Kirlians?

[Poptart]

Anybody know the basic techniques for making these? I had always believed that it was a very low-voltage current that was applied but now I read that the higher the voltage, the better the result. That makes me suspect that you are only recording the applied voltage--not the electrical aura of the subject amplified above a certain threshold.

 

[Pherdinand]

Huh? Kir...what?

 

[dmr]

Kirlian Aura. Living things that used to be, such as the phantom leaf phenomenon or the human hand with the missing finger.

I know what it is, I don't know anything about how it is done.

 

[SolaresLarrave]

There's a Yahoo.com category for Kirlian photography. What is it you want to do? 😕

 

[rover]

Sounds like a good job for a Holga.

 

[Sonnar Brian]

The February 1973 Popular Photography has a good article on Kirlian Photography and features work of Thelma Moss and Kendall Johnson. They use low-frequency RF for the images, but the Voltage is not listed. Both published books in the '70s on the subject. I've seen them, but not bought one. It is no mystery that living things produce an electric field, and you get interaction between two electrical fields. Some write-ups on Kirlian Photography use terms like "Pulse Generator" and "Spark Generator". Those will certainly interact with a weaker field produced by living things, and are recordable using film. Deep mystery or not, the images are beautiful.

I googled this bibliography that looks like a "Who's Who that published" on the subject.
http://www.madra.dp.ua/english/doc/bibliographies.html

 

[Apostata]

Info and links at Wikipedia

 

[jlw]

It is no mystery that living things produce an electric field, and you get interaction between two electrical fields.

It doesn't matter whether the subject used in Kirlian photography is living, previously living, or never living. What's actually being imaged is "corona discharge," a movement of electrons that takes place over a short range when a high-intensity electric field exists in a gaseous atmosphere. (Experiments have shown that the Kirlian effect does not occur in a vacuum, whether the subject matter is living or not.) The different colors sometimes seen in Kirlian photos are caused simply by the discharge penetrating the color film emulsion (which is layers, of course) to different depths.

Other examples of corona discharge include St. Elmo's Fire (observed around the masts of ships or wings of airplanes traveling through a thunderstorm) and the glow that sometimes can be seen at night around high-voltage power lines.

I'll attach a circuit diagram I scanned from a book, but bear in mind this warning that accompanies it:

"...the Kirlian apparatus requires a fair amount of technical expertise to operate. Ordinarily such high voltage differences as are used in Kirlian photography are associated with a high amperage (amount of current), and even minimal amperage can cause physiological havoc in the human body. In order to avoid fried fingertips, the Kirlian process uses insulators and other special devices to create high voltage differences without permitting a large current flow, and it uses high-frequency current, which tends not to interact physiologically with the body at low amperage. Experimentation using Kirlian processes is not recommended for the amateur."