How to Do Blacklight Photography

Ever been to a highlighter party or in a room full of blacklights and thought to yourself, that would be a cool picture? Maybe you tried to take a picture but found that if you used your flash all the cool effects were washed out, but if you did not use your flash everything looked blurry? Read on to find out how you can take great blacklight photographs.

As long as you can control the shutter speed on your camera, you can easily do blacklight photography. Because it is similar to taking photos at night or in low light, you will need some of the same equipment to successful take blacklight photos.

What You Will Need

Blacklight photography requires a dark room, blacklight, tripod, and UV filter. You can also use with flashlights and glowsticks to play with the lighting and perhaps create deliberate shadows.

How to Set-Up Your Camera

First you must attach your camera to the tripod. If you do not have a tripod, you can also rest the camera on a sturdy surface; however, this does not work as well and may give you some blurry images. Next, put the UV filter on your camera, and focus your camera on your subject. You may want to focus your camera on the subject with the regular lights on first, since you will not be able to see as well once you have turned on the blacklight.

Just like with low light photography, you will want to use a slow film speed of 100 or 200, an aperture of 5.6, and a slow shutter speed of 8 seconds. Blacklight photography requires some overexposure. After you take your picture, make sure to check that it is not blurry and that you can see your subject clearly.

If you are using a manual camera with film, try taking several photos with varying exposures. This will make sure that you got your shot, since you cannot instantly check to make sure you took a good photo.

Playing With Blacklight

In your blacklight photo, you will want only the white or light colors to glow. If the subject of your photo has a lot of shadows or dark areas that you do not want in your photo, you will need to shine more light on those areas. To obtain more light, try placing a flashlight or glowsticks around or in the dark area.