Shoot glowing portraits

Discover how to use a combination of ultraviolet light and neon body paint to create incredible glowing portraits

Capture glow-in-the-dark photos with UV light and body paint

Black light photography involves shooting a subject under ultraviolet light. To the eye these kind of lights appear to emit very little light. That’s because the bluish UV light is at the limits of the visible spectrum, and much of the output is invisible. But, the UV can cause white or neon colours to produce visible light, giving it a glow that looks great when used with body painting.

We booked a model and a makeup artist and hired a couple of UV LED battens for our black light shoot. But you don’t necessarily need to spend lots on this, you can achieve similar results on a shoestring budget. The body paint costs just a few pounds, and you can buy UV lights or bulbs online for as little as £10. Then all you need is a willing subject, a paintbrush and a dark space to get creative in.

The main challenge is to overcome the low light. So all the usual low-light techniques come in to play. We may need to use a high ISO, a long exposure, a tripod, a wide aperture – or a combination of all of these – to overcome the problem of crafting a usable exposure in low light.

We’ll explain how it’s done here – from setting the scene and camera, to applying the lovely glowing paint to our subject.