Photographing UV reactive reactions

when I try and get a good shot of a painting done in UV I have issues. It's blurry mostly, even with a tri-pod and holding my breath so I don't move. Anyone have hints, formulae, lighting options, camera settings best for getting the best UV shots?

You might need to change the shutter speed, a little more exposure time to capture

is there an ideal shutter speed? When I have it too long the more chance for movement and blur.

I don't think you can win here, it's kinda trial and error. I put my camera on a night setting which you are right opens the shutter for too long - any movement is blurred but the flash will kill the effect. I have a running or sports mode on my camera that allows me to take alot of quick shots in succession. That way I take 20 in a row there is usualy 2 or more in focus. ( I have to do this with my daughter too cause she won't stay still and tends to pull funny faces so if I want a good shot i have to take at least 15 shots of her!
I'm assuming your using a black light/UV light?
Usually you need more then two large size lights to get enough light for a photograph.

part of the problem is I am usually trying to take pictures of myself hold the black light close enough to bring out the uv glow and stand very very still. I think I need the remote shutter control.
was hoping anyone who has had some good shots had a specific settings. I got tired of trial and error last night :/
It was after midnight tho, got to experiment more during the day.

There's a thread around here somewhere, started by, um.... dynamike? It ended up talking about UV how-to.

So, I don't know. I love the pics that are all dark, and you see a faint hint of the person, but design really lights up. I haven't accomplished that. We did accomplish lighting the model up all purpley-ish, and got a few good shots he could stay still.

Try the delay on your camera, you know? Most cameras have a 10 second timer. Set up your tripod, hit the delay and then get posed quickly! LOL The delay is how I take pics of the moon and night sky etc, without it, I cannot get a clear shot. No matter how still you think your hand is, the act of pushing the button is enough to fudge a slow shutter speed shot.

Yeah, oops, that last post about the shutter speed was me, Shonna used my computer last and I forgot to log myself back in ...LOL D'oh.

Okay, so I talked to a photographer friend and he just did a seminar on shooting uv reactive paints in the dark. His advice was to shoot in the dark with a really high ISO speed, anywhere between 1600 to 3200 ISO

Sweet, thank you!

np and good luck

A cable release is a really good idea! It is almost impossible to do without. Plus a tripod and a fast shutter

No it's not trial and error. There are some hard facts about wave length, what type of UV lights to use, how and where to place the lights, the ways the fluro displays color RGB vs CMYK (wolfe fx photos differently than kryolan) and yes, camera settings.

Since it looks here like folks are talking about photoing themselves my best fast advise is - paint yourself in a dark room using only UV light, A small hand held black light flash light won't cut it, for quality face art dual 48 " tubes and that times 3 for full body (although you can get a good shoot with one 24" / about 15 watts or one 48"), make sure the UV light is in front of your artwork but the camera behind the light, use a tripod, use a camera that you can adjust the shutter speed on is most helpful but many new SLR cameras with a single lens reflex do a very good job.

In fact with the properly rigger UV lighting you can get great shots in black light of face and body paint with a quality SLR on automatic exposure.

Do some reading to understand about wave lengths, a exposure, and read the book with your own camera to understand what it can and can not capture. It's a lot here to write - but it is possible to get good even great shots.

Excellent info Loretta.

When I tried once, we used a 48" shoplight, and used blacklight bulbs instead of the fluorescent. If I'm remembering right, Our setup happened to be just as you described, with the light inbetween the camera and the subject. But he glowed all purple! Was the light to close to the subject, do you think? We had a really hard time, cause the model wanted to move around and get into it. Most of the UV shots were a blur.

But we did get some cool shots of the blacklight + flash. The UV light wasn't visible, but it made the paint really glow (not like UV glow, but still).

I would say the UV light was too close. In the middle the colours are almost burned out.