Single Beam Transmission
The expanded laser beam, diverging, is coming in from above left. You can see that the object needs to be far enough away so that there is adequate lighting that can be seen by the plate but this does waste light.
The expanded laser beam, diverging, is coming in from above and just to right of camera view. A simple mirror in the set up to gather some of the wasted light and redirect it to the object would be beneficial.