Hi:
A little background:
I am making images of pipes(smoking, not plumbers' variety) in order
to sell them on Ebay.  There are Maker's Marks on these pipes either
stamped or engraved into the wood.  In a few cases I wanted images of
the marks.

The first one I tried I scanned (Epson 4990).  Much to my surprise the
image "inverted" the carving.  The letters look as if they stand out
above the wood; when, in fact, they are cut into the wood.

I thought this was a scanner problem.  I then photographed the carving
on another pipe using an Olympus E-300 with 50mm Macro Lens and
ringlight.  The same phenomenon occurred.

I'd appreciate enlightenment as to why this happens.

Thanks

Ira Solomon

Thanks

Ira Solomon

Ira Solomon <isolomon@solomonltd.com> wrote in
news:hlc1g15pqn9cp7s5tc7gn23p37keama055@4ax.com:

> Hi:
> A little background:
> I am making images of pipes(smoking, not plumbers' variety) in order
> to sell them on Ebay.  There are Maker's Marks on these pipes either
> stamped or engraved into the wood.  In a few cases I wanted images of
> the marks.
>
> The first one I tried I scanned (Epson 4990).  Much to my surprise the
> image "inverted" the carving.  The letters look as if they stand out
> above the wood; when, in fact, they are cut into the wood.
>
> I thought this was a scanner problem.  I then photographed the carving
> on another pipe using an Olympus E-300 with 50mm Macro Lens and
> ringlight.  The same phenomenon occurred.
>
> I'd appreciate enlightenment as to why this happens.
>
> Thanks
>
> Ira Solomon
>
> Thanks
>
> Ira Solomon
>

That's the way the human brain works, brains dedicate a massive amount
of process to visual signals, primarily looking for faces as faces are
never inverted our brains alway try to make posative patterns before
'seeing'inverted' ones.

--
f=Ma well, nearly...

Kingdom <kingdomof@REMOVEXXXXXXXXXX> posted:

> Ira Solomon <isolomon@solomonltd.com> wrote in
> news:hlc1g15pqn9cp7s5tc7gn23p37keama055@4ax.com:
> 
> That's the way the human brain works, brains dedicate a massive amount
> of process to visual signals, primarily looking for faces as faces are
> never inverted our brains alway try to make posative patterns before
> 'seeing'inverted' ones.
>
If you arrange the pipes so that the light is on the top side of the
lettering, not the bottom, the lettering will look right.  Our brain
thinks that shadows of depressed cuts should be on the top, not the
bottom.  If shadows are on the bottom, it looks like the letters stand
out when they are really cut in.
- Max

--
MisterMax

http://buten.net/max/
Slideshows of Angkor Wat, Bali, Crete, France, Malaysia, Maui, Morocco,
Mt Holly, Myanmar (new), Sicily, St Tropez, Singapore, Thailand (new),
Tour de France.

http://pbase.com/mistermax - Shadows and Reflections