I was asked by a member working for their program Jeux Photoniques at the Université Laval in Québec, Canada for a series of images to simulate the vision of different animals. I used images of a Rudbeckia hirta flower Black Eyed Susan - Rudbeckia hirta which I had shot using visible and reflected ultraviolet photography. All shots were then done at f8 in reflected ultraviolet photography using my "work horse" UV filter, the Baader-U filter, as well as my XBV filters for simulated animal vision. Lens was a UV-Nikkor 105mm quartz fluorite lens. Light source was a modified Xenon flash.
[click on image to see a larger one]
Human vision:
Simulated butterfly vision:
Simulated bee vision:
Simulated dog vision:
Simulated horse vision:
Simulated bat vision:
Hexaptych of the above:
The idea behind these mappings is, to demonstrate the different forms of vision, including the ability to see UV and with this ability, to see patterns which only appear in ultraviolet light (UV) but invisible to us humans.
I chose Rudbeckia hirts, as it has a strong UV pattern, its petal tips are UV bright around 365nm, but its center is quite UV dark, so this gets quite nicely visible, hence why I used this flower here to simuate the following visions:
- Humans have trichromatic vision, they see Blue, Green, Red
- Butterflies see UV, Blue, Green, Red, they are Tetrachromats
- Bees see UV, Blue, Green, they are Trichomats
- Dogs are Dichromats, see Blue and Yellow, but also some UV
- Horses are Dichromats, they see Blue and Yellow, but no UV
- Bats do not see color, but some are sensitive to UV also
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
