Is there a such thing as Ultraviolet photography?

[Senor Hound]

Okay, so I learned in physics class (some may not know this), that light is part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Its the visible part, but right below it in the invisible part is infrared waves, and right above it is ultraviolet waves.

I've seen some infrared photography, and its super cool. Its definitely something I'd like to do someday. BUT, is there anything on the other end? If you can take photos of non-visible light, would this work at the other end of the spectrum, in the ultraviolet category?

I guess in theory, with the right sensor, you could pick up any sort of radiation, whether AM radio waves, or gamma rays (might want to get out of the way of the latter, unless your Bruce Banner, though).

So, is there any Ultraviolet photography out there? Or is it ugly and not worth taking a photo of?

 

[Josh66]

Google is your friend

http://www.naturfotograf.com/uvstart.html
http://www.naturfotograf.com/UV_IR_rev00.html#top_page
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultraviolet_photography

I'm glad you asked though, this looks pretty cool and I probably never would have heard of it otherwise...

 

[Alpha]

Those quartz lenses are very expensive.

 

[DigiJay]

Thats funny you mention it.
There is a commercial on our local radio station which talks about the dangers of the sun on your skin. They are saying that you can come in and get a UV photo of yourself taken which will show you 2mm under your skin.. sounds a little weird to me.

 

[thereforeiamx]

yay! melanoma!

 

[Alpha]

Ever shot through someone's clothes with IR film? Love it! Check the top photo in my comp card thing in my mentor bio...the see-through-ness isn't because the dress is thin, and that's only at about 750nm!

 

[astrostu]

Not entirely the point of the post, but I thought I'd chime in. In terms of astronomy, UV photography CANNOT be done from the ground since the atmosphere screens out almost all UV light from celestial sources (which is probably a good thing). Almost because of this, the Apollo astronauts were (I believe) the first to take a UV camera into space and take photographs, providing astronomers with some of the first (if not the first) UV photos of astronomical objects.

 

[Alpha]

I would love to shoot and print ULF in space! Totally obviates the need for all those silly vacuum film holders and easels. And the weight of a 24in lens on a 20x24 wouldn't be no thang!

 

[Garbz]

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1034&message=11038741

UV work done with the Nikkor 105mm f/4 UV lens.

Ever shot through someone's clothes with IR film? Love it! Check the top photo in my comp card thing in my mentor bio...the see-through-ness isn't because the dress is thin, and that's only at about 750nm!

Ahhh sex sells, no wonder you have so many students . Just as well this doesn't work on all fabrics.

 

[Ben-71]

Among other uses, UV photography is used daily for forensics.

Years ago, I was asked to photograph reproductions of ancient books
at the cellars of the Santa Katerinna (spl?) monastery in the Sinai Desert.

A linguistics Professor noticed a page that was 1~2mm different in size
than the rest of the parchment pages, in a very large, leather covered book.
He told me that it was common to erase pages of books from other cultures,
and re-use the expensive parchment. He said he wished he could see what
was erased.

I offered to try and bring out the erased text by photography, and he was
thrilled by the option.
I flew back to Tel Aviv, to get the equipment (which included, among other
stuff, some IR films & ice cubes in an insolated case).

Back at that cellar, I took pics of the page in both IR and UV.
IR showed nothing.
With UV, the erased text popped up clear & sharp. Luckily, the erased lines
were in the spaces between the newer text lines, so it was easily readable.
It was some ancient Slavic text, which he started reading aloud as if it was
the newspaper...​