jrm21

Back on the 70s I remember hearing about something called kirilian photography. (Not sure of the spelling). Supposedly, it allowed you to capture a person’s aura in a photo. Whatever the reality, it did produce some interesting effects.

I looked into it at the time, but info was scarce. Camera store and processing labs didn’t have any useful info. I believe it involved using a special film that has to be processed at a particular lab.

Anyone have experience with this and if the effect can be created in the digital era?

Quixdraw Loc: x

jrm21

Thanks for the links. I’ve seen most of that info. It all mentions the use of electric current, which seems to be the “right” way of doing it.

I was under the impression that there was a film stock in the 70s that achieved the effect without the use of current. Maybe I only heard half the story back then.

Have you experience with this technique? Is it difficult to set up and get good results?

ORpilot Loc: Prineville, Or

I looked into it back in 89 while working on my MFA in photography but found too little info on it.

Quixdraw Loc: x

Here's what claims to be a digital method. https://www.instructables.com/id/Digital-Kirlian-Photography/

Haven't done it, just recall a big hubbub about it some decades back.

Timmers Loc: San Antonio Texas.

Kirlian Photography is a way of recording with photography the electrical field of an object. Living things are much more responsive and will produce variable results. First developed by Soviet science after WW II and during the cold war. A legitimate area of resurrect, mostly ignored and dismissed by Western science as bogus back in the early day of investigation, now mostly ignored as nonsense and new age think.

Kirlian is considered as a pseudo science, not to be taken seriously. Relegated to an area of entertainment, freak shows and table tipping sort of none sense. There were shops opened that would photography record these effects and were promoted as auras. This is in the early 1990's.

The definitive text/book on this and many other subjects of this nature, was The Secret Life of Plants.

Factotum

Thanks for the post. This is one of many reasons I look at UHH everyday.

JBRIII

There is a company which sells a complete outfit with a Canon camera, but I believe it is over $6000. As stated you basically are photograping a high voltage induced corona effect. There are kits for the effect and then just use a camera to photograph.
The photo showing the missing part of a leaf, a Aura?, was from Russia and has never been duplicated to my knowledge.

dat2ra Loc: Sacramento

These statements are not quite precise. I remember those times quite well and attended a lab demonstration of it (high-voltage electrophotography) at UC Berkeley in 1970. Western scientists always acknowledged the effect as "real"; it was its proponents' explanation that the effect represented "the aura of life" that brought skepticism.