This image is an electron micrograph taken on a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The specimen was a layer of iron oxide on an iron substrate that was subjected to a reducing environment. As a result, the iron oxide layer was reduced to iron but this decomposition was not complete. Islands of iron oxide were still visible when the specimen surface was examined in plan view. However, when the specimen was tilted to 60 degrees and viewed, the true structure of the remaining layer was apparent.
The original image was at a magnification of 900x and was taken using Polaroid Type 55 4 in. x 5 in. BW film. From this an 11 in. x 17 in. print was made and hand painted. The colored image was then reduced to 8.5 in. x 11 in. using a Canon color copier and then scanned at 300 dpi on an Apple Color Scanner.