The art of taking photos of really tiny parts

Here's a post that will appeal both to artists and engineers.

One of the most interesting companies that I visited in 2016 was MTD Micro Molding in Charlton, Mass. The company was a finalist for our Processor of the Year award.

As the name implies, MTD specializes in micromolding. It's a niche in the plastics industry that few companies really tackle. According to MTD's definition, micromolded parts so small you need a microscope to see them, or parts as large as 1-inch-by-1-inch that have micro features.

The vast majority of products MTD makes would fit into a space of three square millimeters. That point really hit home on my company visit, when you realize the company's warehouse of finished parts is basically the size of a filing cabinet.

Another cool thing about MTD was the interesting photographs that the company uses to illustrate the micro features of its parts. Director of Marketing Lindsay Mann explained that the company uses a local photographer in nearby Sturbridge, Mass., to take the photos.

Mann visited the photographer's studio and wrote about the visit in a post on MTD's blog. She described the visit as "truly something you have to see to really understand and appreciate."

"Located in rural Sturbridge, Bob's studio setting resembles the opposite of what one might think for micro medical device component photography," she wrote. "His quaint studio is filled with natural light, antique furniture, baskets of blank and painted canvases, an easel for his wife's painting, hand-painted stones… and his special tools for micro medical part photography."

The photographer walked Mann through the process of taking a photo of a micromolded part. First, he anchors the part with forceps and orients it in a vice to get the right angle for the photo. Then he sets up a 2-inch-by-1-inch stage for the part, complete with a custom background, multiple types of lighting, reflectors and other components.

For the photo that Mann wrote about in the blog, she said that she and the photographer spent about two hours setting up shooting and finalizing the photo for just one part.

Mann writes: "Here at MTD, we take our part photography very seriously because it is our primary medium for visually sharing our capabilities with the medical device world. Our photographer's special techniques allow each photo to tell a story for each individual piece."

While I like some of the photos that show the size of the part in comparison to every day objects, Mann said that the company actually is getting away from that type of shot.

"Over the years, we have learned the importance of focusing on the details of the medical implants and not muddying the waters with extraneous objects in the photos that don't help tell the story. Like micro molding, the art of micro photography is highly complex wherein the right mix of tools and experience is required in order to produce a successful and superior product," she wrote.

For more cool photos of micromolded parts, see the portfolio on MTD's website.