Greetings from France

[Steven]

Hello,

 

my name is Steven, I am French and I work on a merchant vessel as an engineer officer.

 

I began to take an interest in photography in general about a year ago (my first DSLR).

By dint of browsing forums explaining various techniques I fell from the beginning under the spell of infrared photography. I practice it since with great pleasure. Here are examples of my small successes.

 

It's been a few months since I discovered UVP forum. Since then I have been constantly learning about techniques you use. I believe that I am clearly attracted by the invisible world !

 

I gradually equipped myself with the necessary equipment and with help of precious information found here I am now starting to get better results than a few weeks ago...

Still far from what-you-really-need-for-uv-photography (I can’t stop laughing !) my humble UV kit consists of:

 

A Nikon D3200 broadband (naked sensor) camera fitted with an EL Nikkor 80mm f/5.6 metal.

My filters are: S8612 2.5mm, B+W 403 and a U-330 1.5mm. A Baader U Venus filter is on the way to my mail box :)

I also now have a Canon 199a modified flash (bare bulb) which I find very efficient.

 

I’m now waiting for spring to come with sun and some nice flowers.

 

Hope to keep learning, contribute and to share with your little community.

 

Here is an Euryops Pectinatus found yesterday in a botanical garden close to my home.

 

Visible : Iphone (bad quality due to electronic zoom…)

 

UV : Broadband Nikon D3200, f/11 for 1.3" at ISO800, S8612 (2,5 mm thick) and B+W 403 stack

[Guest]

Welcome Steven! I might say, I wouldn't worry so much about how good your photo equipment may be. Unless you are looking to make strictly scientific images (which indeed may require some expensive higher grade equipment), I think you can make many interesting and impressive images with what you have. I look forward to your photos of the invisible world. Do you have a special subject matter you are most interested in?

[Hornblende]

Salut Steven !

 

I too have recently started in the ultraviolet photography madness, I hope to see more of your pictures :)

The baader-U is cool but very brittle, take care of it like it was a newborn baby lol.

[Andrea B.]

Hello Steven and welcome to UVP!

I am happy to know that our website has been helpful to you in getting started in UV/IR photography. You have a unique opportunity on your merchant vessel to try some UV/IR shots of the ocean and skies while at sea. And perhaps some UV/IR shots of a seagoing vessel if that is permitted?

We are a slow little forum, but eventually all posts are responded to and we learn so much from each other.

 

I looked at your IR photography and found it lovely! You have a good eye for this. The windmills in motion are really cool!

[nfoto]

Welcome to UVP.

 

The Euryops looks precisely like the one I captured in Swaziland ... so you evidently got the stuff working to satisfaction !!

[Steven]

Hello everyone,

 

thank you for your welcome and encouragements.

 

unfortunatly due to long exposure requested in IR/UV phtotography, shooting at sea on a moving/rolling vessel is a kind of challenge :)

 

For the moment, and even if I am far from being a botanist (but I am surprised to remember names of some flowers I did not even know existence some time ago !) I am very interested in finding floral UV signatures by myself.

 

Even using the live view, I have troubles in focusing. My dedicated lens is reported to have very small focus shift but I find hard to get a sharp image. I wonder if the thickness of my present stack is not too much: 2.5mm for the S8612 and 2.0mm (to be confirmed) for the B+W 403 ... Maybe the (fragile) Baader U will help in that matter?

[Andy Perrin]

Many people here suggest using a UV torch to make it easier to focus in live-view?

[Steven]

I just received this famous small UV flashlight i.e. convoy s2 + 365nm. It is a great improvement compared to the portable LED nail polish dryer connected to a power bank that I used before ...

 

Even with this powerfull flashlight I still find sometimes hard to get the correct focus at the first time using live view of my Nikon camera.

 

I am looking for a software that could transfer the live view on a Mac computer screen. It works very well for Canon with EOS utillity but I cannot find anything comparable and especially free for my Nikon.