Infra Red Photography - Anyone

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#1
I did a thread a while ago about my messing around with Infra Red photography, and a few members shared some excellent photographs, So i thought i would start a thread all about Infra Red stuff.

Today is a national holiday in the UK, so what better to do than get up early and wonder down to a local cemetery!!

About a mile or so from my house is an old cemetery that serves Bath, I have never really paid it much attention before, but Infra red and cemeteries seem to go hand in hand!

Enjoy
 

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J!m

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#2
I never got into infrared but it certainly is a cool way to shoot.

Do you still have to alter focus, or does the camera take care of that automatically these days?
 

J!m

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#6
It used to be special IR film in the camera. And there was a red dot to the left of the focus mark- that was the IR film offset. You focus normally and then rotate the aligned mark to the red dot to “correct” for the change in wavelength.

I was wondering if you still did that or if the sensor or camera did it somehow for you now.
 

WOPL Sniffer

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#8
So, it looks like you would put a filter on your camera to pass the IR Spectrum. Must also mean you have to be able to attach an IR filter to your camera. Guess my 1963 Secret Squirrel camera won't cut it :(
 

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#9
it this really IR or is it just a technique ?
Perry, infrared photography before digital used infrared film which could see and image the proper wavelengths of light. In effect, it "saw" heat and exposed it as white. You had to load it in a perfectly dark room, even the 35mm canisters, as any light through the opening - even with the fuzzy stuff designed to keep light out - ruins the film before exposure. There was both color and black & white infrared film. I never shot the color stuff but people who did got some very interesting images with it.

I loved shooting infrared film and always used a No. 25 (very deep red) filter in conjunction with the film. That red filter is used to increase the contrast in the scene and worked equally well with normal black and white film. As I usually shot B&W with the red filter attached to increase contrast, this was nothing different in terms of technique. Here are three images from back in the day, all using infrared film and a No. 25 red filter. Note the film picked up the heat in the foliage and rendered it as white; one of the best uses for infrared in fine art photography. Note also the grain of the film - it's a high speed film and as such is grainier than the 50 and 100 speed films. That's one of the giveaways of a digital image that's been manipulated to look like infrared - unless the photo is rendered at a very high ISO (say 1600 - 6400 and up) on a digital camera, the software can approximate this look but unless someone takes the time to actually add some "noise" back into the file, it will still be a "smooth" grained image.

Aqaurium01 copy.jpg Carousel01 copy.jpg WSB02a copy.jpg

Now here are three I've created from a digital file originally rendered in color but using a B&W infrared filter setting in PhotoShop.

Ohio5IR copy.jpg Big Bend Scenic 1b IR web.jpg Watauga 16a.jpg

Note that they are close, but not quite the same as an image shot on infrared film. For one, I'm not that good at adding back noise to the file. For two, the rendering of hotter objects and clouds is not quite as contrasty. Part of that is my technique, which I begin by activating the infrared filter setting in the levels controls and then fiddling with the red, yellow, and occasionally green filter faders in the controls to get the look I want.

Since using infrared is, by definition, a distortion of what I actually see, I have no issue deviating from the software-proscribed infrared settings. I'll generally shoot an image digitally now, knowing that I'll process it as infrared even as it is rendered in color by the camera's sensor.

There are some digital cameras that can be modified to shoot only infrared - several of the top-line Fuji cameras make particularly good infrared-only digital cameras. If I were more serious about the hobby these days, I might purchase one of those but I find processing the file in the software works fine for what I want to do.
 

Bob Boyer

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#11
I did a thread a while ago about my messing around with Infra Red photography, and a few members shared some excellent photographs, So i thought i would start a thread all about Infra Red stuff.

Today is a national holiday in the UK, so what better to do than get up early and wonder down to a local cemetery!!

About a mile or so from my house is an old cemetery that serves Bath, I have never really paid it much attention before, but Infra red and cemeteries seem to go hand in hand!

Enjoy
Love the cemetary, Shaun! Good subject matter for infrared - lots of foliage. Try bumping the exposure and the contrast a bit and see what you get. The fun thing about having stuff in the digital realm is you can experiment after the fact.
 
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#12
Hi All,

Sorry for the delay in responding, i was out and about 'playing' with the cameras!

Yes you are correct, with IR film you have a red dot on the lens to balance out the light refraction, I used to use IR 120 roll film years ago, and that was a right faff ( Using a dark back to load and unload the film on a 120 roll camera isn't that easy - Any light and the film is ruined )

Currently i had the IR filter removed from one of my old Nikon D70 cameras which makes it a full spectrum IR camera, the second camera has a filter that is 720nm applied where the original filter inside the camera was housed. This is a standard IR camera.

The full spectrum needs some fettling, the other not so, Both use full AF but you need to grey card the camera and mess around with the ISO settings and the WB.

Trial and error, I am new to this and am re learning photography all over again ( I was a pro photographer for a few years, weddings mainly ) ...... This is fun!

Get an old digital SLR, which really can be had for peanuts, change the filter internally and away you go!

The photographs i posted have not been through any software at all, I do use Darktable ( Freeware ) if i need to channel shift with the full spectrum camera, but i am still toying around with that one!

Bob - Nice photo's!! Interesting results :)

Shaun
 

Bob Boyer

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#13
Look into Affinity, Shaun. It's created in England; I got it for about $70 US a few years ago when I got pissed off at Adobe for going to the monthly licensing model. It's very full featured but approaches things a little differently than PS and Lightroom. Once you're used to it, though, it's every bit as powerful and you don't have to feed the beast every month.
 

Bob Boyer

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#15
One thing to be aware of, Shaun - you can't just make changes and "save as"- you have to make a copy of the file before doing anything to it and it's best if you export the revised file so you preserve the original. This is especially critical if you are downsizing for a web version of a photo.
 
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#16
Hi All, Today i got up early as i had arranged to go on a bike trip with friends, but had discovered a derelict church just down the road from me.... i only had 10 minutes or so to get down there and grab a few shots!

I also grabbed a couple of shots from my village churchyard as i strolled back to get changed and head out..... I am going to go back when i have more time, and i did notice that the canal had some potential for some great shots as well.... Next time!!

PC
 

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Elite-ist

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#18
Shaun: If you haven't thought of it already, you could incorporate one of those images into your J-card for your upcoming Halloween-themed mix tape.

Nando.
 
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