Ultraviolet (UV) Image Gallery

I was recently introduced to the beautiful art of ultraviolet photography of flowers. Patterns that are not visible to our eyes, but attract insects and birds, are some of the most interesting patterns and colors I've ever seen.

I was hoping that there would be some examples of ultra-violet photography here on POTN, but nobody's posted anything! People portraits look very cool in the ultraviolet spectrum as well.

Now you have a gallery to post your UV images and a place to talk about how you achieved the shots.

Let's see them!

I played around with UV imaging a while back. I tried a variety of point&shoot and DSLR cameras and lenses to find something that would work. The focus shift of most lenses at the UV end is huge.

This is taken with an unmodified 10D and B+W/403 filter. The flower is 'Goldmound' (Bidens ferruifolia).
The top half is visible light and the bottom is reflected UV.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/8AST​fg

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/a3gj​iH

This is so interesting. I thought that I would have to do a full-spectrum conversion to a camera to take ultraviolet images.

What resources did you go to to learn how to do this? Is it literally a stock camera with the 403 filter?

SteveInNZ wrote in post #17164741
I played around with UV imaging a while back. I tried a variety of point&shoot and DSLR cameras and lenses to find something that would work. The focus shift of most lenses at the UV end is huge.

This is taken with an unmodified 10D and B+W/403 filter. The flower is 'Goldmound' (Bidens ferruifolia).
The top half is visible light and the bottom is reflected UV.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/8AST​fg
Bidens ferrurifolia In UV light by stevetla, on Flickr

and this is the common Dandelion flower.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/a3gj​iH
UV Dandelion by stevetla, on Flickr

Steve.

I originally bought the filter to create a UV only light source to do some fluorescence photography. I knew that the filtering varied between cameras at the red end from an interest in astrophotography so just experimented.

Full spectrum will be much more sensitive but the 403 filter lets in quite a bit of IR which the 10D wasn't sensitive to. The full spectrum camera will be, so you'll need to block that somehow. An alternative is the Baader Planetarium UV-Venus filter which is much more expensive but doesn't have the IR leakage.

The exposure of the UV section of the first one is 4 minutes compared to 1/20 sec for the visible section. I used a different lens for the dandelion and that was 30 sec for the UV and 1/60 for the visible portion.

Steve.

I found some spec sheets for Hoya filters. All their ultraviolet transmitting filters are at the link below.

http://www.hoyaoptics.​com …ilter/uv_transm​itting.htm

It looks like the Hoya U-340 would make a very good ultraviolet band pass filter for UV photography. It has a wide band of UV pass while still blocking visible light and infrared light very well, with the U-350 blocking the non-UV spectrum just a little better. Do you happen to know where to find the B+W specification sheets for their 403 UV transmitting filter?

However, I've heard that the Baader-U filter is the best one out there. It's an astronomical purpose filter that has an extremely good transmission response curve. Information is in the link below:

http://www.savazzi.net​/photography/baader_u.​htm

I have also found an excellent resource at the link below:

http://www.ultraviolet​photography.com/

There is an entire community of UV photographers there that advise on equipment and techniques.

This is also a great article on UV photography that covers everything from a UV flash to camera sensors:

http://www.savazzi.net​/photography/uv.htm

I'm continuing to learn more about this.

I agree. It looks good.
The 403 is Schott glass used in black lights, etc. A google search turns up some data. It's probably the most economical option.

Steve.

Cool. I've wanted to experiment with uv photography. I have read that quartz glass un coated lenses are used for uv ir photography because normal lenses filter a lot of the uv. What lens did you use here? I have seen many uv filters on ebay, just search uv band pass filters.

calypsob wrote in post #17190834
Cool. I've wanted to experiment with uv photography. I have read that quartz glass un coated lenses are used for uv ir photography because normal lenses filter a lot of the uv. What lens did you use here? I have seen many uv filters on ebay, just search uv band pass filters.

This guy below:

http://nickspiker.devi​antart.com …Series-Number-B-113065418

Provides a lot of good information in the comments section of this image comparison he posted at that page above.

These pictures are just wonderful. It will be interesting to see a human photo with UV effect. I was wondering if the UV effect can be given through painting as there are many mediums to convert photo to paintings. And if UV could be one of them?
learn this here now .

MCBarksdale wrote in post #17193050
These pictures are just wonderful. It will be interesting to see a human photo with UV effect. I was wondering if the UV effect can be given through painting as there are many mediums to convert photo to paintings. And if UV could be one of them?
learn this here now .

When people are photographed in UV, it reveals sun damage to the skin. Basically, a bunch of hidden freckles and sunspots are visible that you can't see in normal light that our eyes are capable of seeing.

It makes people look very old and weathered.

On the other hand, infrared portraits of people actually make the subject look like mythical creatures. It makes women look like nymphs or fairies and men look like Greek or Roman deities.

UV is best for insects and flora. Lots of hidden patterns are visible in UV light that are invisible otherwise.