UV photography on the cheap

Technology

uv_20080130.jpg

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

6 thoughts on “UV photography on the cheap

  1. Dotan Cohen says:

    A neighbor of mine has a garage full of 1980’s era vifro game machines. Pac-Man, Asteriods, and the like. I’ve only briefly talked with him, but apparently he was a local vendor and when there was no more use for the machines he kept them for himself. If someone wants to contact him, you can call me at (972)54-788-1700 (Israel). Just keep in mind that we are GMT+2.

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