Articles in the Category: infrared

I'm Crazy About Digital Infrared

Submitted by Moe Witschard on Sun, 10/18/2009 - 9:12pm

I am inspired by more traditional, literal interpretations of landscapes and nature; but I’m also very strongly drawn towards abstract, other-worldly renderings of these subjects. Many photographs that stick with me over time suggest a different reality. This explains my current year and a half long love affair with digital infrared (IR). At that time, I had an old Nikon D70 body which I sent off to be converted for digital infrared shooting. A whole new world opened up for me and I haven’t been able to stop exploring it since.

Here’s a little background on the whole IR process: as wavelengths of visible light get longer, they go from violet to red. Infrared begins where red light ends. We can’t see infrared with our eyes, but sometimes we can sense it as heat. Converting a digital body for infrared shooting involves removing the high pass filter, which protects the sensor and actually cuts out infrared, and replacing this with a different piece of glass that cuts out visible light and lets the infrared pass through.

There are two alternatives to the converted digital camera for shooting infrared. Both have serious disadvantages. The first option is to shoot infrared film, which is an expensive proposition, both in film and in the processing. It is also a royal pain because IR film is SO sensitive to light. The second option is shooting with an infrared filter on the end of your lens. This works OK, but results in very long shutter speeds (usually multiple seconds), forcing one to always shoot from a tripod. I love the option of being able to shoot handheld. With infrared filters that’s just not an option.

In my world, converting a camera to infrared is the way to go, hands down. I got mine converted at www.lifepixel.com. The converted camera operates as it would normally. Auto-focus works, metering works, and you can look through the viewfinder and see the image as you’re capturing it. Compared to the other options for creating infrared images, shooting with a converted digital camera is a wonderfully spontaneous and liberating process.

I am thrilled about infrared for many reasons. Anything that reflects a lot of infrared appears light in tone. Vegetation and people, both very effective infrared reflectors, are rendered in ethereal, light tones. Infrared absorbers like blue sky and water are rendered in dark tones. Most infrared images end up with some color information in them. This color usually does not match the real world, but sometimes it can be very beautiful. I end up converting most of my infrared captures to black and white images, because I love the look. This often results in a fairly high contrast image that has beautifully light toned vegetation.

Another reason that I am so excited about digital IR is because it keeps me more productive and more engaged around mid-day. Infrared shooting is often at its best during the middle of the day when objects are hot and our eyes perceive the scene to be harshly lit. Now that I am shooting digital IR, mid-day is becoming incredibly productive for me and since there is so much infrared being reflected at that time of day, much of this work is shot hand held, which I thoroughly enjoy. These days, I often shoot with my regular color body until around two hours after sunrise and then I switch to my IR body and just keep on shooting. When the light starts getting soft and sweet in the late afternoon, I switch back to my regular body.

Here are 3 shooting tips for digital IR to get you started.

  1. Shoot in RAW if possible. This always affords you more options later.
  2. When checking your histogram, know that with IR you may have to overexpose by up to a stop to get a good exposure that has lots of information but is still not close to being clipped on the right side.
  3. Shoot middle apertures when possible. IR is more prone to flare than visible light is. Shooting at middle apertures, around f 8 for most lenses, helps manage this because smaller apertures are more prone to flare.

And finally, I have yet to meet a photographer who has explored digital IR shooting who hasn’t totally fallen in love it. If you want to add some exciting, creative options to your shooting that allow you to be super productive during the middle of a sunny day, digital IR could be for you. Give it a shot!

More examples are available in the Landscapes portfolio on my website at www.moephotography.com.

Digital Infrared and Me

Submitted by Moe Witschard on Thu, 04/09/2009 - 12:04pm

I am inspired by more traditional, literal interpretations of landscapes and nature; but I'm also very strongly drawn towards abstract, other-worldly renderings of these subjects. Many photographs that stick with me over time suggest a different reality. This explains my current year and a half long love affair with digital infrared (IR). At that time, I had an old Nikon D70 body which I sent off to be converted for digital infrared shooting. A whole new world opened up for me and I haven't been able to stop exploring it since.

Window into a Love Affair - Digital Infrared and Me

Here's a little background on the whole IR process: as wavelengths of visible light get longer, they go from violet to red. Infrared begins where red light ends. We can't see infrared with our eyes, but sometimes we can sense it as heat. Converting a digital body for infrared shooting involves removing the high pass filter, which protects the sensor and actually cuts out infrared, and replacing this with a different piece of glass that cuts out visible light and lets the infrared pass through.

There are two alternatives to the converted digital camera for shooting infrared. Both have serious disadvantages. The first option is to shoot infrared film, which is an expensive proposition, both in film and in the processing. It is also a royal pain because IR film is SO sensitive to light. The second option is shooting with an infrared filter on the end of your lens. This works OK, but results in very long shutter speeds (usually multiple seconds), forcing one to always shoot from a tripod. I love the option of being able to shoot handheld. With infrared filters that's just not an option.

In my world, converting a camera to infrared is the way to go, hands down. I got mine converted at www.lifepixel.com . The converted camera operates as it would normally. Auto-focus works, metering works, and you can look through the viewfinder and see the image as you're capturing it. Compared to the other options for creating infrared images, shooting with a converted digital camera is a wonderfully spontaneous and liberating process.

I am thrilled about infrared for many reasons. Anything that reflects a lot of infrared appears light in tone. Vegetation and people, both very effective infrared reflectors, are rendered in ethereal, light tones. Infrared absorbers like blue sky and water are rendered in dark tones. Most infrared images end up with some color information in them. This color usually does not match the real world, but sometimes it can be very beautiful. I end up converting most of my infrared captures to black and white images, because I love the look. This often results in a fairly high contrast image that has beautifully light toned vegetation.

Another reason that I am so excited about digital IR is because it keeps me more productive and more engaged around mid-day. Infrared shooting is often at its best during the middle of the day when objects are hot and our eyes perceive the scene to be harshly lit. Now that I am shooting digital IR, mid-day is becoming incredibly productive for me and since there is so much infrared being reflected at that time of day, much of this work is shot hand held, which I thoroughly enjoy. These days, I often shoot with my regular color body until around two hours after sunrise and then I switch to my IR body and just keep on shooting. When the light starts getting soft and sweet in the late afternoon, I switch back to my regular body.

Here are 3 shooting tips for digital IR to get you started.

  1. Shoot in RAW if possible. This always affords you more options later.
  2. When checking your histogram, know that with IR you may have to overexpose by up to a stop to get a good exposure that has lots of information but is still not close to being clipped on the right side.
  3. Shoot middle apertures when possible. IR is more prone to flare than visible light is. Shooting at middle apertures, around f 8 for most lenses, helps manage this because smaller apertures are more prone to flare.

And finally, I have yet to meet a photographer who has explored digital IR shooting who hasn't totally fallen in love it. If you want to add some exciting, creative options to your shooting that allow you to be super productive during the middle of a sunny day, digital IR could be for you. Give it a shot!

More examples are available in the Landscapes portfolio on my website at www.moephotography.com.

Moe Witschard