Glow in the dark flowers

Discover how to make plants fluoresce using ultraviolet light for strikingly unique still-life flower photos with James Paterson

- James Paterson

THE MISSION

Light paint a flower with a UV torch for glowing plant photographs

Time needed One hour

Skill level Intermediate

Kit needed

• Tripod

• UV torch

• ZWB2 filter

• Safety glasses

Ultraviolet light can have a dramatic effect on flowers by revealing glowing colours and details unseen by the naked eye. Just outside the visible spectrum of light, UV causes phosphors in certain substances and surfaces to store up energy which is then released as light.

A phosphor is something that emits visible light when activated by UV radiation, like your white T-shirt and teeth under black lights at a disco.

But those sort of disco lights won’t cut it here. The problem is they produce a lot of visible light. They work great on things like T-shirts and glowing makeup because these surfaces have strong UV reflectance. But with flowers, the UV reflectance is much weaker. Instead, we need a more concentrated UV beam in the form of a UV torch.