Sunday, September 13, 2020

Lichen: human vision vs UV induced visible fluorescence vison and reflected UV ultraviolet photography

Today about a piece of bark with Lichen growing on it (most likely Xanthoria parietina and Physcia adscendens grown into each other), that I found blown over onto my balcony. Shots in reflected UV and UV stimulated visible fluorescence (UVIVF) were done using my UV-Nikkor 105mm quartz/fluorite lens. Filters used were the UV Baader-U filter and a 420nm sharp cut Longpass filter. A high power filtered Nichia 365nm UV LED was used as a light source. Different colors of the UVIVF images by using different white balance settings.

[click on image to see a larger one]

Human vision image using UV/IR Cut filter:


UV image using Baader-U filter:


Bee vision image using XBV filter:


UVIVF image:


UVIVF image:


UVIVF image:


UVIVF image:


UVIVF image:



Quadriptych: VIS, UV, UVIVF*2 (different whitebalance) image:


UVIVF is commonly what people imagine when they read or hear about "UV photography" - here you see the difference to reflected UV photography. UVIVF has gotten very common, as it is so much easier to do and no special lens is needed, as just visible light is recorded. 

I have written more about that 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