Saturday, May 10, 2014

Treasury flower - Gazania rigens in deep reflected ultraviolet photography, simulated butterfly and bee vision VI

Today shots of a long lasting flower I have written about before, Treasury flower - Gazania rigens in reflected ultraviolet photography using my "work horse" UV filter, the Baader-U filter, my Jupiter-U and Saturn-U deeper UV filters, as well as my XBV filters for simulating butterfly and bee vision. Lens was a CERCO 94mm quartz fluorite lens. Light source was a Xenon flash. All shots were done at about f8.

[click on image to see a larger one]

Visible light image:
 

UV image using Baader-U filter (approx. 320-395nm, effective peak approx. 375nm):
 

UV image using Jupiter-U filter (approx. 280-385nm, effective peak approx. 365nm):
 

UV image using Saturn-U filter (approx. 300-350nm, effective peak approx. 325nm):
 

Simulated butterfly vision (UV - VIS) using XBV3 filter:
 

Simulated bee vision (UV - VIS) using XBV6 filter:
 

Quadriptych of the above (with bee/butterfly vision):
 

Quadriptych of the above (with deep UV):
 


This Gazania's outer petals reflect strongly UV around 365nm, all invisible to us humans, and there are also highly reflecting marks inside around a dark UV center. Strangely enough the longitudinal strips disappear and all that gets nicely visible.

The images developed from RAW files are HERE.

Stay tuned, more will follow on that fascinating subject...

More info on this very interesting field may be found on my site http://www.pbase.com/kds315/uv_photos