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Make your own DIY UV ring light for less than $20

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No matter if you’re a professional or just like to play and experiment with the camera, blacklight photography opens up tons of new possibilities. If you’d like to try it out without breaking the bank, this tutorial from Eva Landry will show you how to transform your regular ring light into a blacklight ring light.

This project seems like lots of fun, it doesn’t require a lot of time to make, and it’s insanely affordable. The material will cost you less than $20, and a store-bought UV ring light costs over $200. So if you’re willing to give blacklight photography a shot, this can be a good start.

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Six great tips for creating freakishly awesome UV photography

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A few weeks ago, the folks from the Cooperative of Photography brought us an excellent video on taking our photography to the next level. One of the projects highlighted in that video was on UV photography. Starting simple and building it up to produce something amazing.

This time, the Cooperative are back with photographer Markus Berger and some amazing practical tips that will definitely help to take your UV photography to that next level they were talking about.

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How To Make a DIY UV filter for 2 cents that actually works

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It just so turned out that I am surrounded with really talented body paint artists. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I shoot a lot of modern circus performers and maybe it is just the route life planned for me. Either way, I am surrounded by wonderful body painters. I also see my share of UV body art photoshoots. The results are usually very noisy and flat. Plus it is quite hard to avoid some softness and slight blur that comes with the long exposure required to get enough light in. Light that should have made the details shine, but is lost due to blur. I was obsessed with finding a way to take good pictures of this art form that will make the fine details pop out like they should. I did it, with a big fat Sharpie.

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Building An Ultra Violet Flash For Black Light Photography

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Back in May I got collaboration offer, from a body painter, to make photo session with airbrushed models. This offer gave me the incentive, to finally try out blacklight photography, what I wanted to try out for years now.
After searching through web, I found, that blacklight photography is technically rather complicated process. The main obstacle of blacklight photography is the light source. Generally, there are two main options, for UV lighting. Ultra violet constant lighting and ultra violet strobe lighting:

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Install A Blacklight Filter On Your Smartphone Camera For 3 Cents

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Black Light can be used for spectacular photography or just for having some photographic fun, but if you just want to try out a quick trick for testing your home for bacteria there is a way to do it for a couple of cents.

Turns out that a certain mix of sharpie ink will block all light but back light. The folks at Hefty.co made a quick tutorial on how it’s made.

You would need a blue Sharpie and a purple Sharpie and some tape. Applying two blue tape layers and one purple tape layer will act as a filter for the smartphone flash. In total darkness shining that flash onto anything will reflect any black light (or fluorescent emittance) from found objects.

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Having Fun With Black Light Photography

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Here is a fun concept to try if you are looking for creative ideas, playing with Black Light. This project from J.Dell Photography shows how creative you can get on a low budget, if you put your mind to it.

The team used Black Lights from Home Depot (similar to these: small | big), which are pretty low wattage but can still be used as long as you have enough of them.

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Mind Boggling Ultraviolet Shoot 2 Years In The Making

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Sometime making a great photo is all about getting the courage to ask making it. Photographer Benjamin Von Wong recently completed a spectacular photoshoot involving one of the most talented make up artists I’ve seen – Michael Rosner. It took Ben almost two years to bring a plan together that would make a fantastic shoot worthy of the art.

Ben approached both high end designers Amber Kusanagi and Michelle Hebert, and hair Stylist Dinah Raphaelle toput together an offer Michel can not refuse.

And the shoot came to life with an ultraviolet theme. Photographing Black Light requires a lot of illumination since the material emits really low light, Ben opted for a  Broncolor UV Attachment filter which mounted on the move unit was strong enough to freeze the action. (those are only $1,500 a pop, but you can rent them, or ask your local police station forensic team for a lender).

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