Full-spectrum photography

Without the hot-mirror, the red, green and blue (or cyan, yellow and magenta) elements of the color filter array placed over the sensor elements pass varying amounts of ultraviolet and infrared which may be recorded in any of the red, green or blue channels depending on the particular sensor in use and on the dyes used in the Bayer filter.

In the late 1990s enthusiastic photographers began shooting infrared with digital cameras, necessitating either long exposures or the removal of the internal hot mirror.

Today, there are a few places that will modify digital cameras to pass broad, full-spectrum light for full spectral imaging.

Digital sensors and photographic films can be made to record non-visible ultraviolet (UV) and infrared (IR) radiation.

In each case, they generally require special equipment: converted digital cameras, specific filters, highly transmitting lenses, etc.

A converted digital camera usually requires that the infrared hot mirror be removed and replaced by a wideband, spectrally flat glass of the same optical path length.

Full-spectrum photography achieves various effects and surrealistic colors from the interaction of reflectivity (UV, visible, IR) of nature and man made materials and the specific spectral transmission of the red, green and blue filters on the camera.

[citation needed] Hyperspectral and most multispectral cameras are expensive and difficult to operate, requiring a computer acquisition and laborious post-processing.

Modified digital cameras with the proper filtering avail some limited spectral sensing for geology/mineralogy, agriculture and oceanographic purposes.

Forensics imaging often uses Full-spectrum cameras to emphasize non-visible materials which have more diverse reflectivities in the ultraviolet and infrared.