Chris and Jordan are joined once again by Don Komarechka – part photographer, part mad scientist – to explore the incredible possibilities of shooting with UV lights. The results are vibrant, unpredictable and other-worldly, and with the right equipment, you can try it at home too.
I've been doing UVIVF using a lamp made from a single LED that was made using a heat sink, ZWB2 filter, and resistors. There were problems along the way, but eventually I had a design that worked. Panasonic S series Full Frames are incredible, and I really have wanted to sell all of my equipment for one. The main thing that's great about them is how well designed they are, though the ability to make clean images in limited light is also excellent.
You need a big warning in text to add to these pages that if you want to do any work in UV buy and wear UVex Amber glasses or goggles. This is important for eye protection. As just as your quick filter test shows different glasses will leak. You can't just wear any polycarbonate plastic. Even the UVex Orange glasses leak 380nm.
To get at your filter question look up the difference between dichroic filters and absorbing filters. Thats why you see the angle dependence on blocking. Dichroic, are interesting that way and used to make very thin filters.
This did look fun. I typically photograph UV reflectance in most wavelengths. But do play with UV fluorescence as well. The advantage of UV fluorescence photography shown here is you don't need a full spectrum converted camera. Although Olympus cameras have the weakest UV sensor blocking filters and can be used for 370nm and up without conversion.
Interesting., andf thank you, but more information would help. The ultraviolet is divided into three broad ranges: A, B and C. LED UV flashlights barely reach into UVA, 315–400 nm, and that appears to be what was used in the video. UVA is comparatively innocuous, and moderate use would not necessitate UV-blocking goggles (in fact, they should have been tested, as were the camera filters -- do they block UVA?).
UVB and UVC are progressively shorter wavelengths, capable of damaging the eye and skin with short exposure. However, some fluorescent minerals require the shorter wavelength to fluoresce, or fluoresce in different colors than in UVA. UVB is often generated by gas-discharge lamps.
It would also have been interesting to see photos without a filter, i.e. relying on actual UV getting through the sensor filter, not just fluorescence photos.
The flashlights used were equipped with LG LEUVA33U70RL00 LEDs filtered through ZWB2 glass, so there us virtually zero UVC radiation. While you're right that the immediately impact of UVC (often used to sterilize labs and hospital equipment) would not be present, I wouldn't even trust my bare hands around UVC lights.
UVB can damage your eyes, with studies suggesting cataracts will form at younger ages for individuals exposed to UVB on a regular basis, but I don't know if there is conclusive evidence for exactly what that cut-off wavelength is, so the glasses are still a decent measure here.
I have done significant work in UV reflectance, revealing patterns in flowers. It's so niche and specialized in terms of equipment though - so it wouldn't find nearly the same audience in the general photography realm.
Also, I have some shortwave UV lamps for minerals, but there is always a purple light bleed. The only fix is the uber-expensive MidOpt BP250 filter. Maybe some day. :)
Typically UVA is referred to as 320nm to 400nm UVB is 290nm to 320nm, and UVC is 100nm to 290nm. There isn't a hard cut off and people use different numbers for convenience. I like the mercury lines as an easier UV source. The LED flashlights will have different peaks in UV. Don mentioned he was using a Convoy which is typically just a 365nm ligh. But there are other LEDs at 390, 380, 340nm. Also some in the UVC range. Leds have a tighter spectra output. ZWB (Chinese filters) are very cheap and can leak into 405nm or more. So not much use in adding a ZWB2 to a Convoy. Better to filter with a U340 filter.
I've made a UV lamp myself out of a single 365nm LED, which emitted an immense amount of visible light. I used a ZWB2 filter in front of it and it blocked the visible light, or the vast majority of it. It was enough to create UVIVF photos.
@MacM545, The main problem with ZWB glass is there are at least 5 different Chinese manufacturers all with different standards and cuts. I have a good version of ZWB1 and ZWB2 filters that I purchased directly and are good. But many have not been that lucky. A lot of ZWB2 glass leaks into visible significantly and may not be useful. However, 405nm is excellent for inducing fluorescence. So even with a little leak, you might be seeing that. Also 455 and 488nm are good excitation wavelengths. So some people may be looking at blue excitation and seeing red or IR fluorescence. Flowers and fruits have quite nice red fluorescence from blue excitation.
The LG or Nichia LEDs used in Convoy flashlights are generally pretty good to start with, and (at least on the flashlights I have), the visible light cut-off with the ZWB2 filter is almost as good as other options I have here in studio: XNite 330C + XNite BP1 (the best) or Hoya U-340 + MidOpt BP365 (bleeds IR from full-spectrum light sources, but the camera blocks that). I'd say it's about 95% as pure, but when playing with minerals or artificial inks, it's more than good enough.
Inherently, UV lights do not cover a wide spectrum (white light from LEDs is often achieved through fluorescence). With a peak of 365nm on these diodes, it's safe to say that there is no significant issue of UVB or UVC light; such diodes that emit those wavelengths are much more expensive and specialized! The ZWB2 glass also cuts these more dangerous wavelengths considerably.
dbateman, UVIVF isn't the only game in town, vis-to-vis and vis-to-ir fluorescence can also be fun as you suggest!
i'd really like to know why that HOYA filter is letting more UV-light through off-axis. I wonder if that is also the case with sunglasses, after all HOYA is a producer of spectacle glas. I worry that UV protection on sunglasses (that is standard nowadays) might be just as "faulty" in some cases and therefore harmful. Testing for certiification might actually only be checking the on-axis efficiency of the UV filter....
To the best of my research it's because the Hoya filter is using optical interference coatings to block the UV (and IR) light with this filter, and such coatings behave differently when light hits from a different angle. The angular shift means that light will take longer to pass between different coating layers, disrupting the normally-intended interference pattern.
The same (or similar) coatings are likely used on glass filters in front of our sensors, but the light hitting those filters cannot come from such an oblique angle.
The Zeiss T* on the other hand doesn't use interference as a method of blocking UV light, it simply absorbs it - and also fluoresces slightly while it's at it. :)
My flickr page has photos of scropions under UV, it takes a lot of time to get correct exposure and one needs to be extremely careful when working with UV lights.
Although mentioned in the video-be very, very careful NOT to get UV light into your eyes. Aside from cataracts, retinal burns are possible-and they are very painful. As noted- modern digital cameras have UV filters over the sensor. What you are seeing is visible light excited by the UV light. A while back there was a flap in that some cameras were sensitive to UV with the results that visibly black objects had a bit over a color cast to them. Perhaps some reader can dig up the details.
Nikon D70 was a famous one for UV photography. But some cameras today are also sensitive to the 370nm to 400nm range. You can use a stock Olympus Em1 and Em5mk2 to photography in that range. The older four thirds Olympus cameras were all sensitive in that range as well. Also you can pop out the dust blocking filter in a Sigma Foveon camera (SD10, SD14, SD15, SD1M and Quattro) and image in monochrome UV from 350nm to 400nm.
Ultraviolet photography comes in two flavours: UV reflectance and UV fluorescence. Both require UV light as a source, but what we're doing here is playing with the fluorescence element - the camera captures visible light that wouldn't exist without UV excitation.
It's far simpler to shoot (no camera modifications, no specialized bandpass filters and high-UV-transmission lenses), making it accessible to anyone with a high quality UV flashlight. :)
I've done a good amount of UV reflectance work, but it wouldn't make for nearly as interesting a video. The only thing that has really stood out for me in UV reflectance is patterns in flowers that insects can see, as well as UV haze that can add depth to certain landscape images. UV fluorescence is much more fun. :)
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