Photosynthesis photography: Making images with living plant leaves

How to make photographs using plant leaves: the technique, examples, f/0.5 camera lens construction, and tips & tricks that I learned along the way.

[HuygensOptics]

As a photolithography enthousiast, I approve this video😊. Fantastic work Ben!

[forrestberg]

So rare to find a channel that ONLY uploads complete, well produced and documented projects. These are ideas I’ve never and likely never would have heard of. These would make unbelievable gifts

[thethoughtemporium]

I've been so excited for this video since we spoke about it at opensauce and it's even better than you described. This is amazing!!

[ben_yeates]

I'd be super interested in a sheet of "photo paper" made from algae. Would love to see if it captures more detail than the leaves. Great video!

[jonathanorlando]

Bravo! Gas exchange is primarily done on the underside of leaves. The top of the leaf is usually used for photosynthesis and the bottom for gas exchange. You stumbled on this so fast it is impressive...

[seeigecannon]

Something you can do to extend the useful life of the alcohol is to include charcoal to it. For a while at my job we were having to remove chlorophyll from IPA and a filter impregnated with charcoal worked fantastically.

[-feonix-]

Always an instant click from me. This channel is an absolute gem

[thomascorbin]

As always, you come up with something even experienced science enthusiasts have never heard of! What a fascinating interaction with physics and biology

[AlphaPhoenixChannel]

"you are dealing with biology, which can be kind of fickle" spoken like a physicist xD
awesome project Ben - you undersold it! I want to go back to the photography project world - I'm still thinking about a potato... those have lots of starches lol

[paulbirs]

Great manual! We tried to make these images for my son's 2nd grade school project. And we did it according to the internet instructions. Now when I saw your video, it is hilarious to realize that we got EVERY step completely wrong! We did: 2 days in a dark room, clamped the leaf from both sides, indoor lamp, isopropanol, iodine tincture, drying with regular paper. We had no chance for success 😂

[joshroolf]

My parents were professional geranium growers when I was very young, and photogrammetry was my favorite darkroom technique in school; so this was an amazing intersection of these things for me!
Thank you, I may have to dabble..:::😄

[Rigel_Z]

If you want to try scaling this up to an absurd size, you should start growing some Petasites japonicus. Makes absolutely huge yet thin and delicate leaves. I've got some growing in my backyard, maybe I'll give it a go if I find myself with an empty weekend.

[beachboardfan]

This channel is quickly becoming the last bastion of youtube greatness, never change, never give in to the algorithm!!!

[RickshawMunky]

As an arboriculturalist this blows my mind. Many many thanks for sharing this amazing project.

[MacroAggressor]

Lugol's Iodine is fairly straightforward to make at home, and _significantly_ cheaper than you can buy pre-mixed.

[KevinHorecka]

Ugh I love your channel so much. Such a fantastic combination of whimsical engineering, interesting science, and thorough, clear presentation. Always the best thing I see that day when you release a video.

[nahueljo]

Amazing video! I had no idea you could also do it like this. I've done this before but much simpler. You take a leaf (already cut from the tree/plant. needs to be deciduous.), you print your POSITIVE image on some transparent or semi-transparent paper, put on top of the leaf and that pressed together with a glass and a sheet of wood or something, then expose to direct sunlight until you notice in parts of the leaf that are visible that it starts turning yellowish-brown (maybe a few hours, maybe a couple of days). So when you take it out you already have an image. The parts blocked by the positive are green and the parts not blocked are yellowish-brown. If you put it in a book or something it might last a couple of years but otherwise it'll degrade pretty quickly. There's some people that use a fixing process that uses glycerin and some house-hold chemicals. They call them "chlorotypes"

[bytesandbikes]

This brought back the smell of doing it in school. We used 'methlated spirits', or a mix of ethanol and methanol.

[apt]

Every time there’s a new Applied Science video, “My Hero” by the Foo Fighters starts running through my head.

[fburton]

Professors George Porter and Eric Laithwaite were childhood heroes of mine. Watching their Christmas lectures on tv in the late 60s and 1970s was a big motivation for me to pursue a career in science.