Taking pictures is always fun and all. They make great memories and amusements when we see them after a long time. In my spare time, I like taking pictures, no artsy fancy stuff, just snapshots. Either it's an interesting face or a cute girl, I try to keep it stealthy. When the Sun goes down, you can push the ISO at its max and let the aperture wide open but there are times when that's just not enough.

Using a flash is both rude and stealth breaking. It's rude because when the night falls, our pupils get so wide open that a flash will inevitably cause spots in the eyes and stealth breaking because you can't quite get away taking a picture using flash without being seen. I didn't know the solution until recently, when I discovered the project of Dilip Krishnan and Rob Fergus from the New York University. They solved the intrusiveness problem of regular flash.

In doing so, they came up with a camera that sports an invisible flash of infrared and ultraviolet light. They had to modify a regular flashbulb so that it would emit light on a wider range of frequencies and filter the visible light out. The camera was also modified so that it no longer has the IR filter that blocks the image sensor from receiving IR light. That's the kind of thing astrophotographers will know how to do and even more, there are already some small companies that will do that for you in exchange for a small remuneration.

A picture taken with that kind of flash will look a tad odd, something like looking through nigh vision binoculars. Although software correction would have been sufficient, these two fellows thought of another way to get accurate colors.

They took a picture without using flash quickly after the one taken with the dark flash. That one needed exposure correction, of course, so it was all grainy, but did have the natural colors, so they merged it with the fine and crisp details in the first. That's how they got the glare free picture. The only downside is that some materials, objects and organics that absorb UV and IR light will not show in the picture. Freckles, for example, absorb enough light not to show up in the shot.

I'm sure that if they succeed on getting a patent on this and mass produce it, with in-camera merging and all, this will be a success, both for a more natural look taking pictures in the dark and for not being intrusive while taking one's picture. Actually, this would be a sure winner, come to think about peeping toms being able to take pictures in the dark without being caught.


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