infrared photography

julius · Mar 31, 2007

Hey

I recently acquired a Hoya R72 infrared filter and I adore the look.

Quite surprisingly, I was having a search through the forum and couldn't find anything on IR. Does anyone have any thoughts on this type of photography or does it hold no appeal?

I didn't make this thread solely for C&C, but if anyone has any comments on post processing I would love to hear it. For these particular shots I set the white balance manually with the IR filter on, pointed straight at the sky. Then in post I swapped the red and blue channel, messed with some levels and dropped the red hue.

Thanks for having a look

Funky · Mar 31, 2007

....i love the second shot, hmm would you mind explaining how IR photography is done, im no amature but i have 0 ideas of to how i go about it.

chris82 · Mar 31, 2007

Wow these are amazing,please explain how this is done,I love the first one the car looks great

julius · Mar 31, 2007

Sure.

Infrared is a frequency of light that our eyes cannot see. Objects such as leaves and foliage reflect a lot of IR but metal doesn't reflect any at all. This can create very surreal effects when translated to a band of light that we can see.

Firstly, you buy a infrared filter, Hoya R72 is pretty much the standard. Ranges between around $30AUD for a 52mm - $150AUD for a 77mm.

The filter is very dark, so sharp IR shots are very rarely taken hand held. For eg. that second shot up there was taken at f8 on a sunny day, with an exposure time around 1.5 second.

When shooting IR it is good to set the white balance manually. If you use autoWB the image will still look fine but you will have to mess around with the WB manually in photoshop. Here is an example of a img taken with autoWB:

I find that the best way to set the white balance manually is to set it directly pointed at the sky with the IR filter on. Here is an example of an img straight from the cam

In my opinion, the easiest way to take a shot is to stick your camera on a tripod, set it to manual and bracket the shots manually, ie. stay on the same aperture and change the shutter speed and have a look at the lcd. This is because most camera's will have trouble metering through the dark filter. Another way to do it is to set it to aperture priority and just bracket using +-EV.

It will be impossible to focus with the filter on, so a way to overcome this is to compose and focus your shot with the filter off. Then when you are ready to take the shot, screw on your filter, set the focus to manual and start bracketing.

Post processing is, as always, up to individual tastes. but if you want a blue sky instead of the brown sky. Simply swap the red and blue channels in channel mixer.

Funky · Mar 31, 2007

hmm, i guess i only use uv filters. havnt really looked into anything else being as i just photo shop things i dont like out. ill go buy one tomorrow and experiment, thanks for the info

GrfxGuru · Mar 31, 2007

Nice effect makes the shots very interesting.

nealjpage · Apr 1, 2007

Nice shots. Wait 'till Terri gets a look at them. She <3's IR photography.

shorty6049 · Apr 1, 2007

IR photography is awesome, Funky- you'll love it once you get the hang of it!

shorty6049 · Apr 1, 2007

what was your ISO on those photos? I usually have to use an exposure of more like 15 seconds on a suny day... and thats at f4.5 with my alpha... would more foliage reduce exposure times though, because more IR is reflected into the lens? whenever i've taken IR photos , it was in the winter where there was snow and not many trees with leaves, could that be why?

cigrainger · Apr 1, 2007

Do IR filters work on digital cameras? This one? http://www.adorama.com/HY52RM72.html?searchinfo=hoya infrared filter&item_no=3

julius · Apr 1, 2007

Here is another shot in IR that I took yesterday with manualWB and no post work except for levels.

I also had an attempt at a 9 shot, vertical panorama in IR which ended up being a lot more difficult than I had anticipated. Some very strange things happened colour-wise so I had to convert to monochrome and mess aroung with the channel mixer. I think I managed to kind of salvage it. Click for full view.

shorty6049: Because I was shooting with a tripod, I had it on a very low ISO to minimise noise - so both of the shots were taken at ISO 200.

I'm surprised that your getting 15second+ shots in full daylight. What type of filter are you using? I am shooting with the Hoya R72 which only allows infrared light in that has a frequency above around 700nm. If you are shooting with a filter that lets in even less IR light in (ie higher frequency) then I guess that would have an impact on the shutter speeds.

I also think that you are right in assuming that the amount of foliage in the shot would have an impact on the shutter speed, seeing as they reflect the most light. If you have any shots please feel free to post them in this thread

cigrainger: Yes, generally speaking, that filter will work on a digital camera. Keep in mind that each digital camera has different sensors that react to IR in different ways. Some digital cameras work very well in IR but others are very poor.

Here is a link that compares many of today's popular digi cameras.

http://www.jr-worldwi.de/photo/index.html?ir_comparisons.html

Assuming that you are shooting a Pentax k100d (from your sig). This is the link that will be useful for you:

http://www.jr-worldwi.de/photo/index.html?ir_comparisons.html

gizmo2071 · Apr 2, 2007

I'm the same as shorty.
I use a hoya R72 aswell and I'm usually always over 15second exposures at iso's ranging from 400 ~ 1600.

For me.... I think it has been the weather causing such long exposures. the sun is rarely out and the trees and the likes are only just starting to bloom for spring. So I'll be testing it out again in the summer months and see the difference.

There are a few IR shooters on here. I've posted a few myself and you'll be amazed at woodsacs IR work

A couple of mine
And a load of woodsacs in there

Arch · Apr 2, 2007

julius said:
Quite surprisingly, I was having a search through the forum and couldn't find anything on IR. Does anyone have any thoughts on this type of photography or does it hold no appeal?

hmm for some reason the search function isnt liking the term IR?.... there are lots of IR threads on here tho... you may have to search manually to find them... here's a few of mine.....

http://thephotoforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=56984

http://thephotoforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=55800

http://thephotoforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=55027

you've done quite well with these.... id be tempted to desaturate the red channel slightly to take away the reddish-brown of the trees... but other than that, good job.

julius · Apr 2, 2007

Thanks for the comments.

Yeh, I was surprised that I couldn't find any IR shots on here. I'm glad you pointed me in the right direction though. Honestly, I found them very inspiring. Cheers.

shorty6049 · Apr 2, 2007

here's an example of one of mine. Also, i've never gotten a blue look to my photos, its either purple (auto WB) or i can get sorta surreal colors but the trees and stuff are never a color where they would turn whiteish and the sky would turn blue if i flipped the channels....

this one includes the wierd colors, i'm not sure how to do manual white balance on the Alpha without actually changing settings, is there just a way to go in and set it like you said? if anyone knows...