UV image of Common Dandelion, approx 4x

jmc · Post by **jmc** » Sat Apr 25, 2020 5:28 am

Having seen the amazing pictures on here, my first share on here is making me very nervous. These are the central part of a Common Dandelion flower, taken under UV light (Hamamatsu LC8 200W Xe lamp), using a Zeiss Luminar 25mm f3.5 lens (aperture setting of 8 on the lens), on approx 80mm extension tube. Exposure time 2s. Whitebalanced in Darktable.

I don't have any focus stacking equipment, so these are just single photos.

Camera is a Nikon d810, modified for UV imaging by ACS, UK. One image is frame, the other cropped slightly.

These are reflected UV images, so some parts of the flower are dark as they strongly absorb UV.

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Sat Apr 25, 2020 9:40 am

jmc, welcome to posting! Despite my large post count now, I still remember my nervousness about first post, some 15 years ago. Thank you for pushing past that obstacle!

My memory was not sure what a common dandelion flower looks like, so I did a Google image search. What I see looks like everything is yellow or orange, with the stamens generally a little darker than the petals. Was that the case with your flower also?

--Rik

jmc · Post by **jmc** » Sat Apr 25, 2020 12:02 pm

Hi Rik, thanks for the comment.

Yes, I should have realised not everyone would be familiar with Dandelions. In normal light it is yellow for the whole flower, and slightly darker yellow in the middle part. For my shots, I was looking at the stamens in the middle.

See below for the setup of the shot, and showing the flower.

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Sat Apr 25, 2020 12:04 pm

Excellent -- the setup shot is very helpful. Thanks!

--Rik

jmc · Post by **jmc** » Sat Apr 25, 2020 1:21 pm

No problem, Rik

Jonathan