Monday, April 8, 2019

Apache beggarticks - Bidens ferulifolia in reflected ultraviolet photography and simulated bee vision X

Today more shots of a long blooming spring flower "Rockstar" hybride Apache beggarticks - Bidens ferulifolia in simulated bee and butterfly vision. All shots were done at f8 using two different XBV filters for simulated bee vision. Lens was a UV-Nikkor 105mm quartz fluorite lens. Light source was sunlight.

This is to show that alternative possibilities exist for simulating bee vision, here using two of my proprietary XBV filters.

[click on image to see a larger one]

Human vision:
 

Reflected UV:
 

Simulated bee vision:
 

Simulated bee vision - alternative:
 

Bidens has a strong visible UV pattern, its petal tips are UV bright around 365nm, its center is quite UV dark, so this gets quite nicely visible, also in simulated bee vision.

Here I wanted to show that simulation of bee vision is possible, with a mapping that avoids to use the color red, as bees are not able to see that color and still make the otherwise invisible UV pattern visible. The first filter preserves the visible yellow color the petals have in natural light, whereas the second one maps in such a way as to make the petal tips, which are highly UV reflective, white.

I have written about Bidens previously HERE
 
Stay tuned, more will follow on that fascinating subject...

More info on this very interesting field may be found on my site http://www.pbase.com/kds315/uv_photos