UV dark skin?

[Damon]

I took this last weekend of a friend to see what a human looks like using my UV set up and his skin turned almost black--even his hand which can be seen at the bottom. These were not intended to be "great" pics but just to see for myself. His eyes I think were actually reflecting. I will need to do this again. Why is his skin so dark? The sunscreen he put on can be seen reflecting off his nose and some of his cheek. But that is the only place it was applied.

Kinda creepy actually with the reflecting eyes and all.

[colinbm]

Sunscreen absorbs UV Damon

Col

[nfoto]

Plus UV by it self makes skin look darker.

[JCDowdy]

Not everyone is that dark in UV, a little melanin goes a long way!

[Damon]

Col, thanks for the info. but he was not wearing sunscreen on his whole face, nor his hand--just on his nose and cheeks. Makes me wonder though why sunscreen would absorb UV and not reflect it?

thanks for the info. Bjorn and JC. I am beginning to suspect melanin.

[Andrea B.]

Also consider whether you may have slightly underexposed the UV photo?

And in the 2nd set, the man's hat is shadowing his face.

[Nico]

Check here:

http://www.ultravioletphotography.com/content/index.php?/topic/217-painting-with-sun-blocker/

for a different example.

[Damon]

Andrea, I could have certainly underexposed a little. I looked at it some more and noticed that in the one with the hand in the photo--if you look below his right shoulder, one photo shows nothing but clean shirt but the other shows black skuff marks. Does UV expose stuff like that hidden in clothing or is it seeing through it?.

Thanks Nico. It is dark for sure in your example, but also reflecting a bit

I will try to look up what I want to know before asking simple questions but sometimes it's good to hear from a person.

Is it proper to ask general UV questions in this forum or is there a better place?

 

Damon

[nfoto]

UV can be very revealing of surface patterns. Thus, not the optimal approach if you want to take a girl's portrait

 

Do keep asking questions, we all can learn from the discussions that follow. Often asking in the context of the thread topic is better.

[JCDowdy]

I looked at it some more and noticed that in the one with the hand in the photo--if you look below his right shoulder, one photo shows nothing but clean shirt but the other shows black skuff marks. Does UV expose stuff like that hidden in clothing or is it seeing through it?.

 

Damon,

I also noticed the marks on the shirt appearing in the UV photo, and thought that it was likely a hand-print in sunscreen. The bright areas you notice on the cheek and nose are also in the unshadowed lower lip. This is also present in the visible photo which I take to be specular (surface) reflection and not a UV reflectant ingredient in the sunscreen.

[Damon]

I will keep those wise words in mind Bjorn. I was going to take a coworkers face today in UV for a second test but she was a little leary after she saw the photos I uploaded here. Perhaps it was good I did not pursue it any further.

 

Top-notch sleuthing JC. I think you are dead on there. He probably wiped his hand on his other arm. Well done. Good job on the reflecting parts too. So that means his sunscreen was not reflecting (like I keep insinuating it does!), those were just highlighted areas from the sun itself. I figured you guys would tease these issues out. I am taking more pics of this friend in a less haphazard way next time I see him to check the skin color again. Great stuff.

 

-D