Anyone ever seen fluorescence?

[drydiver]

There are only a few postings on this topic here, so I thought I would share . . .I had the opportunity to learn about flourescence at a presentation for the Richmond Dive Club a few months ago. I was fascinated by being able to see some types of plants, coral and critters glow in the dark.

I am not a scientist, so here is the layperson explanation. A blue light is required to "excite" or bring out the flourescence. A yellow lens is required to block the blue light and see only the "glow." Basically, the thought is that sea creatures already have the ability to see the glow and humans need the blue light and lens to see the same effect. For more details and pics, here is where I got my info: Underwater Fluorescence Images. (I do not represent them in any way.)

I am a new diver and an even newer owner of an underwater camera. For some reason I thought I would be able to night dive, with no lights, and get some shots. Of course, I was horribly mistaken. I set up my dinosaur of a camera and my experienced dive buddy took the shots. I got to hold the light

My avatar is one of the few pictures (of many, many rolls of film) that came out. It is a macro of star coral. I used a Nikonos V, 35mm with 1:1 ext tube, F4 on auto, Ikelite 100 strobe, with Light Cannon for supplemental light.

It is really awesome if anyone has the opportunity to see it!!

 

[sambolino44]

At first I thought you were talking about bioluminescence, but I see that's a different thing. Don't want to hijack the thread on the first response! Never seen flourescence because that requires a special light. I have seen bioluminescence many times because all you need to do is turn off your light to see it. Pretty neat to think how these other creatures see colors that we can't.

 

[AXL72]

EDITED (I was wrong)

Please see the following link explaining some schtuff:

http://www.nightsea.com/NightSea_Photo_Guide.pdf

Unike putting a black light (gives off UV light in the absence of "white" light) to shampoo or clothes washing detergent and getting the phophorescence, flouescence seems to be different in that simple filtered light from a flash will excite the subject.

Try walking in a black light with a white tee shirt. You glow like casper due to the phosphorescence. After reading the found link, makes ya wonder if fish can see it or not. I am guessing not so much, becasue the light hitting the subjects in the "natural" is not filtered.

Spectacular beauty in those pics.

 

[fweber]

You can see flourescences with natural light. As you descend in the water column, the water does the filtering, absorbing and reflecting the other colors of the spectrum and leaving you with a very blue light. Specially later in the day when the sun is a little lower in the sky. And yes, it is an incredibly interesting thing to observe isn't it?

But it doesn't require filtration outside of what the water provides or special lenses to see. So, yes, I imagine other sea creatures are seeing the same scene.

 

[Garrobo]

Back in the 60's I'd run across a bar-hoppong buddy of mine who would sometimes say to me: "Here man, you got to try one of these." Sometimes I'd see in the flourecent, bioluminecent and phosforecent at the same time. Dunno what they were.

 

[MSilvia]

I saw flourescence without lenses or filters on a dive in New Zealand. The wreck at about 30 meters was covered with very colorful anemonae, which obviously is unusual at depth. I can only explain seeing purple, orange, etc at that depth by concluding that the critters were flourescent... absorbing available photons and emitting photons at a different wavelength.

 

[drydiver]

Interesting responses . . . perhaps there are different types of flourescences. For instance, the brain coral I saw during the day did not glow. The same coral at night with a regular white light did not glow. Then, with the blue light, glowed bright green. It was the same with all the coral I saw . . . I did not see anything that glowed by itself or during daylight.

 

[fweber]

Not different types, just the natural filtration of light through the water column. Think about it, you loose red first, then yellows, eventually you're left with a very blue light. On the occassions that I've seen natural flourescence, it would of course disappear if I iluminated the coral with my torch. But, take the torch away, and presto, flourescing corals, because of the natural blue light that was providing the illumination. It takes depth to start to see this. I've seen it between 35-55 meters. And, it seems to be more likely, late in the day, when the sun light is shining through the water column at more of an angle. I imagine this adds some additional filtration to the light by increasing the linear feat of water it must pass through while still allowing sufficient light to illuminate without a torch.

Toss in a few ctenophores and it all becomes very Beebee'esque, very impressive, and hard to describe to people who haven't seen it. Something a submersible or film crew is going to have a hard time capturing on film as you're dealing with ambient light, unless you do what you have and introduce a black or blue light. But, then, are you seeing what I did or are you using artistic license? And will you still be able to see the ctenophores which would require no or little artificial light to be noticable?

Glad you're having fun with this stuff. Keep it up, would love to see more of your images.