In this video, our friend and colleague Chris Niccolls from DPR is joined by Canadian photographer Don Komarechka and both experiment with Ultra Violet photography and do some cool “magic”.
Don Komarechka is what you might call mad scientists (but in a good way). He shoots all types of unique things from infrared to Ultraviolent, snowflakes, and ice but also more conventional urban, landscape and macro photography in general.
In this video, he talks to Niccolls about UV photography is done using a special (and very strong) UV lights. It is very important to remember that these lights can cause serious damage to your eyes (and possibly your skin) so you need to wear proper eye protection (and we would suggest some protective clothing if you are using powerful UV light sources).
Komarechka explains that you can but cheap UV light sources but those are typically not “clean” enough to be used for artistic photography so you might need to spend a little bit more on a quality UV light source like a Convoy C8 (which Komarechka uses) as well as UV fluorescent inks (more here) and some fluorescent minerals.
The minerals, when hit with UV light, will reflect some interesting light in the visible range so your camera can capture them (just don’t forget to turn off the lights and use protective glasses and cloths). This can be really cool but is static – if you want to shoot something a little bit more dynamic, inks in water is great. Just get a fishbowl and some water and start putting some ink in the water and light them.
Finally, there are also some flowers that glow in the UV range (some insects see in these wavelengths so it isn’t surprising).
If you are interested in UV photography, we published several videos on the subject which you can find here. You can also find more technology-related photo and video news on our photo-technology subsection.
Iddo Genuth 
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