GLOW-IN-THE-DARK FLOWERS

James Paterson shows you how to capture psychedelic images of fluorescent flowers and plants using ultraviolet light

- James Paterson

1 HOUR Ultraviolet light can have a dramatic effect on flowers by revealing glowing colours and details unseen by the naked eye. Outside the visible spectrum of light, UV causes phosphors in certain substances and surfaces to store up energy, which is then released as light. A phosphor is something that emits visible light when activated by UV radiation – like your white T-shirt and teeth under UV ‘blacklights’ at a disco.

However, those sort of disco lights won’t cut it here. The problem is they produce a lot of visible light (this is the bluey-purple light you often see). They work great on things like T-shirts and glowing makeup because these surfaces have strong UV reflectance, but with flowers, the UV reflectance is weaker, so instead we need a more concentrated UV beam in the form of a UV torch.

Thankfully, one of these won’t break the bank – we used a Convoy S2+ UV LED flashlight and ZWB2 filter, which we purchased online for about £25/$32. This produces strong fluorescence in flowers, and while it still gives off some visible light, it’s fine for our purposes. The ZWB2 filter fits onto the front of the torch to cut out more of the visible light for a purer UV beam.

When we shine the UV torch onto flowers and leaves, the beam can reveal lovely displays of glowing colours that transform the look of plants. Some flowers and leaves shimmer with glowing dust-like displays, while others will reveal unexpected changes in light and detail. To capture this, we can set our camera up for a long exposure, as if we were painting with light...

THE SETUP GET PREPPED TO SHOOT WITH UV LIGHT