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UltravioletPhotography

UVIVF Snails


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Anyone else have photos of snails? They are very pretty fluorescing, their shells are a shiny tan color, the slug inside the shell is green, and I believe the slime they leave behind sometimes is red. Apparently their eyes are a bit blue too. This is one situation where I do think looking at them in real life is more interesting than in a photo though, at least the ones I have taken so far. You need a modded flash in order to get sharp images of them, images using an MTE-301 had motion blur in them. and focusing is difficult at night... I should get a little tripod for my UV LED. I would use the AF Assist lamp, which is very useful, however the macro lens I use is too long and usually blocks it.

 

this one was UVIVF + violet + red/infrared (sb-140 filter)

post-79-0-30566500-1446579212.jpg

 

post-79-0-11835800-1446579217.jpg

 

post-79-0-54020900-1446579221.jpg

 

post-79-0-49440000-1446579225.jpg

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These are beautiful !! Thank you for posting them.

 

I wish I had answers, but unfortunately I do not have answers to your question about whether UV-flash or or UV-flashlights will harm the snails or other living organisms.

 

On the few occasions I have photographed an insect under UV to show fluorescence, I make only one flash - or one use of the flashlight. That is my personal preference just to be on the safe side.

 

We are all adapted to sunlight, but the amount of UV in sunlight is small. So you can't go by the fact that organisms live in the sunlight. A UV-flash or UV-flashlight is putting out much more concentrated amounts even though for only a very brief time.

 

I have seen repeated UV flashing cause some flowers to wilt or to kind of "fry". This might be because there is some heat generated from the UV-flash? So I have always assumed that repeated UV-flash exposure on insects/frogs/snails/mammals would also be harmful. Most of the photos I have made of living creatures are UV-pass made in the sunlight with no UV-flash (and of course are not fluorescent). Sometimes a flower I have U-flashed multiple times looks OK after I'm done, but then the next day the poor thing is a total frazzle.

 

If anyone else has any information about whether UV-flash or UV-Led flashlights are harmful if repeated multiple times over a living creature, please do let us know.

Meanwhile, I think that the safe thing to do is to limit the amount of UV-flashing you do over a live specimen to once or twice.

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ok, thank you. I was just about to start a UV safety thread about that, perhaps that should still be created? I couldn't find a thread dedicated to safety on this forum, although you did provide a good amount of information on the UVC vs UVB vs UVA thread

 

also, can living things be harmed by infrared?

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If anyone else has any information about whether UV-flash or UV-Led flashlights are harmful if repeated multiple times over a living creature, please do let us know.

Meanwhile, I think that the safe thing to do is to limit the amount of UV-flashing you do over a live specimen to once or twice.

 

Plants are living crealures too, right?

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enricosavazzi

[...]

also, can living things be harmed by infrared?

Probably not by direct biological effects of the radiation. But all kinds of absorbed electromagnetic radiation turn into heat, so heat damage by NIR radiation is certainly possible.

 

The shells of many desert snails are opaque, white or mostly white, and strongly reflect VIS and NIR, probably to keep themselves cool. A substantial portion of solar radiation at ground level consists of NIR.

 

Edit: A reference here: http://iis1.eeza.csi...2008_Iberus.pdf

By the way, "candidissima" in the species name refers to the extremely white shell.

Another reference: http://old.biol.uoa....f/albinaria.pdf

"Albinaria" also refers to whiteness (albus = white)

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