Crystals under Polarized Light and DIC
Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2019 12:14 am
Most crystals are pretty easy to prepare for photomicrography, either melt them on the slide, or dry them from a solution of water or alcohol - a coverslip isn't necessary, but helps keep the crystals flat. Proteins and other substances e.g. beer are more difficult to crystallize. I have been trying to get good beer Crystals, the late Michael Davidson had some nice photos but never revealed his methods calling them proprietary. I can get some beer to form small crystals and I can freeze the beer so it forms crystals, but I am not yet satisfied with the results. Below I am attaching a few images of crystals because the colours are so vivid and they are relatively easy to prepare by anyone. Any light microscope can be converted to a polarizing microscope easily with two linear polarizing filters - one over the light source, the second can be placed above the objective or in the eyepiece - you cut the second polarizer from plastic polaroid material or buy eyepiece polarizing filters - they must be linear not circular polarizers. You can even tape a polarizer to the top of the eyepiece with some electrician tape.
For these photos i used a Zeiss Axioscope with DIC and polarizing optics, images were taken with 2.5, 5, 10 and 20X objectives recorded on a Nikon D500 digital camera (RAW) minimal processing in Photoshop and I captured the images to my laptop using Digicam control software (free download off their web site).
Crystals include: Beer, Citric acid, Ascorbic Acid, Strontium choloride - which I obtained at a local pharmacy store.
For those interested in my methods I have an article here:
https://www.canadiannaturephotographer. ... light.html
I plan to present an in depth article on my web site in a few weeks on preparing crystals, which chemicals seem to work well and some of the methods I am using. I have never seen such intense colours in any other form of photography and the variety of abstract patterns is staggering. Even simple things like potato starch can look good. YOu can also enhance the colours with wave plates, which you can make using ordinary (not the magic tape) scotch tape, some plastic CD covers or thin pieces of mica. They also sell 1\4, 1\2 and full wave retardation plates and a quartz wedge - if interested read more about them on the web.
For these photos i used a Zeiss Axioscope with DIC and polarizing optics, images were taken with 2.5, 5, 10 and 20X objectives recorded on a Nikon D500 digital camera (RAW) minimal processing in Photoshop and I captured the images to my laptop using Digicam control software (free download off their web site).
Crystals include: Beer, Citric acid, Ascorbic Acid, Strontium choloride - which I obtained at a local pharmacy store.
For those interested in my methods I have an article here:
https://www.canadiannaturephotographer. ... light.html
I plan to present an in depth article on my web site in a few weeks on preparing crystals, which chemicals seem to work well and some of the methods I am using. I have never seen such intense colours in any other form of photography and the variety of abstract patterns is staggering. Even simple things like potato starch can look good. YOu can also enhance the colours with wave plates, which you can make using ordinary (not the magic tape) scotch tape, some plastic CD covers or thin pieces of mica. They also sell 1\4, 1\2 and full wave retardation plates and a quartz wedge - if interested read more about them on the web.