When I receive a commission to
create a 'different' kind of photograph, and I manage to carry out the
assignment to spec, it affirms that 'it is all worth it'! Challenges are the
spice of photography.
I received a commissioned from a
client to photograph a range of lamps which they used in their engineering
plants. The image specifications included to capture the colours of Ultra Violet (UV) lighting
the lamps, as well as that the lamps had to be as sharp/in focus as possible.
After purchasing the necessary UV
lamps and other items for the shoot, the assignment could be tackled. I decided
to use a 24-70mm f/2.8 Nikkor lens.
The first round in studio was a
disaster. I spent hours setting up the UV lights, reflecting them, positioning
them and shooting them. The complicating factor was that the image needed to be
exposed using the UV light only - this essentially meant long exposures and
wide apertures. But I needed smaller apertures and faster shutter speeds for
better quality - certainly not bumping up the ISO, as low noise and grain was
not negotiable. I aborted my first technical approach and decided to go back to
the drawing board.
I ended up shooting the lamps
using one studio flash head, fitted with a deep octa soft box, and a 105mm
f/2.8 Nikkor Micro lens. This allowed me to capture the required lamp images at
1/160 f/36 ISO125.
But, did the flash light not
'wash away' the UV colours?
How was the final shot (featured
below) achieved?
The solution was quite simple, but
took many hours to finally figure out...
The answer was in the post-production phase. I opened the RAW file in Photoshop and simply played with the temperature and tint adjustment sliders!!
