Blacklight Strobe

Redfax

Hi all, bit of a weird question:

I'd like to have a UV flash head, how would I go about it? where can i find an optical band pass filter of appropriate specifications? Do i have to remove a uv filter from the flash unit? How much output would I be getting?

I realize this doesn't exactly a common set of questions...

ziggy53

I believe that most flash tubes have a UV cutout coating on the tube itself, designed to prevent most of the UV emissions. I am not aware of compact flash tubes that do not have this coating, but some studio strobes "do" have unfiltered flash tubes available. Yes, you would add a UV bandpass filter to those UV rich tubes to allow a "black light" emission. The required bandwidth and size needs to be specified before I can give a recommendation on a particular bandpass filter.

Many party strobes are unfiltered, so that might be a cheap way to go unless you need flash synchronization.

If you want a very pure form of UV output you might give these folks a shout:

http://www.xenoncorp.com/lamps.html

A common 48" blacklight Fluorescent tube, 40 watt, T12 size, isn't too expensive and can be used for photography. I highly recommend using a fixture with a high-frequency electronic ballast to allow reasonable shutter speeds.

Redfax

Thanks ziggy53, I'm going to try the regular blacklight first. I need the frequencies that excite fluorescent paint, the reason why I was asking about flash units is that I don't plan to image the fluorescents directly, but rather as diffuse light sources to light my subject. Hence the need for more Dakka.