PERIPHERAL AND ROLLOUT PHOTOGRAPHY

Andrew Davidhazy
Images for Science, Education and Industry
andpph.com

There seems to be renewed interest in rollout, strip, peripheral and slit scan photography and this is an attempt to provide some text material as well as images associated tith this method of making reproductions of the exterior surface of objects such as vases, pistons, etc.


Sometime in the 1970 a request arrived from the Dansk Corporation requesting I make photographic reproductions of the design that appeared on the surface off five pieces of pottery as shown below. They were asking for rolout or peripheral photos of the designs with the purpose of later making decals from the photos that could be applied to a production run of such items. What follows is a brief summary of the solution to the request.

rollout peripheral photo of dansk pottery

rollout peripheral photo of dansk pottery    rollout peripheral photo of dansk pottery

Making a periheral or periphery copy of the design on the cylindrical vessels can be done relatively easily. The object is rotated on a turntable and the camera's field of view is limited to a narrow angle by a slit being installed at the focal plane of the camera and the film is advanced through the camera at a rate that matches the rate at which the image of the surface of the bowl moves. If the film is drawn to quickly the surface features appear stretched out and if too slowly they appear compressed.
        
rollout peripheral photo of dansk pottery]

This is one of the cylindrical bowls and on right is the result using the approach presented above.

rollout peripheral photo of dansk pottery

This is a record of a longer strip of film showing a number of rotations of the pot.


BUT WHAT IF ONE HAS A CONICAL SHAPED OBJECT?

Dealing with cylindrical objects is no big deal. However, the conical shaped teapot is another. As the pot rotates on the turntable, while the angular speed of rotation is uniform the linear speed of the surface varies. The bottom, or fatter, portions move more quickly than the top since the cirumferences vary. Large at bottom and small at top. Using a camera in the same configuration as for cylindrical object will yield a distorted result with only one particulat area or circumference reproduced properly. The requirement for the camera is that the film need to move at a different rate along the height of the pot. To achieve this I designed a camera where the film meets this criterion. Instead of moving the film in a straight line the film is attched to a turntable also. The image of the base of the teapot is placed close to the edge of the rotating film disk. The image of the top is located closer to the center of th film turntable. It's rate of rotation compared to that of the pot bearing turntable is dependant on the taper angle of the teapot. This is decribed in more detail in this paper: http://etc. etc.

rollout peripheral photo of dansk pottery getting back to the request from the company note that there is a tapered conical shaped teapot among the items slated to be periphotographed. A complete description of the camera can be accessed here: http://etc. etc.

rollout peripheral photo of dansk pottery       rollout peripheral photo of dansk pottery 
This is the setup for dealing with a cone     and these are negatives produced by the camera.

rollout peripheral photo of dansk pottery

Here you can see the result delivered by the conical/circular periphery camera.


                     This is a copy of an article on one method of making periphotos on a budget.

rollout peripheral photo of dansk pottery      rollout peripheral photo of dansk pottery
rollout peripheral photo of dansk pottery     rollout peripheral photo of dansk pottery


What follows are a set of links to texts related to periphera, and rollout photography

Here is a link to a commercially made precision peripheral camera/photography system. The Research Engineers  Periphery camera made in England in the 1950s.  http://www.davidhazy.org/andpph/text-re-peripheral-camera-booklet/

Can I make rollout slit-scan photographs in-camera with my basic DSLR camera? How?
http://www.davidhazy.org/andpph/text-rollout-slit-scan-photos-with-a-regular-DSLR.html

Peripheral or rollout photography for every potter using a phone camera
http://www.davidhazy.org/andpph/text-peripheral-iphone.html

HOW I BROKE THE REALITY BARRIER as it appeared in POPULAR PHOTOGRAPHY (historical item!) http://www.davidhazy.org/andpph/text-article-popphoto-strip.html

Slit Scan and Strip Photography Overview
http://www.davidhazy.org/andpph/text-streak-strip-scanning-imaging-overview.html

Peripheral or rollout photographyof edge markings on three US medals
http://www.davidhazy.org/andpph/text-peripheral-medals.html

Automatic Rollout or Peripheral Photography
http://www.davidhazy.org/andpph/text-auto-rollout-peripheral.html

Basics of Strip Photography
http://www.davidhazy.org/andpph/text-strip-basics.html

Development of a Novel Camera for Conical Panoramic Photography
http://www.davidhazy.org/andpph/text-strip-iapp.html




Contact the Andrew Davidhazy if you have questions, comments or suggestions about this project.