How to do a UV shoot ? Any ideas ?

harjtt

Just wondering if anyone knows anything about UV photography and how to light and shoot it ? I may just help out an MUA whose looking for a photographer to do such a shoot as a last resort. I'm googling for info but nothing so far thats made me work out how it's done.

Any hints and tips on this would be really cool, esp if its way otu of my league as I can then point her in the right direction.

Cheers

Harj

:thumb

Cuong

What is UV photography?

Cuong

harjtt

I've got no idea and hence the question but this is basically the concept -

The MUA is going to use UV makeup on the model and this makeup literally glows in the dark and i think the only way to capture it is using UV photography I think

Cheers

Harj

Cuong

Sounds like you'll need those black lights for the UV(glow-in-the-dark) make-up to show. For sure don't forget to remove the UV filter if you have one on the lens. I have no idea what kind of exposure to expect. My guest is more black light would result in a shorter exposure. Maybe someone on this forum has done this. Good luck.

Cuong

LiquidAir

If you are trying to capture UV light with a camera, you'll need some very specialized gear because the glass used in most camera lenes is largely opaque in the UV spectrum. Most UV photography is done with quartz optics and if you do a google search on quartz optics you will find a range of suppliers. Film is usually quite sensitive in the UV, but if you want to use a DSLR for UV photography you may also need to have the anti-aliasing filter over the sensor removed.

pathfinder

If you are going to use UV lights to stimulate pigments to fluoresce, the fluorescence is generally visible to the naked eye, and hence, photographable by a camera whether film or silicon.

LA is correct, that UV light will be blocked by almost all glass lenses. Quartz optics will be a specialty item. I have not heard of them being available for typical DSLRs.

I think I recall FUJI selling a DSLR that is set up to shot IR and UV for forensic use, but have never had the privilege of shooting one.

harjtt

Hi Guys

Thanks for the info - I might look into renting the Fuji S5Pro IR UV + lens for the shoot. It looks as if it could be a seriously cool shoot but it sounds as if its going to be a pretty complicated buisness.

Cheers

Harj

ktmbmw

I have taken a number of pictures of things with glow-in-the-dark paint and UV light sources (halloween decortations and party goers); you don't need a special camera, the light is visible so just shoot it.
You might want to use a secondary light source to add detail or more color range.
Check out my avatar, that is a glow-in-the-dark plastic decoration lit from below.

Art Scott

ktmbmw wrote:

I have taken a number of pictures of things with glow-in-the-dark paint and UV light sources (halloween decortations and party goers); you don't need a special camera, the light is visible so just shoot it.
You might want to use a secondary light source to add detail or more color range.
Check out my avatar, that is a glow-in-the-dark plastic decoration lit from below.

I haven't done anythng with UV make up buuuut I have photgraphed some gem specimens using standard 100 iso print film (fuji film and fuji AX3 camera/w 28-105) and bracketed like crazy to get one or three pics on a whole roll of 24......minerals look very bright but the meters says not so brite........

harjtt

Thanks everyone foe all of your help and I now think I know how to go about doing this - apparently what teh MUA wants to shoot is also called blacklight photography. I'mm going to buy some UV paint and a UV light or two and play around and see what I can do before looking at renting any quartz glass or the Fuji IR/UV cam.

Cheers

Harj

DoctorIt

pathfinder wrote:

If you are going to use UV lights to stimulate pigments to fluoresce, the fluorescence is generally visible to the naked eye, and hence, photographable by a camera whether film or silicon.

Harj - I think this is the key. Unless you are getting into something REALLY special (ie: forensics), the UV light is going to the excitation source, not the emission. Pretty much any flourescence works this way, so insist on knowing the emission spectrum, you might find it is actually very high frequency and filters can help you (guessing here).

Now bear in mind all of what I just said comes from microscope work and not makeup, I'm not nearly that cool.

pathfinder

A simple rule is that if it is visible to the naked eye, it can be captured on film or silicon with a camera that records visible light. The UV merely stimulates the emission of visible light from the subject.