1
00:00:05,050 --> 00:00:08,250
Take a look at this music
box for our first case study.

2
00:00:08,250 --> 00:00:11,190
So I place it on the
glass of the scanner,

3
00:00:11,190 --> 00:00:13,140
and it looks pretty good.

4
00:00:13,140 --> 00:00:14,790
But as I look carefully.

5
00:00:14,790 --> 00:00:17,300
Which I hope you will do when
you try this sort of stuff

6
00:00:17,300 --> 00:00:19,340
with your work, a
couple of things

7
00:00:19,340 --> 00:00:21,270
that I'm not thrilled with.

8
00:00:21,270 --> 00:00:25,090
First of all, we're seeing
some writing on the barrel.

9
00:00:25,090 --> 00:00:28,690
Looking closer, it appears
to be numbers and letters.

10
00:00:28,690 --> 00:00:29,820
That's not great.

11
00:00:29,820 --> 00:00:33,390
Our eyes go straight
to letters and numbers,

12
00:00:33,390 --> 00:00:36,140
and they basically
attract our eye

13
00:00:36,140 --> 00:00:39,770
and actually become a
distraction from the image,

14
00:00:39,770 --> 00:00:41,080
as far as I'm concerned.

15
00:00:41,080 --> 00:00:43,580
So I'm not happy with that.

16
00:00:43,580 --> 00:00:46,670
I'm also not thrilled with
the positioning of the turning

17
00:00:46,670 --> 00:00:47,550
mechanism.

18
00:00:47,550 --> 00:00:48,820
Let's call it a stem.

19
00:00:48,820 --> 00:00:52,850
Somehow it doesn't
feel composed properly.

20
00:00:52,850 --> 00:00:56,970
So what I simply did, was I
played it a bit so the barrel

21
00:00:56,970 --> 00:01:00,980
no longer shows the writing,
and I turned the stem

22
00:01:00,980 --> 00:01:03,950
so that it landed in a
better composed image.

23
00:01:03,950 --> 00:01:05,740
I've been thinking
about composition

24
00:01:05,740 --> 00:01:08,440
all my professional
life, so see if you can

25
00:01:08,440 --> 00:01:10,880
agree with me on this decision.

26
00:01:10,880 --> 00:01:13,160
So I started thinking
about what difference

27
00:01:13,160 --> 00:01:16,890
it would make if we changed
the orientation of the device

28
00:01:16,890 --> 00:01:18,030
on the scanner.

29
00:01:18,030 --> 00:01:21,240
Now remember the light
and sensors travel

30
00:01:21,240 --> 00:01:24,810
only in one direction we
have no control over that.

31
00:01:24,810 --> 00:01:27,980
So in this first image,
the barrel of the music box

32
00:01:27,980 --> 00:01:30,550
is parallel to the light source.

33
00:01:30,550 --> 00:01:34,380
In the next image I decided
to rotate the music box

34
00:01:34,380 --> 00:01:37,070
90 degrees, that
is, perpendicular

35
00:01:37,070 --> 00:01:38,470
to the light source.

36
00:01:38,470 --> 00:01:39,220
Here's that image.

37
00:01:42,910 --> 00:01:44,820
Take a look at the
two side by side

38
00:01:44,820 --> 00:01:46,500
and observe the difference.

39
00:01:46,500 --> 00:01:48,300
I'll let you think
about that for a bit.

40
00:01:50,960 --> 00:01:54,660
So you see the first image,
made with the barrel oriented

41
00:01:54,660 --> 00:01:58,729
parallel to the light source,
has a significant highlight.

42
00:01:58,729 --> 00:02:00,820
Whereas the one
captured perpendicular

43
00:02:00,820 --> 00:02:03,290
to the light source
has no highlight.

44
00:02:03,290 --> 00:02:05,800
If I sat down for
a bit and tried

45
00:02:05,800 --> 00:02:08,620
to anticipate all these
results by drawing arrows

46
00:02:08,620 --> 00:02:11,080
from light sources and
reflections and all that,

47
00:02:11,080 --> 00:02:14,600
I might have been able to
anticipate what the differences

48
00:02:14,600 --> 00:02:15,760
would be in advance.

49
00:02:15,760 --> 00:02:18,760
But I would prefer to just
discover it, experiment

50
00:02:18,760 --> 00:02:22,740
with it, just as I hope you
will do with your own material.

51
00:02:22,740 --> 00:02:26,800
And what it would look like if
I oriented the device about 45

52
00:02:26,800 --> 00:02:28,579
degrees to the light source?

53
00:02:28,579 --> 00:02:30,250
What do you think
will be the results?

54
00:02:30,250 --> 00:02:31,050
Take a moment.

55
00:02:31,050 --> 00:02:35,200
You can even stop the
video if you'd like to.

56
00:02:35,200 --> 00:02:36,079
OK ready?

57
00:02:36,079 --> 00:02:37,170
Here we go.

58
00:02:37,170 --> 00:02:40,060
Nothing very important
here, I'm afraid.

59
00:02:40,060 --> 00:02:43,880
But the point is to
experiment with your material.

60
00:02:43,880 --> 00:02:47,090
Remember you don't have
control of your light source

61
00:02:47,090 --> 00:02:49,370
with a scanner as you
will with your camera.

62
00:02:49,370 --> 00:02:51,870
So at the very least,
take advantage of what

63
00:02:51,870 --> 00:02:53,520
you do have control over.

64
00:02:53,520 --> 00:02:58,800
And in this case, it's the
placement of your device.

65
00:02:58,800 --> 00:03:01,780
Here you're seeing
this incredible animal

66
00:03:01,780 --> 00:03:05,550
which is called a Euplectella,
which lives in the sea.

67
00:03:05,550 --> 00:03:09,260
This is his skeleton,
made out of silica.

68
00:03:09,260 --> 00:03:11,280
Now when you take
a careful look,

69
00:03:11,280 --> 00:03:13,630
you can see that two
shrimp are living

70
00:03:13,630 --> 00:03:15,930
within this guy in
what can be called

71
00:03:15,930 --> 00:03:17,660
a symbiotic relationship.

72
00:03:17,660 --> 00:03:20,030
Which is very
interesting, tangential,

73
00:03:20,030 --> 00:03:21,680
but quite interesting.

74
00:03:21,680 --> 00:03:24,350
So I put this
three-dimensional skeleton

75
00:03:24,350 --> 00:03:28,000
on the flatbed scanner,
covered it with black velvet,

76
00:03:28,000 --> 00:03:30,570
and took a very high res scan.

77
00:03:30,570 --> 00:03:33,000
I think it was
something like one Gig

78
00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:35,500
file, which is pretty high.

79
00:03:35,500 --> 00:03:40,250
The black velvet becomes the
background of the image, right?

80
00:03:40,250 --> 00:03:43,860
Now watch as we zoom
in to the image.

81
00:03:43,860 --> 00:03:47,829
We start seeing this magnificent
structure that nature

82
00:03:47,829 --> 00:03:50,150
is somehow able to produce.

83
00:03:50,150 --> 00:03:53,920
Those fibers measure
about 50 microns.

84
00:03:53,920 --> 00:03:56,550
So I'm quite
serious about seeing

85
00:03:56,550 --> 00:03:59,460
things of very fine
structure, if in fact,

86
00:03:59,460 --> 00:04:02,695
once again, you capture at
a high enough resolution.

87
00:04:06,230 --> 00:04:10,080
Here's our final case study
for this particular tutorial.

88
00:04:10,080 --> 00:04:12,920
It's about a 2 1/2
centimeter device,

89
00:04:12,920 --> 00:04:15,460
which once again I
place on the scanner.

90
00:04:15,460 --> 00:04:17,829
For this, I thought it
would be fun to show you

91
00:04:17,829 --> 00:04:20,029
how I get some of these
things in the mail.

92
00:04:20,029 --> 00:04:22,400
I made a quick image
with my phone camera

93
00:04:22,400 --> 00:04:25,720
to show you what I start with,
and eventually wind up with.

94
00:04:25,720 --> 00:04:28,150
I thought it would be
interesting for you.

95
00:04:28,150 --> 00:04:29,160
You can do this.

96
00:04:29,160 --> 00:04:31,900
You can see things that don't
look so great the beginning,

97
00:04:31,900 --> 00:04:36,180
and imagine ways of creating
an image that is publishable.

98
00:04:36,180 --> 00:04:40,030
Take a hard look at your
device as I'm doing here.

99
00:04:40,030 --> 00:04:43,260
Try to look at it as if
you were looking at it

100
00:04:43,260 --> 00:04:46,370
for the first time,
which I know is not easy,

101
00:04:46,370 --> 00:04:47,720
but that's the trick.

102
00:04:47,720 --> 00:04:50,930
You might even think about
focusing on getting a cover

103
00:04:50,930 --> 00:04:52,670
image for your submission.

104
00:04:52,670 --> 00:04:55,000
That's where my thinking
was on this device,

105
00:04:55,000 --> 00:04:58,500
since the article was already
accepted for publication.

106
00:04:58,500 --> 00:05:03,420
So here, the image I
made was about 374 megs.

107
00:05:03,420 --> 00:05:06,020
And you can see as we
zoom in to the image

108
00:05:06,020 --> 00:05:08,400
the nice detail in the device.

109
00:05:08,400 --> 00:05:11,630
Again, when you capture at
a high enough resolution

110
00:05:11,630 --> 00:05:15,220
on your scanner, you
can see these details.

111
00:05:15,220 --> 00:05:17,580
So when you think
about cover designs,

112
00:05:17,580 --> 00:05:20,430
for example, think about
cropping and formatting

113
00:05:20,430 --> 00:05:22,050
for the cover.

114
00:05:22,050 --> 00:05:25,840
In the end, it turned out
that for a cover submission

115
00:05:25,840 --> 00:05:29,870
I did wind up using a camera
on the stereo microscope.

116
00:05:29,870 --> 00:05:32,200
This is what I made
with that equipment

117
00:05:32,200 --> 00:05:35,220
I thought I was getting more
clarity with the microscope.

118
00:05:35,220 --> 00:05:38,280
But frankly when I compared
the two a few months later

119
00:05:38,280 --> 00:05:42,170
as I record this tutorial, the
scan image looks pretty good.

120
00:05:42,170 --> 00:05:45,480
And maybe I was in a
bit of overkill mode.

121
00:05:45,480 --> 00:05:47,180
These are the kinds
of decisions you'll

122
00:05:47,180 --> 00:05:49,000
have to make for your own work.

123
00:05:49,000 --> 00:05:51,300
Maybe you have an opinion
about which is better.

124
00:05:51,300 --> 00:05:52,790
Take a look.

125
00:05:52,790 --> 00:05:56,450
By the way, in the end, in this
case, it didn't matter much.

126
00:05:56,450 --> 00:05:57,810
We didn't get the cover.

127
00:05:57,810 --> 00:06:01,470
But at least I was able to
show you another example.