SEE YOU ON THE OTHER SI DE
Capture the world your eye can’t see with infrared photos. Mark Hamblin explains how
Bright overhead sunlight isn’t usually flattering for shooting landscapes, but it’s actually ideal for infrared photography. This may not be something you’ve considered before, but shooting infrared images is hugely rewarding, and gives outdoor scenes an otherworldly haunting appearance. The effect works especially well on green foliage and blue skies, which makes summer the perfect time to try shooting some ghostly infrared images!
Infrared light is outside the visible spectrum of the human eye, but digital cameras can capture it either after a modification or by using an infrared filter. The first option involves having the camera’s infrared blocker removed and replaced with an infrared filter so that the camera will only record infrared light. This specialist sensor conversion costs from around £300 ( www.advancedcameraservices.co.uk) or from $325 ( www.lifepixel.com). The modification is irreversible, but you could have an old camera converted.
The alternative approach is to fit an infrared filter to your lens, which blocks out all the visible light and only allows infrared light through. Specialist filters such as Hoya’s
screw-on R72 cost between £30 to £135 ($45-$85) for popular filter sizes. These filters produce great results, but they are very dark (like a strong neutral density filter) so you need to adapt the way you shoot, because you can’t see through the viewfinder once the filter is attached.
Best conditions
Infrared photography is best suited to bright overhead sunshine. In this light, blue skies are rendered as rich dark tones and leaves and grass appear ghostly white after processing, giving images an eerie appearance. For this reason, landscapes are a popular choice, but infrared can also be very effective for other subjects including people. Bright sunlight isn’t essential, though, so don’t worry if the clouds roll in.
If you have your camera converted for infrared photography, you can pretty much shoot as normal, although be aware that some lenses give better results than others. Check online to see how your lens performs, and also try using different lenses to see which gives the best results. If you’re using an IR filter, then things like exposure, focusing and composition are more difficult, but it’s nothing that can’t be overcome with a bit of trial and error.
You’ll need to compose and focus on the scene before the filter is fitted. Infrared light is focused differently to visible light, so what may be sharp when seen in visible light may be slightly out of focus when captured in infrared. To compensate for this, it’s best to set a narrow aperture to bring all parts of the scene into focus.
Straight out of the camera your images will have a strong red colour cast, so you’ll need to convert the raw image to monochrome and then make adjustments to the contrast and colour sliders to produce really striking black-and-white images. Successful infrared photography takes a bit of practice, but persevere and you’ll be rewarded with some astonishing results.