Tried my hand at infrared photography and this is what I learned
About 2 years ago while I was surfing the web for inspiration I stumbled upon Nathan Wirth's works. His "Slice of silence" project really caught my eye so I started reading about him and his techniques and I found out that he shoots a lot of infrared photography.
Infrared...hmmm, that sounds interesting. So after a few days of research I got myself an IR 720Nm infrared filter and started experimenting.
The first bump I hit when I went out the first time to do some infrared testing was that I should have taken my tripod with me because the exposure times would be well over 30 sec. The second thing I found out is that for you to get a better chance of a nice infrared image you should go out shooting when you're not suppose to. What I mean by that is for you to get a great IR image you should go out in the middle of a bright sunny day when everyone tells you that you should't photograph because of the harsh light. Even in bright light you should bump up the ISO to have an exposure time of under 30sec.
I love long exposures so for me that increased time is a bonus. Depending on your camera's IR blocking filter you should have a more or less successful IR image.
Infrared images work great in black and white.The sky turns black and the foliage of the trees (or any vegetation that is green) becomes white.
Color is fine too, if you're a fan of wonky colors.
The post processing part is another matter. Editing an IR image isn't that simple. When you import your RAW file the first thing you'll notice is that the image is red and lacks contrast. So you begin tweaking the white balance, bringing up the contrasts etc until you have a weird looking image where the trees are blue and the sky has an orange/red tint.
Then you open the image in Photoshop, slap a channel mixer on top and you invert the red and blue channels.
After that you get a half decent image with wonky colors. When you get to that step it's up to you what you do with it. You leave it like that or you convert it in black and white.
Either way it's something you should try. You can get some really nice results.
I took maybe 2-300 test images and ended up with these images I presented here.
It's not an easy type of photography. It's quite demanding but the results really worth the while.
Some older video cameras with photo function had infra red mode which turned the image greenish, and they projected infra red light to light close subjects. Interesting concept.
Hey thanks! Didn't know that. I'm a fan of black and white and with this technique yo get some great monochrome images.
These are amazing, I love the second squarer image! I have got an infrared filter on my film camera atm so I can't wait to see how they turn out!
Haha thank you! I like that too. Took that photo early in the spring so there was no vegetation but it has something that the others don't. I'm curious how infrared images turn out on film. Never seen IR images straight on film
Yeah it's a great shot! No me neither, not sure how effective it will be but I hope it comes out well! Will do a post on it for sure!
Looking forward to see it :)
Very interesting article, followed for more! 😃
Thanks so much!
I haven't cared much about IR photography before but I think you have changed my mind. Awesome photos.
Haha glad I changed your mind. Exploring is good :)
Just got the IR filter in the mail today. You weren't kidding about how dark the filter is. I also checked out Nathan Wirth's site and wow that is stunning.
Great post, some really interesting stuff as i am a amateur photography looking to learn some new techniques.
Thank you! Stay close by. In february I intend to post some photography related tutorials
Lovely images. I really gotta to try IR sometime. :)
Thank you! You really should give it a try, you'll be surprised :)
This was all really interesting to learn! And the photos turned out lovely! :)
Thank you so much! Glad you learned something new from this post!
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In b&w it looks really amazing!
I agree. There are some exceptions when color is prefered but b&w images have a more powerful impact
So true!
This is so cool - I have never shot in IR before - but I am in love the contrast of the black and white photos. I will definitely have to research this some more myself! Great work :) Love the fisheye/wide-angle image that was first in this post.
Haha thank you! You really should give it a shot, you'll get some nice results. The first shot was taken with a ultrawide lens but it gives you the feeling that it was shot with a fisheye due to the shape of the hill :)