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Archive 2010 · #384 Ferrofluid Lightbulb

  
 
Shutterslam
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · #384 Ferrofluid Lightbulb


Hope this is "Shiny" enough



This is a photo of ferrofluid on two magnets. The form is flanked by 2 flashes (one gelled red for Valentine's day ) and the other just soften with a regular sheet of printer paper.

My biggest challenge for this assignment:
* configuring enough negative space to render the shadows and reflections just right.
* staying clean - this stuff makes a horrific mess if you don't handle it properly

Going to return to this project when I have some time and more magnets...there's some amazing artistic possibilities with this material

Cheers

ss








Feb 14, 2010 at 11:27 PM
Bill Sutherland
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · #384 Ferrofluid Lightbulb


You did very well then. Makes for a great abstract.


Feb 15, 2010 at 01:43 AM
Scotsman
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · #384 Ferrofluid Lightbulb


Nice shot and it looks cool, and it's shiny


Feb 15, 2010 at 12:58 PM
Yakim Peled
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · #384 Ferrofluid Lightbulb


It's lovely in every aspect but I must wonder why did you choose to “crop” the shade in the bottom.

Happy shooting,
Yakim.



Feb 15, 2010 at 02:38 PM
af120835
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · #384 Ferrofluid Lightbulb


Has to be said that is a great abstract, love the lighting.

Andy



Feb 15, 2010 at 04:59 PM
Shutterslam
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · #384 Ferrofluid Lightbulb


Yakim Peled wrote:
It's lovely in every aspect but I must wonder why did you choose to “crop” the shade in the bottom.

Happy shooting,
Yakim.


I laughed with my wife about this. Well I laughed she scowled. You don't always get the shot you want, and sometimes, you just have to settle for good enough. Some of the minute details, for instance the shadow, don't come through on the lcd, but become quickly apparent once it's on your computer screen. The other thing was that I was *certain I wanted blue and white to be the primary colors, again - until I saw it on my screen, and noticed that the red worked better with the rust background then the blue did.

By the time I'd started editing, I'd taken 120 shots over 3 hours, gone through a box of plastic gloves, a roll of paper towels, and what little patience my wife had left for my mad science experiment. Out of all the shots, only 3 of them had been taken in red, and course the one you saw was the "best" of the 3 (so much for all the blue)...

As for the crop, in my haste to shoot the red, I positioned the form too close to the edge of the petri dish...had I noticed the shadow earlier, I would have gone to greater lengths to preserve it, but like I said - angry wife = no more shooting (rightfully so, the kitchen was a mess!), I had to settle for "good enough".

If you ever decide to play with this material, keep the magnets away from the edges of whatever you're using to hold the liquid. If you get it too close, the magnet is actually powerful enough to "sip" the liquid right over the edge (it pulls it so fast it actually sounds like it's sipping)...and because it's a mineral oil, and the iron is ground up to microscopic proportions, it's almost impossible to wash out.



Edited on Feb 15, 2010 at 05:41 PM · View previous versions



Feb 15, 2010 at 05:25 PM
Shutterslam
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · #384 Ferrofluid Lightbulb


Here were a few of the other attempts:

The stronger the magnet (for instance neodymium) and the closer it is, the finer the spikes:


If you put too much liquid in, it collects into a bubble dome:


This is the form you get with a lower powered donut magnet:




Feb 15, 2010 at 05:40 PM
tinamarie52
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · #384 Ferrofluid Lightbulb


I love them. I have a great assortment of magnets and am always on the lookout for cool stuff. What strength magnets did you use? Did you have the magnet under the petri dish or in the dish?

Chris



Feb 15, 2010 at 06:52 PM
Shutterslam
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · #384 Ferrofluid Lightbulb


tinamarie52 wrote:
I love them. I have a great assortment of magnets and am always on the lookout for cool stuff. What strength magnets did you use? Did you have the magnet under the petri dish or in the dish?

Chris


UNDER!!!!

Did I mention the mess they make? hehe

Refrigerator magnets don't have the holding power the liquid needs to render the forms. I'd say any of the ferrite magnets with ~10 lb rating should be enough to pop a form up.

For reference, I have magnets rated to hold 50 lbs and they were overkill (not to mention dangerous if you get them too close together and aren't holding tightly). You can use 50 lb magnets but you need to hold them about a half an inch away from the bottom of the dish to allow them to create the larger spikes (remember closer = finer, further = thicker spikes).

Where it gets interesting though is that you can magnetize objects (ball bearings, screws, pretty much anything metallic with an interesting form), drop some of the ferrorfluid on and watch the magic happen. I've seen beautiful forms that defy imagination and when paired up with the right colors, boy the possibilities are endless

Enjoy

ss



Feb 15, 2010 at 08:57 PM
nlamendo
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · #384 Ferrofluid Lightbulb


A neat shot, very nice effect, and very shiny to boot. Well done.
-Nick



Feb 15, 2010 at 09:27 PM
Yakim Peled
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · #384 Ferrofluid Lightbulb


Shutterslam wrote:
I laughed with my wife about this. Well I laughed she scowled. You don't always get the shot you want, and sometimes, you just have to settle for good enough. Some of the minute details, for instance the shadow, don't come through on the lcd, but become quickly apparent once it's on your computer screen. The other thing was that I was *certain I wanted blue and white to be the primary colors, again - until I saw it on my screen, and noticed that the red worked better with the rust background then the blue did.

By the time I'd
...Show more

Well, it's much more than "Good enough". It's "Very good" in my book.

Happy shooting,
Yakim.




Feb 16, 2010 at 04:46 AM
kmease
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · #384 Ferrofluid Lightbulb


SS,

I must admit, I really like the middle of the three that you added later in the post, the best out of all. Each one of these are very fascinating, and wonderfully captured.

Best Regards,
Kurt



Feb 16, 2010 at 10:13 AM
Shutterslam
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · #384 Ferrofluid Lightbulb


kmease wrote:
SS,

I must admit, I really like the middle of the three that you added later in the post, the best out of all. Each one of these are very fascinating, and wonderfully captured.

Best Regards,
Kurt


I struggled with that same decision too. The funny thing though was that middle shot was a test shot and missing a lot of the elements I wanted to incorporate into the final...isn't it funny how it works out that way sometimes (that the simplest shots are the most effective sometimes).

I set out a few things to achieve for this assignment:
a) photograph a strong and easily identifiable form
b) photograph light and negative space to create the reflective surfaces of the contours of the form
c) use more than one light and more than color

Anything else beyond what you see above was a happy accident. I also wanted you guys to see what some of the other possibilities were because I was so jazzed with what I'd found.



Cheers

ss



Feb 16, 2010 at 11:02 AM
teglis
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · #384 Ferrofluid Lightbulb


Well, I had to go to Wikipedia to find out what Ferrofluid is. Knowing makes this image all the more fascinating. I really like the combo red/white lighting.

Cheers,
Rich



Feb 16, 2010 at 12:26 PM
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · #384 Ferrofluid Lightbulb


You have a lot more patience than I do -- 3 hours and 120 shots -- WOW! I have to say, though, that the results are impressive. The most creative of all of the submissions so far. It makes me want to buy some magnets and play around with them.


Feb 16, 2010 at 02:22 PM
RustyBug
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · #384 Ferrofluid Lightbulb


Pretty cool stuff ... I really loved the part about your wife ... my wife doesn't feel so alone now

Nice work ... love the effort.



Feb 17, 2010 at 10:12 AM
Shutterslam
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · #384 Ferrofluid Lightbulb


For posterity's sake

You can get FFluid [HERE]

I'd pick up an assortment of ceramic, ferrite and neodymium magnets while you're there.

Cheers

ss



Feb 17, 2010 at 10:40 AM
DaveNitsche
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · #384 Ferrofluid Lightbulb


Congrats on a great image!!!

I post this as a warning. I was shooting with this stuff 4 weeks ago. It made an unholy mess. I was covered in the stuff. My hands especially. After 3 hours of shooting with it I started feeling bad... after another hour I was in the hospital with poisoning. There was something in it that my body didn't like. I was sick as a dog for about 2 weeks.

FF is cool stuff and has many uses. One of them is use as a contrast agent for MRI scans (it has a different compound in it but it's still a FF). The difference with the hospital stuff is there's another agent added that keeps it from bonding with your body so it basically flushes through.

This doesn't happen to many people but if you're going to use it wear gloves. I sure wish I had.



Feb 24, 2010 at 08:13 AM
CYT111
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p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · #384 Ferrofluid Lightbulb


Shutterslam wrote:
Hope this is "Shiny" enough

This is a photo of ferrofluid on two magnets. The form is flanked by 2 flashes (one gelled red for Valentine's day ) and the other just soften with a regular sheet of printer paper.

My biggest challenge for this assignment:
* configuring enough negative space to render the shadows and reflections just right.
* staying clean - this stuff makes a horrific mess if you don't handle it properly

Going to return to this project when I have some time and more magnets...there's some amazing artistic possibilities with this material

Cheers

ss


Stunning! Incredibly fascinating forms. Love the science. And greatly appreciate your use of printer paper as a modifier! Gold stars all around!
Holly



Jan 31, 2023 at 01:23 PM





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