UV photography on the cheap

There’s an easy way to make a UV pass filter for your camera. It just takes a $5 incandescent black light, a large bottle cap and some duct tape.

For years I’ve wanted to mess around with UV photography. Unfortunately, all the websites on DIY UV seem to assume an infinite amount of money and access to specialized equipment on my part. There are two things that I don’t like, when someone tells me I HAVE to spend a lot of money (quartz lenses starting at $3000) or that i need specialized equipment (Wratten 18A filters, not cheap either).

So I set out to do it my way, and here’s my $5 solution to UV wavelength photography.

It’s not completely void of visual artifacts, especially at the edges of the photo, but that’s what the crop tool is for. As long as you’re creative, which you are, you can make it work for you and get really nice results. Save the 3000 bucks for that trip to Europe… you know, where you can exchange it for about 2000 Euro.

Photography in the Ultraviolet spectrum – Link