4 ms·

Dark Flash Photography - UV/IR Flash Instead of Visible Light

64 points by anarcticpuffin 17y ago

socratees 17y ago
That reminds me of the video where Richard Feynman talks about light. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6b6DpT2YLI4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6b6DpT2YLI4.
jberryman 17y ago
The photographer Weegee used to bring his camera with infrared film and an infrared flash bulb into darkened movie theaters and photograph the audience behind him. Back in the 40s! http://museum.icp.org/museum/collections/special/weegee/weegee14.html http://museum.icp.org/museum/collections/special/weegee/weeg...
- pbhj 17y ago
  Your link is broken for me, shorten to the first /weegee/ and click "entertainment", then browse.
jrockway 17y ago
Seems like a good idea. I guess the invisible light provides high-resolution luminance data, and the low-resolution visible shot provides the chroma. Since our eyes are more sensitive to luma than chroma, the image is not degraded much compared to a "correct" exposure.
- derefr 17y ago
  And, since the chroma is degraded, it automatically gives the images that magazine-cover "beauty blur" effect.
  - elai 17y ago
    Soft focus is spherical lens abberation, something you would usually want to avoid.
    - derefr 17y ago
      Correct, people normally avoid soft focus in the luminance curve. Running the chroma curve(s) through a low-pass filter, however, is the "Make My Logo Bigger Cream"[1] of the commercial photography world. [1] http://makemylogobiggercream.com/ http://makemylogobiggercream.com/
electromagnetic 17y ago
This process merges a UV/IR photograph with an ambient light visible photograph. However, if you want to take a photograph of someone in the dark they're going to end up looking like the bogeyman.
- chancho 17y ago
  It's not supposed to be night vision. All I want out of a digital camera is the ability to take hi-res indoor photographs without flash. Consumer-level cameras have modestly-sized CCDs that can't gather enough light fast enough indoors, so the picture is either noisy (not enough light gathered) or blurry (exposure is too long). This aims to remedy the former by using the UV/IR photo to smooth out the noise.
  - skalpelis 17y ago
    A fast lens might help (if you're into SLRs). f1.8 50mm prime is cheap, though anything faster will cost you.
    - jacquesm 17y ago
      What he means with 'fast lens' is a lens with a large aperture so that more light reaches the film/sensor in a shorter time. There is nothing inherently 'faster' about the lens, it is just a figure of speech.
- whughes 17y ago
  You also have to note that the person will be in the dark. Their eyes will look different than they would in normal light conditions. There's no way to get pictures in the dark that look exactly like daytime pictures, only rough approximations.

That reminds me of the video where Richard Feynman talks about light. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6b6DpT2YLI4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6b6DpT2YLI4.

jberryman 17y ago

The photographer Weegee used to bring his camera with infrared film and an infrared flash bulb into darkened movie theaters and photograph the audience behind him. Back in the 40s! http://museum.icp.org/museum/collections/special/weegee/weegee14.html http://museum.icp.org/museum/collections/special/weegee/weeg...

pbhj 17y ago
Your link is broken for me, shorten to the first /weegee/ and click "entertainment", then browse.

jrockway 17y ago

Seems like a good idea. I guess the invisible light provides high-resolution luminance data, and the low-resolution visible shot provides the chroma. Since our eyes are more sensitive to luma than chroma, the image is not degraded much compared to a "correct" exposure.

derefr 17y ago
And, since the chroma is degraded, it automatically gives the images that magazine-cover "beauty blur" effect.
- elai 17y ago
  Soft focus is spherical lens abberation, something you would usually want to avoid.
  - derefr 17y ago
    Correct, people normally avoid soft focus in the luminance curve. Running the chroma curve(s) through a low-pass filter, however, is the "Make My Logo Bigger Cream"[1] of the commercial photography world. [1] http://makemylogobiggercream.com/ http://makemylogobiggercream.com/

electromagnetic 17y ago

This process merges a UV/IR photograph with an ambient light visible photograph. However, if you want to take a photograph of someone in the dark they're going to end up looking like the bogeyman.

chancho 17y ago
It's not supposed to be night vision. All I want out of a digital camera is the ability to take hi-res indoor photographs without flash. Consumer-level cameras have modestly-sized CCDs that can't gather enough light fast enough indoors, so the picture is either noisy (not enough light gathered) or blurry (exposure is too long). This aims to remedy the former by using the UV/IR photo to smooth out the noise.
- skalpelis 17y ago
  A fast lens might help (if you're into SLRs). f1.8 50mm prime is cheap, though anything faster will cost you.
  - jacquesm 17y ago
    What he means with 'fast lens' is a lens with a large aperture so that more light reaches the film/sensor in a shorter time. There is nothing inherently 'faster' about the lens, it is just a figure of speech.
whughes 17y ago
You also have to note that the person will be in the dark. Their eyes will look different than they would in normal light conditions. There's no way to get pictures in the dark that look exactly like daytime pictures, only rough approximations.