Comments on: A Guide to Infrared Photography

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By: Rajiv, New Delhi

Rajiv, New Delhi — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 12:30:12 +0000

I currently have a Nikon D300S and would like to venture into infra red photography. I would like to know whether the Hoya 72 works well with a Nikon 24-70 mm (2.8) and a Sigma 12-24 mm lens for wide angle shots.

By: micheal

micheal — Sun, 29 May 2011 08:02:45 +0000

Hi Terry,
I have looled at your site and enjoyed it with great pleasure, I am 54 and in very poor health and like to use my cameras when i can. your tutourals are great and i have found a new lease of life in this section of photography…keep up the good work….MB

By: Terry

Terry — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 18:10:46 +0000

Apologies for the late reply, Gavin! I'm not too sure of the workflow in GIMP 2.6, but it should contain the basic functions that allow channel switching via the channel mixer. There's a write-up on the functionality of the channel mixer in their documentation. For the Image Data Converter, it's not necessary unless you're shooting in RAW. When it coems to RAW infrared images, I don't usually tweak it a lot besides recovering some of the blown out details (I tend to accidentally overexpose by IR shots by a stop or so).

By: balacau

balacau — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 21:10:13 +0000

Hi Terry

I’ve been trying with partial success in taking IR shots with my Sony a350, complete with a couple of lenses and a Hoya 55mm IR screw-on filter. I’ve already learned from your blog that you shouldn’t focus the image before the filter is attached – lesson no1! My main problem however is editing the picture. I don’t have Photoshop, all I have at my disposal is GIMP 2.6 and Sony’s Image Data Converter which I am assured will do the job very well.

Can you offer any advice on general settings to use on these programs (IDC especially) to get the most of out any typical IR image; I’m trying to stick to trees/grass/plant life for now until I get the hang of things.

Thanks for your time and any reply.

Best regards

Gavin

By: Terry

Terry — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 16:15:11 +0000

The camera’s autofocus system works fine even when you have an infrared filter on. so just screw on your filter and then press the shutter button half way down to focus at the right things.

Most modern dSLRs have a multiple-point focus system which allows you to select where to focus on specifically – simply select the points where you want the camera to focus on when composing your image, then screw-on the IR filter.

Manual focusing doesn’t quite work here unless your lens barrel has a separate marking for IR wavelengths (e.g. on the Konica Minolta system, they are shown in red, in contrast to white for visible light).

By: kanombpang

kanombpang — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 11:44:02 +0000

I don’t understand how you can focus after attaching the filter. or was this a mistake in the article?
….Allow the camera to autofocus (most camera will work). Do not focus before attaching the infrared filter – this is due to the difference in wavelength and how the light is refracted in the lens and camera….

By: FTVictoria

FTVictoria — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 14:51:10 +0000

Thanks for the tips on hotspot reduction! IR is my personal favorite photo technique. It’s been around for some 100 years and to this day it continues to render unbelievable photos. I especially love landscape IR photography. The white foliage of the trees, the dark skies…out of this world. Check it out http://forwardthinkingmuseum.com/exh_grp_IR_art_morgan6.php

By: Teddy

Teddy — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 04:41:24 +0000

Thanks for the help, Marcus. Hansen and I have exchanged emails and I think he got the custom WB wrong. I think he is okay now, heh. For custom WB, I recommend metering against a patch of green foliage (grass will be great), the sky, or a 18% grey card. Which one to use is simply a matter of personal preference and convenience. Since I don’t have a grey card, I will usually meter a patch of grass.

The red cast is usually produced when the custom WB settings are wrong or off, because the camera fails to cancel out the strong red cast coming from the filter (since we’re using a far red filter, only red and IR light will pass through).

By: Teddy

Teddy — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 04:38:03 +0000

There are many reasons why hotspots appear in an IR photo, but many attribute them to the construct of the lens, the optical materials used in the lens as well as the aperture size when the photo was taken. We can prevent hotspots from appearing if the lens is unsuitable for IR photography, but the method is extremely crude. Most of the image data of a hotspot usually comes from one particular colour channel – so one will simply remove, or reduce the opacity of that particular colour channel (it is usually the blue channel that is problematic). However, that will also mean discarding precious data from the image, and because of that the IR photo can only be converted to black and white (instead of false colour because discarding the blue channel will mess up the colours).

If aperture size is the problem, it’s a lot easier. Simply use a larger aperture whenever possible to reduce the effect. My kit lens have a weak hot spot even when I open it wide (at f/3.5), but the hot spot is very faint and a little tweaking in photoshop will help to make it almost unnoticable.

My shutter speed usually rangers around 10-15 seconds under broad daylight :) and yeap, autolevels help a lot in correcting the colour cast too.