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UltravioletPhotography

What You Really Need for UV Photography - Revisited


Andrea B.

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We had fun with this about 6 years ago, so I decided to bring it back up. Any new contributions welcomed!


 

by Andrea G. Blum 24 February 2015

.....with a little help from my friends on UVP

 

What You Really Need for UV Photography

 

At least two dozen 35mm f/3.5 lenses in various mounts and brands with weird names ending in -or, -ar or -gon.

 

The ability to keep mum about your recent UV-capable OrArGon lens find bought for cheaps on Ebay

so that prices won't soar before you can pick up a couple of back-ups.

 

A few 135mm f/3.5 lenses and a handful of ELs to round out your extensive 35/3.5 collection.

A lone 100/3.5 lens which sits unused.

 

At least 5 UV torches with varying amounts of rather expensive Nichia 365nm diodes

which will inevitably fade over time.

 

12 Blak-Ray high intensity UV lamps.

The precise number is important here. One more Blak-Ray and everything gets fried!

 

Access to Ebay and a good buyer rating.

 

Gardens with flowers. Fields with flowers. Parks with flowers.

Grocery stores and florists shops with flowers.

Because, of course, flowers are the only thing which should be photographed in UV.

 

Bees.

Wasps, flies and butterflies won't do.

 

Sunlight, lots of it.

 

Sense of wonder.

 

Massive amounts of Sitzfleisch for performing long, boring light leak experiments while confined in a tiny, totally dark closet.

 

A nagging sense that even though you have over 52 UV-capable lenses with more in shipment,

you still really, really need a "real" UV-capable lens such as the UV-Nikkor 105/4.5 or the Coastal 60/4.0.

 

Several pair of easily lost UV-blocking space goggles (also useable when skiing).

Must have sweat ventilation.

 

At least 7 converted cameras - each a different brand, FX, DX, broadband, internally UV-filtered & not.

This is a conservative estimate.

Most UV shooters actualy have 10 or more because there is always a better one out there waiting to be tried.

 

Several failed DIY conversion attempts.

 

A small fortune.

Mostly pounded down a rat hole when buying old, rattling, foggy lenses off Ebay

in hopes that they will please pass just a little bit of UV light, oh please.

 

Unstinting patience.

 

The secret understanding that the typical UV lens/camera/filter/light combo is probably photographing

mostly between 370-400 nm in spite of your public protestations to the contrary.

 

The forbidden desire to shoot below 300 nm "just to see what it looks like down there".

The ability to keep a secret when you discover that there isn't much to see down there below 300 nm.

 

A dedicated UV-Shack or Dark Closet for mysterious fluorescent goings-on.

 

Home or land large enough to contain said dedicated shacks & closets.

 

Some clamps to hold torches, flashes and flowers.

More clamps.

 

Very, very, very breeze-less days for field work because clamping flowers tends to wreck them

so you truly prefer clampless flower photography.

 

An extensive tool kit of very tiny tools for dealing with UV equipment needing endless modification & repair.

Must include filter wrenches.

Because filters are always getting stuck in step-rings.

 

At least 53 filters which pass or block UV, IR and Visible wavelengths

and include narrowband, wideband, longpass, shortpass, interference,

copper sulfate, dichroic, coated and uncoated types.

More filters.

 

The understanding that you will never actually have on hand the particular filter in the particular size you need.

 

About 20-25 bags, cases, backpacks, and other UV gear containers.

 

Home with multiple closets and shelves to store UV gear.

Ideally the home is expandable for when you outgrow your current UV gear storage capacity.

 

More step-rings than you though it was ever possible to own.

They make nice tinkling, ringing, musical sounds when their storage bag is moved.

 

The understanding that you will never actually have on hand the particular step-ring in the particular size you need.

 

Lots of white things made of Teflon or PTFE or other mysterious materials which reflect true under little-used UV or IR wavelengths.

 

Endless spring & summer seasons.

 

Velcro. Glue. Screws. Putty. For affixing things to other things.

Pliers for un-affixing.

 

Colour profiling cards & apps because neither Visible colour nor UV false colour is ever right.

 

A Significant Other who is the epitome of patience and good nature and who is also quite happy to be doing their own thing

while you spend hours testing the most recent filter acquisition.

 

At least 5-7 converter/editor Apps none of which really understands how to convert a weirdly-channeled UV file.

 

Back-up apps. Sync-ing apps. Apps which manage other Apps.

Programing skills so that you can write your own App-manager Apps.

 

Meters to measure sunlight and lenses and cameras and torches and flashes for UV-capability.

 

A secret desire for thousands of dollars worth of spectroscopy gear so that you can determine

just how little UV actually passes through your favorite UV-capable lens.

 

Scads & scads of external hard-drives and flash drives for storage of mountains of UV photographs.

 

One more closet in the aforementioned expandable home for storing all the UV hard-drives.

 

A bagful of cheap adapters and helicoids from China or Hong Kong

because you won't shell out for that expensive Novoflex adapter which is probably made in China anyway.

 

The understanding that you will never actually have on hand the particular helicoid in the particular extension you need

to reach the proper flange focal distance for infinity focus in UV.

 

The knowledge of what flange focal distance is.

 

The unspoken thought you harbor that UV landscapes always look rather dull

so you maybe you don't really care whether you can shoot at infinity anyway.

 

One of those two-pronged widget thingies which looks like a geometry class compass

for use in removing the retaining ring on a Baader-U so that it can be flipped pink-side out.

Even though you don't really feel it is necessary to do so.

 

Like-minded nerd friends for on-going, intense, long-distance UV gear discussions.

 

A cool website like UltravioletPhotography.com.

 

More bees & more sunlight.

 

More cowbell !!

 

A unfailing sense of humour about all matters UV/IR.

 

 


ADDED LATER

 

The understanding that when you do happen to have the correctly sized step-ring

necessary to complete an important UV shoot, you won't be able to find it anywhere.
(Thanks, Bill De Jager)

 

The unspoken thought you harbor that UV floral signatures are rather dull,

but you'd better shoot some anyway just to prove you're a hard-core UV photographer.

 

A significant other who is tolerant of a UV obsession which requires massive amounts of your time,

but does keep you out of other kinds of trouble.

 

The ability to dream in false-colour UV.
(Thanks, Hornblende)

 

The unspoken thought you harbor that both UV landscapes and UV floral signatures are TOTALLY dull,

so why don't these people ever shoot something interesting like UV-street or UV portraits anyway?

 

Patience to endure the utter frustration of not really knowing how deep your UV lens can reach.

 

An obsession with blocking even the most minute IR leak in every UV-pass filter you own.

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Hmm, for actual UV photography over past two years I have used:

 

one 20mm lens

one 35mm lens

one 50mm lens

one 100mm lens

one full-spectrum camera

two Baader U2 filters

two modified flashes

my most favourite UV shots were landscapes

 

What am I doing wrong???

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Not a thing, Alex!!!

Most of the rest of us are probably just disorganized, acquisitive gearheads. :D

 

**********

 

I forgot one item, so went back and added it. B)

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Well, Dave, worst case, I'd say it probably does !! B)

 

****

 

Damon, I almost lost count of those Blak-Rays !! :D

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Bill De Jager
The understanding that you will never have the particular step-ring in the particular size you actually need.

 

Or if you do by some amazing miracle have exactly the one you need when you need it, you will immediately misplace it after using it and be unable to find it anywhere the next time you look. This is precisely what happened to me the weekend before last. The eBay lens which others had admired hadn't arrived yet, so I resolved to take photos of, and UV photos with, another cool old lens which had shown promise the weekend before under casual inspection. So I just need to grab that filter ring for the Baader... yeah, right. Still haven't found it, but I have plenty of duplicate copies of almost the right size.

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At this point in time I'm tempted to submit a snapshot of my massive work table - literally covered with step rings and other utensils required for hard-core UV photography. Just need to locate the camera somewhere :D
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oh la. This is turning out to be a pretty good list isn't it? We do have some fun poking fun at ourselves.

 

Maybe I could summarize Bill & Bjørn's comments:

  • The understanding that when you do happen to have the correctly sized step-ring necessary to complete an important shoot you won't be able to find it anywhere.

And I forgot these :D :

  • The unspoken thought you harbor that UV floral signatures are rather dull but you'd better shoot some anyway just to prove you're a hard-core UV photographer.

  • A significant other who is tolerant of a UV obsession which requires massive amounts of your time but does keep you out of other kinds of trouble.

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Bill De Jager

Or if you do by some amazing miracle have exactly the one you need when you need it, you will immediately misplace it after using it and be unable to find it anywhere the next time you look. This is precisely what happened to me the weekend before last. The eBay lens which others had admired hadn't arrived yet, so I resolved to take photos of, and UV photos with, another cool old lens which had shown promise the weekend before under casual inspection. So I just need to grab that filter ring for the Baader... yeah, right. Still haven't found it, but I have plenty of duplicate copies of almost the right size.

 

This is an L39 lens so I can't use my one UV-converted camera which is a DSLR. OTOH, I would avoid the need for that step-up ring (who needs infinity, anyway? :D ) by trying a close-up with that camera... if I can locate the other adapters!

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  • 2 years later...
Does dreaming about UV photography counts? I just dreamt that the coating on my Baader-U was falling off just by blowing on it. The horror.
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omg!!!! I wonder if that can ever happen???

 

Hey, have any of you all ever dreamed in UV? Now that is the sign of a dedicated UV-photographer. They say it only happens once you have photographed 500 UV floral signatures and 273 UV landscapes. I'm not there just yet being somewhat deficient in the landscape count.

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  • 3 years later...

Love it! I laughed my way down the list previously thinking I was strange to have made most the list already. Too bad I didn't start this hobby sooner as winter approaches. Well off to the store to buy some flowers to check their UV signature😁

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Funny! I'm looking for two lost adapters right now.  The Lensbaby to 52mm hood/adapter because the single glass and plastic optics are supposed to be good for UV. The M42 to Pentax K non infinity adapter because my real Pentax made one leaks with the helicoid. I was relieved to see the UAT sold on ebay. Seller offered me a special price and I managed to resist.

 

Thanks,

Doug A

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