1. Picking a usable camera!

Taking good Glow in the Dark and UV Black light photographic images requires the ability to change aspects of the cameras aperture, iso etc Lots of technical phrases I will go into later on in this blog

If you have a basic camera, or even an I-phone or Android usually it will have a setting for 'low lighting'. This doesn't match the possibilities you have with manual settings, but it will get you further than the regular settings. I do not have an I-phone, but I can take pretty good images with my Note 8. 

This camera has a lot of nice options and settings and in some cases is as good as a DSLR camera.

You would need to turn the flash OFF and if you do not have steady hands you can make the image blurred, fuzzy or just out of focus.

Placing the phone in Pro mode it to has ISO from 40 – 800 , Aperture1/24000 -10 Focus, Color Tones and a few other things I have no idea what they do..

2. Know your settings!

This is where we get a little technical. I really need to explain what all these Terms are, although I am NOT a photographer, I have a basic idea and internet searches helps a lot. So if you are a Pro Photographer let me apologize first before you read on. Any tips or comments would be great to make this more usable for our readers.

I have been using a Cannon EOS Rebel T3i DSLR Camera. So, I can only give you information from this perspective.

When you go into setting on this camera it like being on a Star Ship lots of Bells, Whistles and Buttons.

When you open the main control LCD monitor display, you can toggle through a large number of Menu options. There are only a few that we need to worry about or should I say “FOCUS ON”.

ISO:

This value determines the sensitivity of your camera to light. A lower ISO value means a darker picture (unless you compensate for it by adding lighting, or by setting your aperture and shutter speed). A higher ISO value will make your photos brighter, but a really high value will also make them grainier.

APERTURE: 

This is the number that indicates how big or small your camera's lens is open to light. I am not actually sure where the aperture is on my camera or what the technical term is for the mechanical part but what I do know is the following.

A high number means the hole to let light through is small, so hardly any light will come through. But we want a low f-stop, meaning our camera's lens is open to as much light as possible.

As we taking pictures of 2 totally different items UV Black light and also Glow in the Dark, let me explain both of these also before we move on.

 Glow in the Dark:

This is a crystalline structure that reacts basically like a battery, it charges using forms of light best Sun Light or UV Black Light, then in the dark with no light emits an ambient glow. Technically the crystals charge and discharge at the same time, but because we are in white light you will not see the glow very well.

Ambient Light is more like a reflective light rather than say that of a light bulb that projects light. So you really only see the true Glow in the dark image in the dark!!

Glow in the dark properties include when fully charged a very bright glow that fades down rapidly from a color to a whitish hue when the charging light source is removed. Depending on the purity of the crystals as well as the size, depends on glow times and brightness.

I will go into more detail in a separate Blog called “Glow in the Dark and How it performs.”

            The above image was taken in a totally dark room with NO Light Source.

UV Black Light:

This is produced by optical enhancers that when excited by a light source (UV Black Light) will fluoresce back at a higher wave length making the colors stand out and “POP” this is NEON, but not the neon signs that have argon in them.

So basically, there is a LIGHT SOURCE being used. Now depending on the wave length depends on the brightness of both the background and the Neon paints or pigments you are photographing. Most UV excites at its optimum color of 365nm, however most people use a 395/400 nm light source. Most bulbs and LEDs use this. Getting True 365 nm bulbs is expensive in comparison and cost 2 to 10 times more expensive to purchase. We do have these items available in 395 nm and 365 nm for sale: Torches, Key rings and both LED light bulbs European 220 / 230 v and our 110 v electricity.

 In this image you can see the difference between 395/400 nm and True 365 nm Black Light. The 395 throws off a purple hew where as the 365 nm gives off Black Light (if you can say that) and highly excites the Neon Colors of these balloons.

 The other major thing to notice is the colors of the balloons.

I will go into more detail in a separate Blog called !! you guest it “UV Neon Black Light and How it performs.”

So now we know the difference between the 2 types of product we are going to photograph let’s carry on.

Shutter Speed:

This is the time in which the camera's sensor is exposed to light. The longer your shutter speed, the longer your sensor will pick up images and light. So if you move, that'll be transferred into the image as blur, or if you have the shutter speed really slow you image may burn (over exposed).

You really need fast shutter speeds for clear, crisp photos but this also means less light is getting through to the camera’s sensor, so you might not capture your image properly.

HOW can you resolve these issues to take crisp, sharp pictures without what I call Burn and Blur?

Glow in the Dark:

With all Glow in the Dark it needs to be seen in a darkened environment, hence the word “Dark”, but in the same vain, it is an ambient light source so of course you will need to have the following:

1: A High ISO setting 1200 plus

2: A Wide Aperture

3: A Long Shutter speed.

But all these items do not go together very well.

Sorry about this I bet you are all excited to know more, I will add the next part in a bit, keep coming back to read more or just subscribe and get the updates as I post them.

Please feel free to leave comments.