Special Lighting Issues; Uv And Infrared - Nikon D300 Complete Manual

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Special Lighting Issues

Most of the visible light spectrum seen by humans is between

400 and 700 nanometers (nm) in wavelength. Very roughly

speaking, blue pixels are generated from information in the

400 to 500nm span, green pixels from the 500 to 600nm area,

and red pixels from data in the 600 to 700nm range. Yet, over

half the light (energy) that reaches our planet's surface is

outside this limited spectrum. At the low end, you'll find

ultraviolet light, while at the higher wavelength values lies the

The visible and near visible spectrum goes from UV (left) through blue,

green, and eventually red, up to near IR (right).

The D300's sensor is almost completely insensitive to light

outside the visible spectrum. Each successive Nikon DSLR

seems to be less responsive to UV and near infrared, and the

D300 is the least sensitive to date (actually, the D3 might be

slightly less sensitive). Thus, the D300 isn't the best candidate

for shooting infrared or UV—the D100 is much more

responsive to the extreme non-visible light ranges than the

D300, for example.

Thom Hogan's Complete Guide to the Nikon D300