This Is How An Ultraviolet Camera Will Have You Reaching For The Sunscreen

In this telling video clip, Thomas Leveritt, asks random passers-by to stand in front a UV camera so they can see what their skin looks like in only ultraviolet light, providing some pretty shocking results. The clip was created to serve as a public service announcement on the importance of wearing sunscreen, but the photography behind the project is pretty cool, too.

The UV camera blocks out any visible and infrared light, allowing only ultraviolet light pass through which reveals via the photograph, or video clip in this case, all the underlying damage that our skin is hiding. This type of photography is often used in forensics and the medical field to document bruising and other types of damage to the skin.

You can use special filters to capture UV and IR photographs and video, but having a dedicated IR camera is the most effective way to produce high quality examples of these types of images. There are lots of tutorials floating around the internet which detail how to convert an older camera into a true IR or UV camera, including this one. In the meantime, take a look at Leveritt’s creative use of UV photography techniques:

[ via Reddit  ]