Creative Lighting
UV examination for metal fatique
17/06/14 12:35
Photography of high performance manufacturing facility
Photographing for high performance companies brings fascinating success stories and challenging photographic situations. Many highly technical processes create real challenges for photographers.
This location scouting image show what a normal smart camera would manage. Loosing
all the effect of the UV examination and dramatic possibilities it offer in our shot at top.
UV light is used in many areas including chemical analysis and examination of structural weaknesses. Our client is one that needs to find and repair high performance metals used in the aerospace industry. U.V. light causes phosphorescent materials to glow when used in a darken booth.
Photography in a small blacked out viewing booth with a light basically invisible to the human eye is pushing the limit far beyond most camera’s capabilities. Exposure times would be far to long for our examiner to be able to stay steady. Therefore we had to introduce coloured flash lights to replicate the effect the UV light produces but in amounts capable register in the camera.
At the same time we needed to set the camera on a steady tripod to record the glow of the UV tubes in the booth with a time exposure the operator could manage to hold. The green area is the phosphorescent material that highlights the stressed and damage areas. Leaving our colour geld flashes to light our operator and other parts of the cradle used to hold the piece to be examined.