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UltravioletPhotography

Taking a closer look


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I took some even closer up UVIVFL pics of my little sunflower. This process of stacking images is also a process of patience. No joke, I literally, ever so slightly, touched my rig with the bottom of a Sam Adams Octoberfest and my 30 shot stack was ruined! It put the subsequent photos out of alignment too much. Since I had to wait 20 seconds in between shots--time becomes something you pay when doing this. But who cares if you are doing something you like I suppose.

 

So I put 93mm of extension tubes between my canon 20D and my 100mm macro--it looked almost humorous. But it worked! I had to rig up a support for the lens as just hooking it up by using the camera screw mount was not a sound way because the whole combination was bending a little--kinda scary. I also had to dig out an old Minolta focusing rail I got from a yard sale years ago because I couldn't turn the lens barrel with enough accuracy to work for my taste. I will post a pic of it under the techniques section.

Loss of light was significant but not impossible to overcome with my closely placed Blak-Rays screaming UV.

 

I also decided at least for now to eliminate the visible light shot to compare--it just takes too long. Shorter stacks maybe I will do both. For this one--a regular shot compared to the macro.

 

UVIVFL: Canon 20D Unmodified, 3 Blak-Rays B-100AP, 5 s @ f/8 ISO 100, No Filters.

post-51-0-47703800-1416781812.jpg

 

 

UVIVFL: Canon 20D Unmodified, 3 Blak-Rays B-100AP, 20 s @ f/6.3 ISO 100, No Filters.

post-51-0-00664400-1416782140.jpg

 

 

-D

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As other members have commented, these images are coming out very well. Kudos for patience and invested efforts.

 

However, I notice that your Blak-Rays apparently leads to much longer exposure times than I see with my Nichia UV-LED torch shooting otherwise similar setups. A typical exposure there being around f/11 @ 4-8 seconds.

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Thanks!

 

What ISO are you shooting in your typical exposure? I am shooting iso 80 or 100.

I guess the LED is just brighter than this old technology. When I wasn't stacking so many extension tubes I was getting much faster times.

I think the Blak-Rays are not super bright like I mentioned somewhere else, but the quality of light is very good. I was able to get a UV meter off ebay that should tell me what the wavelength they really are. Someday I will get one of those Nichia UV-LED torches and try it out--and then maybe pile all my Blak-Rays in a corner. :) I would love to take one of those torches and walk around at night side by side with a Blak-Ray.

For now, as long as my setup is working I'll keep plugging along.

 

-D

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I did realize something today regarding my long exposure times. It is not always the case. It is dependent on the brightness of the fluorescence occurring. For example, even with my half a foot long extension tube I was getting 2.5s shutter speeds @ f8 tonight while taking a sphagnum. The one which is seen below was taken with the small extension removed.

 

That is some strange stuff. When I went in as far I as could, I started seeing what looked like cellular structures. Pretty translucent--and cool!

 

 

Sphagnum moss spp.

UVIVFL: Canon 30D Unmodified, Canon 100mm macro & extension tubes, 3 Blak-Rays B-100AP, 2 s @ f/9 ISO 100, No Filters.

post-51-0-73697200-1416965312.jpg

 

 

 

Shield lichen spp.

UVIVFL: Canon 30D Unmodified, Canon 100mm macro & extension tubes, 3 Blak-Rays B-100AP, 2 s @ f/8 ISO 200, No Filters.

post-51-0-92394000-1416964957.jpg

 

 

-D

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Good question. How do I figure that out?

I have a 1.6X crop factor camera, 100 macro, & 93 mm of extension tubes.

 

The sphagnum above I now think was taken with the 20 mm removed. That sphagnum looks almost alien.

That same lichen pic when fully maxed out, I got the whole center filled in by that larger purple fruiting body thing to the left. This is the most fun I have had with photography in a while.

 

-D

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Hi Damon

Look at the specs for your cameras sensor size, about 20 something mm.

If you place a ruler in the image & it shows the same measure as the sensor's width, then you have 1:1 ratio, the same size.

If the ruler is showing half the sensors width then, you have 2:1 magnification, double size :)

Col

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I will have to go do some measuring of my items. I am over 1:1 in most of the ones I have shot recently for sure. My lens by itself does that.

 

Here a few more from tonight:

 

Lichen spp. No stacking on this.

Visible Light: Canon 30D Unmodified, Canon 100mm macro, Full spectrum lamp, 2.5 s @ f/25 ISO 100, No Filters.

post-51-0-98154000-1416980509.jpg

 

UVIVFL: Canon 30D Unmodified, Canon 100mm macro, 3 Blak-Rays B-100AP, 1.3 s @ f/8 ISO 100, No Filters.

post-51-0-23635900-1416980740.jpg

 

 

Closer in on the few fruiting bodies in the upper right of the previous image. Same setup but 2s shutter & extension tubes.

post-51-0-50591800-1416980875.jpg

 

So you get a sense of scale

post-51-0-75299100-1416981076.jpg

 

 

-D

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With all those rings you might go to approx. twice life size when the lens on its own does 1:1. However, shoot a ruler and the question is answered once and for all. Remember magnification is a scale factor so does not depend on the actual film format as such. Meaning the same lens extension gives the same magnification no matter what camera the lens is placed on.
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I measured the little blue guys above, horizontally and got ~over 11mm. My sensor is 22.5 across. So around 1.9X. So Bjørn is right, as he seems to be a lot of times. I will trip him up someday.

 

Thanks for the info Col and thanks for the magnification fact Bjørn.

 

I got another lens to try out today. It's getting pretty crazy in my little shed let me tell you! So I tried a Canon MP-E 65mm macro. Which goes from 1-5X natively.

 

So I took some close ups of the sphagnum again. But this time, with the MP-E at 5x and of course all my 93mm's of extension tubes as well. Whoah! I think I have almost 6.5X now! Not totally sure though because I can't measure something that small accurately with my ruler. Not only that, but a whole new set of exciting challenges arrived to test me. First and foremost is the fact that even with my fine focusing Minolta rail, I am having a hard time turning it finely enough. The motor Col showed me should help that though. Enough UV light is becoming an issue too. I may need to start cranking my ISO up and see what happens. I suspect that I am approaching some kind of camera lens limit. Don't know if I can go much further in and not have diffraction and stuff start to happen. Also don't know if I know what I am talking about there so might all be good. But this is far enough for now. :)

 

Check out the photos below: This first one was near the end of one of the long arms of the plant and you can see some kind of cell looking structures.

 

Sphagnum moss spp.

UVIVFL: Canon 30D Unmodified, Canon 65mm macro & 93mm of extension tubes, 3 Blak-Rays B-100AP, 8 s @ f/8 ISO 125, No Filters.

post-51-0-34674300-1417068176.jpg

 

 

This one below has some kind of seeds or something in the some of the ends. Boy are they small. Need something for scale but don't know what yet.

UVIVFL: Canon 30D Unmodified, Canon 65mm macro & 93mm of extension tubes, 3 Blak-Rays B-100AP, 30 s @ f/5.6 ISO 125, No Filters.

post-51-0-39405600-1417068185.jpg

 

 

-D

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Col--I think it's called a Redneck microscope.

 

Thanks Baffe--I have been trying Zerene Stacker software. For me anyway, pics like these would not be possible without it. If I tried to stop down to f32 or something--there would never be enough light unless I had 10 Blak-Rays (hmmm, 10 Blak-Rays). :)

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Far beyond the limits of my home laboratory...

 

The last attempt at a really large flash led to a magnetic pulse that fried the electronic lens control of my rebel/eos300D! (It really did!)

 

Better to use a stacker...

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