Has anyone shot UV or Blacklight?

cymruchris

cymruchris

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I'm looking into the possibility of taking a few shots with blacklight/UV light following my recent splash of colour paint shots...

But am a little confused as to what's out there on the market in the way of bulbs..

I can easily find UV reactive paints etc - but trying to work out the best bulbs to use is a little tricky..

Has anyone done it? Any recommendations on bulbs or techniques?

I could potentially fit a couple of E27 screw bulbs into my existing studio lights - but the varying wattages available are making me think which would give the best effects, and of course should I supplement the black lighting with extra in-fill standard lighting...

And a final question - I see ads for UV lights and blacklight bulbs - I can see they are visibly different - will they both give me a 'glow' with UV reactive paints?

Interested to hear from anyone who has tried something like this out...
 
I've never tried it, but I do have a set of UV lights for a PC case. Not tried them yet either, but doubt they'll be bright enough for anything but light painting... Hmmmm... :)
 
I did try blacklight once with some plastic things just to see what would happen - mixed results as some things reflect UV in funky colours whilst others seem to absorb it all.
I have a blacklight 2 foot tube which I used for it - think it came from Maplins a few years back
 
Tagging along, this is something that I've considered trying for the widowmaker effect.
 
I am attempting this sort of shoot tomorrow so will be able tog ive mroe advice then, but I know for a fact the E27 screw type bulbs WONT be enough light for a shoot. You will need a lot more light than that. I have a UV cannon (400w) and a 4ft UV tube light annd this may STILL not be enough. I will let you know how i get on tomorrow!
 
mm_photographic said:
I am attempting this sort of shoot tomorrow so will be able tog ive mroe advice then, but I know for a fact the E27 screw type bulbs WONT be enough light for a shoot. You will need a lot more light than that. I have a UV cannon (400w) and a 4ft UV tube light annd this may STILL not be enough. I will let you know how i get on tomorrow!
Click to expand...

Please do :)

I've seen the 400w's - wondering if I'd need that much :) Be interested to see how it works out for you - and how you'd improve if you did the shoot again :)
 
mm_photographic said:
I have a UV cannon (400w) and a 4ft UV tube light annd this may STILL not be enough. I will let you know how i get on tomorrow!
Click to expand...
Do you have to be concerned about sunburns and snow-blindness at this output level?
 
Right, well I did the shoot... It was a relative success. The 400w cannon worked lovely. And the 4ft tube was excellent to fill. This was just about the right amount of light but I wouldnt attempt it with anything less. The model looked fab... This is straight out camera but an idea of what happened...
Edit640-1.jpg
 
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So that answers the question in terms of the power needed - that's very helpful!! Did you have any additional lighting - there looks to be a little ambient in there as well?

And although my idea is a little different - your image shows that what I want to do can be done :) Excellent - thanks for posting it!!
 
That was just a little ambient light sneaking in around the edge of my window blind... there was no additional lighting. I did try it using just the modelling light but to be honest, it made things worse. Even in this shot the 400w Cannon was only about 3 ft from the model, and i have a 4ft tube about 3ft to camera left to even the spread.
 
Hmm.. Now I wonder if anyone in East London or Essex has a 400w Canon I could hire for a day :)
 
Ok - so now have some UV bulbs and UV paints... Let's see what I can do over the next few days :) Wish me luck ;)
 
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