Week 16: Project Week 5

This week it was finally time to test a variation of my final product: a UV filter where the glass has been replaced with a bioplastic made from one of my own recipes. It felt finally excited to test something that I could actually mount onto my camera. It also allows the bioplastic to fit exactly onto my camera lens. This way I can manipulate the patterns on the bioplastic easier as I now know which part of the bioplastic will rest on top of any location on the lens.

To start of you obviously need to be in possession of one of these UV lenses. I ordered this particular one from Subtel. This webshop is based in The Netherlands which allows for fast shipping. They do cost around 10 Euro each, however. That’s why I ordered another 10 (for around 2 Euro each) from AliExpress. Much cheaper, but they take longer to be shipped to my house. Because of time I bought one from Subtel to start experimenting faster.

Once you have a UV filter, you need to remove the glass. This doesn’t have to be done surgically, just use a knife to crack the glass (Use a little caution though, You don’t want to ruin the housing).

After doing this, you need to know which side of the UV filter has the part that screws onto the camera. This side needs to be face UP when pouring the bioplastic liquid into the filter/mold. Otherwise you can’t screw the filter onto the camera anymore, which takes away the whole purpose.

I have decided that for the final product I’m only going to use gelatine sheets as the main ingredient (also glycerine). I don’t think that corn starch and vinegar make for very nice bioplastic. The gelatine ones have always been quite durable. Luckily the bioplastic don’t have to be touched to be used (just as you don’t touch the glass part of a UV filter to avoid scratches and stains).

I have used three gelatine sheers (last week proved four to be too many), a teaspoon of gelatine and 60 ml of water. This gives the bioplastic good transparency and a slight yellowish colour. By now the way to cook this should be clear: cook on medium heat until the liquid gets viscous and allow bubbles to disappear before pouring it into your mold.

While the result looked pretty good at first, unfortunately the bioplastic doesn’t stick well to the plastic of the UV filter. This can be seen below.

Hopefully some part of the bioplastic will stick, which allows the UV filter to be somewhat useful for testing.I need to find a way to get the bioplastic to properly stick to the UV filter. Maybe one of my classmates or teachers has the answer.

I also spent this week testing my existing filters. Using my hand to hold the filters in front of the camera lens, I was able to create some pretty neat artsy pictures. I also experimented with some coloured photos and outdoor photographs. I have not made any portraits yet. Keeping the target audience in mind (hobby photographers) I found out that these filters are ideal for people that don’t want to spend a lot of money on photo editing software. They are now able to recreate some of the effects that a program like Photoshop can also apply onto your photos. Also the analog way these effects are created

Trail of Evidence