idea for those who've done it to go over their experiences. To the best of my knowledge, the Olsen's do this routinely, but I have no details of what they actually do. Danny has also done this; in fact he came over to our lab and demonstrated the technique about 5(?) years ago. Whether or not he's done it since then, I know not. Danny? We've done it for a particular large job in 2006, that is the hologram had to be large (12" x 16"). To save ourselves money, we though of doing it on film. However, we kept getting motion problems, so we thought of this laminating technique (we know that the Olsen's laminate on 12" x 16"). In our case, we had to laminate emulsion down, so we had to separate out the laminated film in order to process it. This couldn't be done cleanly, there was always traces of glue on the emulsion side. Eventually, we just bit the bullet and got 12 x 16 glass.
Have you thought of emulsions used by astronomers? They need a fairly low ASA rating for their work (~ASA 50) and you may be able to use that for holography if you keep the reference angles within about 30 degrees. I suspect that these emulsions may be large format and cheaper than the standard holographic film.
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Justin W
Filmplates made easy!
Fine. This is not revolutionary.
Dinesh, you are not the first to point out that this has been done before.
This is acceptable. You guys may note that this post appears in "Beginning Holography"... It was not intended to turn the world of holography upside down or anything. This post is merely an effort to share a great technique with other beginner holographers who may be looking for a way to graduate from small plates to emulsions that are not embarrassingly small. I've read from other amateur holographers descriptions of techniques that involve laminate and film, but many involve the use of a hand-held roller and can result in problems. Maybe the use of a mechanical laminator is old news, and maybe I'm a tool for not having found this already written up, but again, these are acceptable losses. Now more beginners know than did before.
Mission accomplished.
Dinesh, you are not the first to point out that this has been done before.
This is acceptable. You guys may note that this post appears in "Beginning Holography"... It was not intended to turn the world of holography upside down or anything. This post is merely an effort to share a great technique with other beginner holographers who may be looking for a way to graduate from small plates to emulsions that are not embarrassingly small. I've read from other amateur holographers descriptions of techniques that involve laminate and film, but many involve the use of a hand-held roller and can result in problems. Maybe the use of a mechanical laminator is old news, and maybe I'm a tool for not having found this already written up, but again, these are acceptable losses. Now more beginners know than did before.
Mission accomplished.
Filmplates made easy!
Clearly this is not revolutionary. After all you are sticking a flexible piece of plastic to glass. But it's little details like how you hold the film, how you make sure there are no bubbles, etc. that are important.
My belief is that the demise of holography over the last 20-25 years is to some extent the result of people keeping tricks and techniques close to their chest. Tragically, many of those are now dead, so we will never know their tricks. So our duty is to share our tricks which will benefit all of us. That is why I was interested in this simple post by Justin.
My belief is that the demise of holography over the last 20-25 years is to some extent the result of people keeping tricks and techniques close to their chest. Tragically, many of those are now dead, so we will never know their tricks. So our duty is to share our tricks which will benefit all of us. That is why I was interested in this simple post by Justin.
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Dinesh
Filmplates made easy!
It was not kept close to the chest. It was discussed quite a bit at Colin's old forum :
http://holoforum.org/oldforum/search.ph ... mit=Search
The point I was trying to make is that a lot of newcomers re-hash old ideas. My feeling was that these ideas are around somewhere and I felt that perhaps something more could be achieved by improving on these ideas, rather than re-hashing them. If you do take a look at the above, you may notice that people have tried it and reported problems with some details. Surely it's the job of the older generation to point the newer generation forward? To me it can only be done when you see a member of the newer generation looking backward and point out to them that they are, in fact, looking backwards
I seem to remember that Colin had a "Tips" section where a lot of people gave a lot of useful tips. Perhaps a perusal of those tips might lead to someone improving them.
http://holoforum.org/oldforum/search.ph ... mit=Search
The point I was trying to make is that a lot of newcomers re-hash old ideas. My feeling was that these ideas are around somewhere and I felt that perhaps something more could be achieved by improving on these ideas, rather than re-hashing them. If you do take a look at the above, you may notice that people have tried it and reported problems with some details. Surely it's the job of the older generation to point the newer generation forward? To me it can only be done when you see a member of the newer generation looking backward and point out to them that they are, in fact, looking backwards
I seem to remember that Colin had a "Tips" section where a lot of people gave a lot of useful tips. Perhaps a perusal of those tips might lead to someone improving them.
Filmplates made easy!
OK. Another point is that by far the best way of explaining these manual "tricks" is by video, rather than reading about them.