This project was an experiment to see if I could create photo prints that highlighted the neon elements of the gear featured as well as react under an ultra violet light source. While this would typically be done using UV reactive ink in the printing process, I wanted to see if it was possible to achieve using standard print methods.

Using Ilford Smooth Pearl as a paper base which contains optical brightening agents that react to UV light, I experimented with photographing UV reactive neon gear using both the UV light as well as studio strobes. Since UV light tends to make skin tones turn purple, the challenge was to shoot the subjects in a way that brought out the neon colours but also preserved the skin.

Ultimately using the strobes as a gentle fill in combination with the UV light worked best followed by further adjustments in post processing.

Processing the images for print was a counter-intuitive exercise compared to most print file preparation. Most of the time I am trying to preserve detail in the highlights, whereas this time I intentionally clipped the white parts of the image so that no ink would be put down on those areas. This is to ensure the paper underneath reacts fully to the UV light.

After printing the final images I used an invisible drying ink marker to go over the white parts of the image. This was to ensure those areas reacted strongly to the UV light.

The result was a series of images that serve as a proof of concept and a set of work that I am very proud of.