22 replies to this topic

[nfoto]

I'm away now, however *will* publish the unedited RAW image later. And the w/b one which formed the starting point for my colour massageing.

In many ways, working with the Laowa on my Bader U/D3200 reminds me of the very early stage of my foray into digital UV. Colours were "crazy" in unexpected manners back then and one just needed to cast the outcome into something visually pleasant. The "standard UV palette" of yellow, blue, violet/lavender and grey hues now so familiar to us all might be reproducible, but one could hardly designate it as "artistic". With the Laowa lens, all hopes of clinical reproducibility have vanished so only the sheer fun remains. Not the worst situation to find oneself in, I dare say.

[dabateman]

Remember also everyone that the LAOWA is not being presented as a good lens for UV photography. Its a bad one.
So grab your favorite lens that is sharp but horrible for UV reflective light and you too can have this fun.
The Olympus 60mm Macro may be the m43rds equivalent lens. Has been a while since I played with it. Allows just enough UV to need a UV blocking filter for UVIVF, but still fun all the same.
You can also do this with a Sigma camera, where the Forveon sensor is 2 to 3x more sensitive to IR than UV. So lenses and lights are easier to push through even the best BaaderU filter.

[nfoto]

OK, as promised, here are "UV raw" and "UV click-white" files from my Baader U enabled Nikon D3200.. They are just run through Photo Ninja with no processing ('raw') or a basic 'click-white'. No brightening, sharpening or anything else that usually takes place during post processing of UV captures. This is NOT something I would normally do, but UVP is an exception. Be aware that there is no brightness or contrast adjustment done on these captures, though.

UV-Nikkor 105/4.5

'raw'



'click-white'




Laowa 100/2.8. Frame slightly cropped to match the view of the 105 UV-Nikkor.


'raw'



'click-white'




Anyone feel free to make their own conclusions.