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UltravioletPhotography

Annika in UV


eye4invisible

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eye4invisible

I finally got around to having my Sony A7 converted to full spectrum, after paying scads (love that word, thanks Andrea!) of cash in import duties. I guess it makes up for what I didn't get hit with for all the German and Russian lenses I purchased on ebay. My camera arrived back from Kolari Vision this past Monday. I paid for a 5-day turnaround, and KV did it in just 2 days, shipping it right before the July 4th holiday, along with the IR Chrome filter I ordered, and a bonus KV-branded camera strap.

 

Having collected a few projection lenses (most of which I can only use as a macro lens with my Nikon, due to the short FFD) I think I may have found a useful UV lens for mirrorless, at least as far as image sharpness and shutter speed is concerned.

 

Isco Ultra-Star HD 55mm. Not sure of the aperture, but I believe it's around ƒ/2.4, going by this article: http://www.mike-lee....iew.htm?id=1493

 

This lens comes with a hood (actually, a 2-piece hood). I put a little dab of superglue on a 42-52mm step up ring and stuck it inside the hood, in order to attach filters.

 

post-116-0-65096900-1562810202.jpg

 

I adapted it to M42 using an M38-M42 clamp adaptor from RafCamera. A 17-31 M42 helicoid gives me infinity focus and near focusing for portraits:

 

post-116-0-62676700-1562810284.jpg

 

I took a test portrait of my twin girls this afternoon: Annika with the Isco Ultra Star; Andrea with a Lomo 16КП/РO-109 50mm ƒ/1.2 Russian projection lens, which didn't come out so well in UV. I set my A7 to auto-ISO with a max of 1600.

 

Here is a photo of Annika, taken at around 1730h today. Kolari Vision UV bandpass filter, 1/60sec, ISO 1600 - not bad for late afternoon sun! This is an SOOC preview of the raw, screen-grabbed (I have not yet figured out how to do a straight conversion from ARW to JPG, like I can from NEF to JPG with Nikon's Capture NX-D).

 

post-116-0-40579800-1562809233.png

 

I played around with the HSL and shadows/highlights in Lightoom. The braids in her hair are made from polyester fibre, I think.

 

post-116-0-43324400-1562806752.jpg

 

I plan to do some more testing with this lens in UV and IR. It doesn't quite cover full frame, but it doesn't need as much cropping as APS-C.

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Andy Perrin
Nice photos. Does it show the false yellows when you white balance the RAW in Capture-NX off PTFE?
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eye4invisible

Nice photos. Does it show the false yellows when you white balance the RAW in Capture-NX off PTFE?

Thanks!

 

Still getting to grips with white balancing my Sony (it's way easier than my Nikon D3200, which is one of the reasons I got my A7 converted). I'll have to give the PTFE another try (in direct midday sun, rather than the late afternoon sun that eventually reaches my apartment's balcony).

 

The 16КП/РO-109 Lomo did seem to pass more yellow, but the fixed ƒ/1.2 aperture made focusing difficult, and the shutter speed was slower than the Isco Ultra-Star.

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That is a sweet shot of the little girl. :D

Of course, I quite like the names of your twins!!

 

I've never seen this lens before. I've got an Isco Göttingen 35mm lens (probably an f/3.5 but don't remember just now). This must be the same company? Is the Isco Ultra Star a projection lens for movies? Or was used in a slide projector? I'm not familiar at all with these kinds of lenses. I did pick up a Angenieux which was used on a Bell & Howell machine of some sort. ((I may have bought it because I was fascinated with that name - Angenieux. La!!))

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eye4invisible

That is a sweet shot of the little girl. :D

Of course, I quite like the names of your twins!!

 

I've never seen this lens before. I've got an Isco Göttingen 35mm lens (probably an f/3.5 but don't remember just now). This must be the same company? Is the Isco Ultra Star a projection lens for movies? Or was used in a slide projector? I'm not familiar at all with these kinds of lenses. I did pick up a Angenieux which was used on a Bell & Howell machine of some sort. ((I may have bought it because I was fascinated with that name - Angenieux. La!!))

 

Thanks! I hope to get a better UV portrait of Andrea one day - probably using the Isco.

 

Same company, yes: Iosef Schneider Optik

 

From what I have been able to find out, some of the Ultra Star line was used in cine/movie projectors, whilst others were anamorphic adaptors. This particular one is a movie projector lens. The Göttingen line was for movie and slide projectors.

 

Bell & Howell made lenses for various brands of projectors.

 

This Isco seems to work well in UV, Vis and IR, and the fixed aperture of ~ƒ/2.4 seems to have a nice DoF for nose and eye focus for UV portraits. I don't think it would qualify for the Lens Sticky page, though, as it's not a "true" lens, having no aperture control or integrated helicoid.

 

Even the rear barrel diameter is really odd - there's no screw mount - and its overall shape and size is a bit cumbersome. I can unscrew the hood, but the unhooded lens has no front filter thread, and I suspect it would be prone to flaring. Still, its striking colour is a conversation-starter :D

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Oh, IR Chrome. Have you tried it yet? You seem to be only the second person here that has one so far, other than Birna.

I am curious to see your results.

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eye4invisible

Oh, IR Chrome. Have you tried it yet? You seem to be only the second person here that has one so far, other than Birna.

I am curious to see your results.

Yes, I've done some initial shots on my A7. Here's one, using a CWB against asphalt, with no channel-swapping:

post-116-0-20969700-1562958084.jpg

 

SOOC, all the foliage appears to be various shades of orange, but by sliding the Vibrance all the way up in LR (and dropping the saturation) I was able to pull out deep orange and yellow tones.

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So far, I have only seen examples of the IR Chrome filter from you, Alaun, and Birna, all of which are more orange than the examples I have seen advertised.

I don't think there was any special color editing instructions about the filter, other than white balance in camera from gray card or the like.

Perhaps there is some special adjustment that needs to be added?

The examples so far remind me more of Hoya B-410 + KG3 stacked. Your example has a little more variation in it with more yellow mixed in compared with other's.

 

This page link below has various examples by both Alaun and Birna using the IR Chrome filter (which, like the B-410 + KG3, is a stacked filter, glued version).

https://www.ultravio...s/page__st__120

 

Here is an example I shot using Hoya B-410 + KG3 stacked, not glued version).

https://www.ultravio...dpost__p__26385

 

I don't know if the IR Chrome is made of either B-410, KG3, or any other brand equivalents of those types of glass,

I am only saying that the results by three of you experienced photographers seem to look more like B-410 stacks I have tested than they do like the IR Chrome promotional examples I have seen.

 

I am curious to know more about how to adjust the IR Chrome to look red instead of Orange.

So far with the stacks I have compared, the Lee 729 stack is closer to red SOOC than the B-410 stack.

 

I look forward to more examples when you get the chance.

Thanks.

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eye4invisible

So far, I have only seen examples of the IR Chrome filter from you, Alaun, and Birna, all of which are more orange than the examples I have seen advertised.

I don't think there was any special color editing instructions about the filter, other than white balance in camera from gray card or the like.

 

I am curious to know more about how to adjust the IR Chrome to look red instead of Orange.

So far with the stacks I have compared, the Lee 729 stack is closer to red SOOC than the B-410 stack.

Perhaps Yann Phillipe can you tell you how - he usually hangs out in the Facebook "Infrared Photography Group".

 

Time permitting, I will try more shots with the IR Chrome. So far, everything I've white balanced against on my Sony A7 has yielded orange. I still have my Nikon D3200 full spectrum, so perhaps I'll give it a try on that. I'll start a new topic soon.

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Andy,

Are you white balancing off grey or white balancing off white.

These look similar to a WB off white and not darker grey that I needed to get the deeper reds out from the 729 GRB3 stack.

Also reminds me more of a 183 stack more than a 729 stack. So the glass choice maybe closer to blue than cyan in the IRchrome filter as Cadmium is guessing.

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Personally, I didn't see a difference in white balancing with white Komatex or white balancing with a gray WhiBal card.

Of course, from what I heard eons ago, the WhiBal cards are made from Komatex material.

So I just stuck with the gray WhiBal to use something that is standardized, and gray as recommended by others.

I even bought a larger WhiBal card, which makes it easier to use, albeit a little more bulky to cart around.

 

Many of the other closely colored Lee polyester and Wratten gel filters I tested, as well as the B-410 glass filters all tend to produce very similar more orange results than the 729 does.

 

Komatex

post-87-0-42116600-1563169357.jpg

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eye4invisible

Andy,

Are you white balancing off grey or white balancing off white.

These look similar to a WB off white and not darker grey that I needed to get the deeper reds out from the 729 GRB3 stack.

Also reminds me more of a 183 stack more than a 729 stack. So the glass choice maybe closer to blue than cyan in the IRchrome filter as Cadmium is guessing.

 

For that particular shot, I used what I had to hand (actually, to foot) and CWB'ed off of dark grey asphalt in late afternoon sunlight. It might just be that I'm getting orange tones due to the time of day as well.

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eye4invisible

Personally, I didn't see a difference in white balancing with white Komatex or white balancing with a gray WhiBal card.

Of course, from what I heard eons ago, the WhiBal cards are made from Komatex material.

So I just stuck with the gray WhiBal to use something that is standardized, and gray as recommended by others.

I even bought a larger WhiBal card, which makes it easier to use, albeit a little more bulky to cart around.

I'm very much a light traveller, so I usually white balance off of what is available: grey concrete, grey asphalt, grey sleeve of my hoodie. Makes for very inconsistent results, I know, but I prefer to not lug around too much.

 

Plus, I don't like all my photos to look the same - I like the variance in tones, which is why I'll often shoot the same scene with different filters and different white balance (for example, I'll CWB with a Tiffen #8 on, shoot with the Tiffen #8, then replace with a KV550 without changing the CWB, shoot with it, then CWB with the KV550 on, take a shot, etc.).

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