IR Filters?

mcoppadge · Jun 20, 2006

I hope this question is a little "beyong the basics" and that I'm not still stuck as a beginner.

But I've seen people doing a lot of IR photos lately and I need a little clarity of IR methods. I'm assuming IR film is neccessary to do IR photography, but I'm hearing about IR filters. Can someone explain filters to me? If I remember correctly, I remember a friend saying something about using a red filter when shooting IR photography...maybe?

Wigwam Jones · Jun 20, 2006

Infrared photography requires an infrared filter. This filters out all visible light and passes only infrared.

In order to 'record' infrared images, they must be recorded upon a medium that is sensitive to that range of the electro-magnetic spectrum. In the case of film, that means special IR film. In the case of digital cameras, there are many that have IR blocking filters - meaning that they won't work or they work poorly when you WANT to record IR. Many others are better at recording IR once you filter out the normal light with an IR filter.

Examples of digital cameras that have been found to be good with IR filters and IR recording are Nikon D50, Pentax *ist DS, Olympus 2020 and so on. A number of them are listed here:

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/cameras/infrared%20dslr.shtml

http://www.bythom.com/infrared.htm

http://www.wrotniak.net/photo/infrared/

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

Basically, IR has had a revival recently because IR film requires special handling (has to be kept cold, has to be loaded and unloaded in the dark, etc) and IR digital is as immediate as digital can be.

It's a lot of fun. I suspect it will end up overdone and tired fairly soon, but for now...wow. Fun stuff.

fotogenik · Jun 21, 2006

Film cameras obviously require IR film but yes you do still need the IR filter also. Digital you only need the filter and a camera that is at least passably sensitive to IR wavelengths. Some digitals simply have better IR blocking filters than others.

My Nikon D50 seems to be really awesome at capturing IR. I have posted a couple of my first shots on my pure beauty website.

Many have referred to this site as the infrared bible. Peruse it a bit and see if you can pick up something from it.

Cheers,