What Kinds of Light ?

[Frank Schmidt]

There are 3 types of light used here, can you identify them?

I’m not saying that anybody who sees this image likes it. But it is instructive nonetheless.

This can’t possibly be a flash snap shot picture. There were no flashes used and can’t be in this image. The reason is… the wine (martini) glass is clear under normal light.

To make it glow blue it needs at least 25 seconds of UV blacklight. But of course that is a problem because the foreground fabric and the background fabrics are clearly in focus so it must have been a really tight f/stop. If the aperture is small then the oil lamp would only glow for 4-5 seconds but longer than that it would wipe out the background.


A thinking person could look at this image and say that it’s impossible in daylight or with flash/strobe. You can’t have a 25 second blacklight and a 5 second candle wick in the same image unless the wick is blown out during the exposure.

But that doesn’t light everything else. If you then flash the scene that would wipe off the blue glow of the glass. In other words the sequence of lighting is this:

Set the scene, turn off the room lights, open the camera shutter (f/22 at ISO 125, Canon 60D with 50 mm prime lens) and turn on the blacklight and apply it to camera right behind and above the glass for 25 seconds or so.

Turn off the UV light and then light the oil lamp wick (stand in front of the camera lens so it can’t see your hand holding the lighter. ) Step away so the camera can see the lighted wick.


Count to “5”, step in front of the camera and blow out the candle. Now start brushing light onto the scene with a hand held spot light. Be careful ! Don’t get any white light on the martini glass which is blue or you’ll wipe off the UV glow. Make sure to get light on the background fabric; nothing here is added or edited in after the shutter closes (except my name).


Total time: 102 seconds of open shutter. Just that easy. Oil lamp light, UV Blacklight and white spotlight. A friend of mine made the oil lamp and gave it to me so I made the picture as a ‘Thank you’ for her.

See more at: FrankSchmidt | RedBubble

[wheelerew]

That is an awesome photo!

Thank you for sharing.

[brianxlt]

Very nice shot and sounds like a lot of work went in to making it. Great job

[Frank Schmidt]

Oh, I forgot to mention. When doing a photo like this, remember to take your UV filter off the lens. You don't want to filter out the UV blacklight when applying it to the wine glass.

More at: http://www.redbubble.com/people/frankschmidt

[OsmosisStudios]

Originally Posted by Frank Schmidt

Oh, I forgot to mention. When doing a photo like this, remember to take your UV filter off the lens. You don't want to filter out the UV blacklight when applying it to the wine glass.

More at: FrankSchmidt | RedBubble

Hate to break it to you, but any UV filter you put on the front of the lens (on a digital camera) has almost no effect: Sensors have very strong UV filters right on the sensor that filters most UV light.

[Frank Schmidt]

Blacklight applied to various glass types. The middle wine glass is blue in normal light and doesn't change under UV blacklight. The vaseline glass is faint green under normal light.

The two glowing 'blue' glass pieces are clear under natural light but strongly blue when illuminated with UV blacklight. The candle is a candle. The paperweight is glass and doesn't glow especially.

You can't tell by looking under normal light at glass whether it will glow under blacklight or not.

More at: http://www.redbubble.com/people/frankschmidt

[BigFuzzy]

Interesting indeed. Do you have any 'before' shots to show people what it would have looked like sans your efforts so that they can really learn what you did?

[Frank Schmidt]

Here's the 'before' shot while I was setting up the scene.

It's the only one that I took in room light which was not much light so I shined (shown?) a spot light on it all. The bottle label got too much light from the spot.

Yes, from what I can tell, "so people can learn" is what this DPS site is all about.

I searched for 'lightpainting' and only find 25 entries at DPS.

If you know or have heard of anyone else doing indoor still-life work like this please give me a link to their site so I can learn more about it from them.

Thanks

[Frank Schmidt]

Osmosis Studio is right about the UV filter. Here are photos to prove it.

One with no UV light applied so you can see what the glass looks like under normal room light.

One with UV blacklight and a filter (Tiffen UV) on the lens.

and One with UV blacklight and NO filter on the lens.

As you can see : the UV filter makes no difference in the 'glowing' effect of the glass as the camera sensor records it.

The camera is not recording UV light anyway because none was pointed at the lens. What you are seeing is the fluorescence of the glass (or molecules in the glass) as they are hit by UV blacklight and the light that these molecules give off....it is not UV light (or any that is UV we can't see and is not recorded by the camera sensor.)

So there is nothing to be gained by removing a UV filter from a lens if one is used to do this kind of blacklight work.

These pictures also show that you can't tell by looking at glass in daylight if it will "glow' under blacklight. One martini glass does glow and green wine glass next to it does but the wine glass next on the right does not.

Note the the stem and base of the small green glass in front do glow but that glass bowl does not glow.

[bhursey]

Originally Posted by Frank Schmidt

Osmosis Studio is right about the UV filter. Here are photos to prove it.

One with no UV light applied so you can see what the glass looks like under normal room light.

One with UV blacklight and a filter (Tiffen UV) on the lens.

and One with UV blacklight and NO filter on the lens.

As you can see : the UV filter makes no difference in the 'glowing' effect of the glass as the camera sensor records it.

The camera is not recording UV light anyway because none was pointed at the lens. What you are seeing is the fluorescence of the glass (or molecules in the glass) as they are hit by UV blacklight and the light that these molecules give off....it is not UV light (or any that is UV we can't see and is not recorded by the camera sensor.)

So there is nothing to be gained by removing a UV filter from a lens if one is used to do this kind of blacklight work.

These pictures also show that you can't tell by looking at glass in daylight if it will "glow' under blacklight. One martini glass does glow and green wine glass next to it does but the wine glass next on the right does not.

Note the the stem and base of the small green glass in front do glow but that glass bowl does not glow.

Are you doing any post processing because if you did i think it would pop more. It seems like theses are basicly right out of the camera..