INSIGHTS FOR SHOOTING INFRARED

Words of wisdom from a professional practitioner

“When considering whether to get into infrared photography, some people think that you just slap a filter on and the camera does the rest of the work. That’s not the case, though – there’s a bit more of a science to it.”

“It’s not about the filter you use, it’s about certain lenses, understanding hot spots and the flares that come off particular lenses. So the first challenge is finding which lenses work in IR photography and on which camera.”

“The Olympus E-M1 Mark III sensor doesn’t have a very strong heat shield, which makes it fantastic for shooting IR. In contrast, the heat shield on a Sony Alpha sensor is so strong that it blocks out all infrared light and makes it impossible to use unless you have it converted.”

“Using a 720nm range filter, I can get one- or two-second exposures on the E-M1 Mark III – I don’t need 20- or 30-second exposures. This is fantastic and, with the eight stops of IBIS, I can still shoot handheld.”

“There are certain technicalities you need to learn before you can shoot this kind of photography well. But once you have them, together with the right filter on the lens and setting the correct White Balance on the camera (see next page), you will have done half of the required work.”