This semester one of my friends is studying knowledge of holography. When he told me that it’s a kind of ‘special’ photography, I started to be interested in it. So after having surfed for information online and found out what holography is, I decided to learn some holography and make my own hologram as the final project for the Digital Culture Class.
For those who are not familiar with the terminology — Holography is a technique which enables three-dimensional images to be made. It involves the useof a laser, interference, diffraction, light intensity recording and suitable illumination of the recording. The image changes as the position and orientation of the viewing system changes in exactly the same way as if the object were still present, thus making the image appearThree-dimensional
The whole process of making a hologram has to be in a lab which is dark and quiet because it’s done by laser light and if there is even a little bit interuption, the hologram could come out failed. Luckily I did not have to learn how to set up the equipments and tools by myself since they are always set up already. So getting into the lab, the first thing I have to do is to set up the object I am going to use to reflect on my hologram. Though it seems easy to just put the object in the frame, I still have to spend time to fix it and make it still by glue or whatever. Then after the scene is set up, lights have to turned off and the laser needs to be turned on. Before turned on, I have to put a board in front of the light source to cover the laser light before it’s ready to go through all the mirror equipments. Now it’s the hardest time for I have to wait at least 30 mins in the dark for the laser light to be calm and stable. And one could not let any other light source come into the lab while waiting, so… all I can do is just to sit and stare at my watch, praying there would not be any creepy thing down in this basement….
Ok once you assume the laser is ready, you could take out the board and let the light go through the tools. Remember the maximum of the time is no longer than 30 seconds. So by about 28th or 29th sec you have to put the board back to cover the light source quickly. Then take out the hologram from the frame kindly and take it to the dark room without turning any light on for now.
So in the dark room, the hologram needs to be processed. So get ready for 4 pans of chemicals. The first one is for processing, and the hologram has to be processed until it’s totally charcoal dark. The second chemical is the fix which we only need the hologram in it for 5 seconds. The third one is bleach, and the hologram has to be in it until it’s getting totally transparent. Usually it lasts about 20 minutes. And then after the bleach it has to be washed by water for a really long time… The last step is to take the hologram out after being washed and try it out by nampkins and hair-dryer. And then if you are lucky enough you will get a magical picture of 3D image on it!
I am still working hard on it and hopefully I could get it done by this week… I guess I have to.. But anyway it’s a lot of fun!!!
dalongyang 