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Monday, July 20, 2009

Dark Flash - Invisible Flash That Takes Clear Pictures at Night

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5316824/the-invisible-flash-that-takes-clear-pictures-at-night

 

Night shots using flash tend to flood limited region with a lot of light or you end up taking blurry / shaky pictures without using one. There is a new technology by Dilip Krishnan and Rob Fergus at New York University. First, they modified the flashbulb to emit light in a wider spectrum and filter out visible light. Then, they removed the UV and IR filters normally present in camera sensors. This will result in an image that looks like  this

 

image

To convert this into a natural color picture, they use an algorithm that takes another photo immediately after the first one, this time without the dark flash. The results would look similar to any normal night photo with grains and blur but that will provide enough color information to the algorithm to fix the first photo. The fixed picture supposedly looks like this.

image

 

Very innovative solution to one old problem. But my Only question after reading this is... what are the effects of removing the UV and IR filters normally present in camera sensors? I am sure that's there for a reason. Unless there is a workaround to quickly introduce the UV and IR filters after the Dark Flash photo, the other photos are sure to get ruined. It may not be possible to use such a camera as your everyday camera in normal daytime shots as the UV and IR range of light spectrum will surely interfere with the final image.

PS

If you are interested in learning how to convert your camera to an IR camera then read on.

1) Non - DSLR - generic guide

2) D SLR Camera, best left to specialized services who does the conversion for you. read more here

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