way of creating NON-UV lighting

[david_freed]

I need to light a room with non-UV light or at least very little UV--to work

with ImagOn photo-polymer film. I'm a bit unclear about ways to do this: would a

'regular' light bulb work? Or is there colored gels or filters I could put over

my light source? And what about compact (low wattage) flouresence?

 

Best, David.

[frank.schifano]

Regular incandescent light bulbs don't put out much, if any, UV light. Flourescent lamps are different. They do emit some UV though I'm not sure if that will have any effect on this particular material.

[matthew_newton]

Flourescent bulbs of all flavors put out some UV light. They work by emmitting a UV spectrum inside the bulb. This UV light then intereacts with the phosphorescent coating on the tube which glows in the visible light spectrum. Not all of the UV light is blocked by the tubes coating. I would think that a flourescent bulb would be a poor choice.

 

Incandescent lighting emmits very little UV, though as near as I have been able to find out it does emit at least some. The higher the wattage of the bulb the higher the UV output (if any) as the filament is hotter moving it closer to the UV spectrum. Halogen bulbs are high enough temp that they deffinitely emit UV light. Supposedly halogen bulbs are doped to prevent UVB emission...but I don't not how efficient that is and if that applies to all halogen light bulbs.

[jordan_w.]

Fluorescent bulbs do emit UV -- I can make alt-process prints with them, though it takes a long time. Ordinary incandescent bulbs emit almost zero UV. You can play it really safe and use low-wattage incandescent bulbs or even yellow "bug lights" from the hardware store.