Hey, I want to use pictures taken at daytime and at nighttime in the field. For the daytime pictures we will just use natural daylight as recommended. However, for the pictures at night-time I’m unsure what light-source to use. The recommended lamps in the user guide and the forum all seem to require a power outlet or strong battery (car battery?). Is there some other way to make comparable pictures at day- and nighttime in the field? Either a portable light-source recommendation, or a way to make the pictures comparable afterwards using the grey standards would help. For all pictures we will use the same standards (in the same image as objects needed to be measured) and camera and the aim is to measure in RGB- and UV-range.
Hi,
I think two aspects are crucial here:
- Is your animal moving or not? If it is, you would want enough light to get a sufficient focal depth and shutter speed. If your animal is comparably flat and sits still sufficiently, then even a comparably weak white LED sight should do (sufficiently diffuse to ensure even illumination), as these tend to have sufficient light from 400-700nm, despite their usually strong peak in the blue.
- Do you require UV lighting? If so, things get quite a bit trickier. The UV channels in your camera are a lot less sensitive to UV light than to light above 400nm and most UV-emitting broad spectrum light sources require a lot of power, to the point that these tend to be operated using a proper plug on the wall and even dedicated ballasts. So yes, camping generators capable of maintaining the power requirements of such lighting would probably then be the way to go.
Cheers,
Cedric