Sunflower Spectrum
Here’s a fun exploration of light: the four ways I know how to photograph a flower, and they all yield incredibly different results. I hope you’re eager to learn what you’re looking at – read on!
We’re looking at four ways to image a flower: Ultraviolet Fluorescence (big image), Infrared, Visible Light, and Ultraviolet Reflectance.
I was shocked at how vibrantly fluorescing the pollen in the center of this flower was, more illuminating than any other flower I have previously explored with this technique. Ultraviolet fluorescence takes a purely UV-only light source and a regular everyday unmodified camera. If nothing in the scene fluoresces the UV light into the visible spectrum, then the camera has no light to capture. The only way an image can be recorded is if some part of the subject or scene fluoresces, and we can capture the image. It’s interesting that the stem and leaves are seriously blue while the petals have a slight return to their normal yellow, and a faint purple ring around the center. I consider this the most magical version of the four.
Ultraviolet Reflectance (bottom right) is a similar technique, but here we are shooting with UV light and collecting UV-only through a camera modified for this purpose. The camera is a 1DX that I have converted to full-spectrum photography, and the spectrum is narrowed down to UV exclusively through a series of two filters: the XNite 330C and the XNite BP1. Used together, the combo removes ALL other spectrums of light so that the image is recorded with just the ultraviolet that bounces off the flower and STAYS in the UV spectrum. This reveals a hidden pattern in the center of the flower that was only hinted at in the UVIVF (fluorescing) shot above. A large dark ring surrounds the center of the flower that is completely invisible to us, but can be seen by many pollinating insects. Since certain insects can see into the ultraviolet spectrum, this pattern can act as a bulls-eye and guide them towards the center of the flower.
Note: Any colour that you see in a UV reflectance image is “false”, in much the same way infrared images can be processed to contain colour that our eyes can recognize. While the camera can record differences in the wavelength of light beyond what our eyes can see, this needs to be “re-mapped” back into the visible spectrum for us to recognize these shifts as colours. This inherently creates colours that are imaginary in terms of their absolute value and the photographer as an artist can choose what colours these wavelengths represent.
To our own eyes, the visible spectrum yields a beautiful yellow sunflower, but nothing more impressive than that (bottom center). The pollen takes on the same colour and brightness as the petals with the stem and leaves displayed in a standard yellow-green. This is a Sunfinity™ Sunflower, Helianthus interspecific, from Syngenta. I suppose “interspecific” means a modified hybrid of sorts, and is being sold in relatively high volume at most grocery stores I’ve visited in my area. For $14.99 it’s a great endlessly blooming potted plant. Their website says they’ve been working on this plant for a decade, and I’m very curious what goes into such research. In the end, we get a beautiful garden flower, even to our own eyes as we normally see.
Infrared photography of plants usually doesn’t give us any surprises. Almost anything that produces photosynthesis will reflect infrared light in abundance, as we see in the bottom left image. At 850nm the camera sensor no longer records any separation of colour so we are given a black & white image, though I left a slight blue cast on this version as the default camera white balance presented it this way. This version of the sunflower has a brighter center than any other form, and a ghostly pale complexion compared to the details we see in other spectrums. Since healthy plants reflect more infrared (technically “near infrared”) light that sick or dead plants, scientists can study forests and environments from aerial or satellite imagery in these wavelengths.
There are many ways to see the same subject. A simple sunflower can reveal incredible hidden beauty that we would never be able to see with our own eyes. In the case of the infrared and the ultraviolet fluorescence, it’s unlikely that this could ever be seen in the natural world by any creature… yet it’s still a different way to see things. Photo series like this make me feel very humble and realize that the way we see the world is so very narrow and our everyday surroundings are more magical than we give proper credit for.
Sunflower Spectrum
Here’s a fun exploration of light: the four ways I know how to photograph a flower, and they all yield incredibly different results. I hope you’re eager to learn what you’re looking at – read on!
We’re looking at four ways to image a flower: Ultraviolet Fluorescence (big image), Infrared, Visible Light, and Ultraviolet Reflectance.
I was shocked at how vibrantly fluorescing the pollen in the center of this flower was, more illuminating than any other flower I have previously explored with this technique. Ultraviolet fluorescence takes a purely UV-only light source and a regular everyday unmodified camera. If nothing in the scene fluoresces the UV light into the visible spectrum, then the camera has no light to capture. The only way an image can be recorded is if some part of the subject or scene fluoresces, and we can capture the image. It’s interesting that the stem and leaves are seriously blue while the petals have a slight return to their normal yellow, and a faint purple ring around the center. I consider this the most magical version of the four.
Ultraviolet Reflectance (bottom right) is a similar technique, but here we are shooting with UV light and collecting UV-only through a camera modified for this purpose. The camera is a 1DX that I have converted to full-spectrum photography, and the spectrum is narrowed down to UV exclusively through a series of two filters: the XNite 330C and the XNite BP1. Used together, the combo removes ALL other spectrums of light so that the image is recorded with just the ultraviolet that bounces off the flower and STAYS in the UV spectrum. This reveals a hidden pattern in the center of the flower that was only hinted at in the UVIVF (fluorescing) shot above. A large dark ring surrounds the center of the flower that is completely invisible to us, but can be seen by many pollinating insects. Since certain insects can see into the ultraviolet spectrum, this pattern can act as a bulls-eye and guide them towards the center of the flower.
Note: Any colour that you see in a UV reflectance image is “false”, in much the same way infrared images can be processed to contain colour that our eyes can recognize. While the camera can record differences in the wavelength of light beyond what our eyes can see, this needs to be “re-mapped” back into the visible spectrum for us to recognize these shifts as colours. This inherently creates colours that are imaginary in terms of their absolute value and the photographer as an artist can choose what colours these wavelengths represent.
To our own eyes, the visible spectrum yields a beautiful yellow sunflower, but nothing more impressive than that (bottom center). The pollen takes on the same colour and brightness as the petals with the stem and leaves displayed in a standard yellow-green. This is a Sunfinity™ Sunflower, Helianthus interspecific, from Syngenta. I suppose “interspecific” means a modified hybrid of sorts, and is being sold in relatively high volume at most grocery stores I’ve visited in my area. For $14.99 it’s a great endlessly blooming potted plant. Their website says they’ve been working on this plant for a decade, and I’m very curious what goes into such research. In the end, we get a beautiful garden flower, even to our own eyes as we normally see.
Infrared photography of plants usually doesn’t give us any surprises. Almost anything that produces photosynthesis will reflect infrared light in abundance, as we see in the bottom left image. At 850nm the camera sensor no longer records any separation of colour so we are given a black & white image, though I left a slight blue cast on this version as the default camera white balance presented it this way. This version of the sunflower has a brighter center than any other form, and a ghostly pale complexion compared to the details we see in other spectrums. Since healthy plants reflect more infrared (technically “near infrared”) light that sick or dead plants, scientists can study forests and environments from aerial or satellite imagery in these wavelengths.
There are many ways to see the same subject. A simple sunflower can reveal incredible hidden beauty that we would never be able to see with our own eyes. In the case of the infrared and the ultraviolet fluorescence, it’s unlikely that this could ever be seen in the natural world by any creature… yet it’s still a different way to see things. Photo series like this make me feel very humble and realize that the way we see the world is so very narrow and our everyday surroundings are more magical than we give proper credit for.