With all the room lights turned off, open the camera’s shutter and apply high-voltage power to the
transparent discharge plate. The camera captures
the corona discharge between the object and the
transparent plate.
With film Kirlians, the electrical discharge has
to travel through the film’s 3 primary color dye
layers and activate the silver crystals in each layer
at different depths; whereas with digital, it all happens at one level on the plate. This makes Kirlian
photographs with film more colorful around the
edges, but less accurate than digital Kirlians.
DANGER: HIGH VOLTAGE! Do not attempt this project without expert
assistance unless you are an adult experienced in
working with extremely high-voltage power sources.
This project is intended only for very experienced
adults. Severe injury, death, or property damage
may result from failure to use adequate safety gear
and precautions.
KIRLIAN PHOTOGRAPH Y WITH A DIGITAL CAMERA
Digital camera
(Options:
macro lens,
multi-second
exposure)
Connect to HV
High-voltage
source
Specimen
connect
to ground
Transparent
discharge
plate
Specimen
Black paper
or background
MATERIALS
Digital camera with manual focus
and a shutter capable of multi-second exposure times. It also helps
to have a macro lens setting for
close-ups.
High-voltage power supply You
can use a Tesla coil, induction coil
circuit, high-voltage flyback transformer circuit, or any other source
that puts out 5,000+ volts, between
1-5 milliamps, at any frequency (or
DC). Variable frequency lets you
experiment. The PG13 supply I sell
is great for this; see makezine.com/
go/highvoltage.
Transparent discharge plate You
can buy one of these, or make one
out of conductive glass (tin oxide
coated), clear plastic, thin copper
plate, silver epoxy, and some HV
wire. For sources and instructions,
see makezine.com/09/kirlian.
Stand or tripod or another way of
holding the camera still
Black paper or foamcore
High-voltage wire, Teflon-coated or
other, sufficient for your HV power
supply
READY, STEADY, SHOOT
Illustrations by Damien Scogin
Long exposures are required to capture the corona
discharge, so you will need to keep your camera still
and the object steady. I use a camera copy stand
that holds my camera pointing downward, and I set
up the object and plate horizontally underneath it.
Once you have a steady arrangement, here’s the
procedure.
1. A black background works best, so put down a
piece of black paper or foamcore (must be nonconductive) on your work surface. If you’re shooting an
inanimate object such as a leaf or coin, you need to
Make: 67
