My Hoya R72 IR filter arrived in the mail today so I had to run outside my workplace and take a few test shots. These are pretty straightforward image. I shot them using the Night presets on my cam, so I'm sure some fine tuning will produce more pleasing results. There is definitly some vignetting so shooting in RAW is a good way to eliminated that when importing to Photoshop. But these were standard SHQ JPEGs. There is also a slight hotspot in the center...quite common actually from what I've read Anyway, here are the test photos. I had to use a tripod due to the long exposure times. There was a breeze too so some of the branches were moving.

Gotta love that "woods effect" on the leaves of the foliage, espcially with those palms! =]

Have to admit I know nothing about filters, but these are very cool shots! Love the look of the leaves....looks like snow or blossoms. :) Can't wait to see more of these from you. :)

These are really nice - I like the vignette - suppose it depends how it works into a particular composition but looks like something to work with not against to me :)

It should be called a visible light filter, since that is what it is really blocking, but anyway... ;] Richard, I actually already treated these for vinetteing, ...so what you see is a minimized effect.

He He right yeah - I must stop the kids getting near the keyboard and typing stupid remarks :D MAS4eva !!!

Message edited on: 02/22/2006 14:36

"He He right yeah - I must stop the kids getting near the keyboard and typing stupid remarks :D" Excellent get out clause, I must remember that one, trouble is they have left home lol Nice results from the new filter. Must admit I have never shot IR real film or otherwise. I was always of the understanding that if your cams sensor cant see IR it cant be done. Which as I understand it rules out most DLSR's except the 20Da and modified ones? Like the 5D disassembly tutorial Anyone care to shed any light on this (no pun intended lol)

a little council... infrared filter can create a hot spot on the center of image... on your shots is a little bit visible... try differen focal lenght to try to remove it.. btw beautiful tests.. for sure you have wonderful jorneys in your lands :)

Cool shots! So what is a IR filter and how does it work, excuse me while I'm blonde again!

Attached Link: sensitivity comparison

Yes, a bit of a hotspot is created when using an IR filter. It is better on some cams and worse on others. Briefly, an IR filter filters out most of the visible light spectrum and forces the camera to shoot at a longer exposure, capturing data from the IR range fo the spectrum. Digicams have what is called a "hot mirror" that filters out much of the IR light, but some still gets through. Older cameras were much more sensitive to IR light while most of the newer ones have a harder time capturing it. And my cam is supposed to be one of the worst, but you see that it still manages it. ;] The attached link lists cameras and their sensitivity to IR light. The best out of the box are the old Oly C2000/2020, Nikon Coolpics 950, D50, Pentax *ist DS, and Minolta D7. Or you can do what others have done and take apart your camera and replace the hot mirror with a same size piece of optical quality glass or IR filter. You then have a VERY fast dedicated IR camera. There are also companies that will do this for you...for a price. My ultimate dream would be to own the Japanese imported Canon 20Da, but that just isn't doable right now. I hope more IR cameras come out in the not too distant future.

you've reason... my eos350d requires an extremely long exposure time (sometimes is not so cool)... 18-55 objective makes an extremely visible hot spot! with a simple olympusc740 exposure time was very short and without hot spot! my desires about infrared cameras are the sames as you! let us know what you will do :)

Yes, I've been a fan of it ever since the late 80s when used some IR film for the first time. I've done some false IR photos (see above) in my gallery but would love to do the real thing...and do it well. We'll see how it goes! ;]

Here are some more test shots I just too, this time behind my place of work. I refined the process a bit and shot in a more manual mode. The settings were approximately 6 seconds, f/5.6, iso 50, auto whilte balance. These are the unmanipulated colors...not really any color.

Postwork consisted mainly of Autolevels..

...minimizing of the vinetting...

... and sharpening before size reduction. A slight central hotspot is still visible, espcially in 2 and 3, but not overly objectionable. This was probably due to the lense being at full wide angle, though 1 was also but I see no real hotspot.

Some cool..er.. or is the HOT.. examples! The birds in #12 seem way blown out, but the others seem exposed quite well! I really like the surreal look IR gives images! Hmmm....might be worth giving this a try...use my G6 or Oly as an IR only cam!

LoL, thanks Joe. As I pointed out, #12 was false IR - taking a regular image and "faking" it. Just trying to illustrate the fact that nothing beats the real thing. ;] Thanks for the feedback. Which Oly do you have?

Ooops.. sorry for the confusion there! I have an Oly C700 its old 2.1MP...but it still can take some decent shots! Thinking it might be good for some IR experimentation!

Worth trying anyway...the c2020 had that sensor and it did wonders...though the C700 might have a more restrictive hot mirror. You could always take it apart... ;]

Thanks for your IM Kort. Really liking what I see so far. Busy packing for a trip away, so will check back after the w/e.

I love the sky in 15, 16 Looks like your on to a winner with that filter

Thanks Richard. It needs some tweaking in postwork...but yeah, I'm happy with it so far. I hope to get some more photos this weekend out and about in nature! =]

you've played a lot with your new toy :) you've exposed excellently all your shots! what do you think to make some shot with colours? for the hotspot... yes... are lens! maybe you'll see something strange in full telephoto mode...

Nice to see you get that filter...I just picked up one as well along with a sony dsc V-3 w/ night shot...even without nightshot, the V-3 and 828/717/707 are very sensitive to IR with little or no hotspot.... My Nikon 5700 also works pretty well but has a little bit more of a hotspot in it.......

I did add a little color to the bottom one. The problem is, the camera reads the image as totally without color through the lense. It is an RGB image, but convert it to greyscale and you see no difference. I will play with false color adjustments soon I'm sure. :) Thanks for the comments

The water gave #12 away...;) Looks like youre off to a good start. I like the palm shots. :) Why dont you use the method i use to obtain "false-color" IR without the Photoshop fiddling. Two circular polarizers and different color filters or just the two polarizers. I use plastic lenses from a pair of polarized sunglass with a glass CPL filter. This allows me to fit 1 plastic PL lens(cut circular), 1 glass CPL, and 1 glass color filter of my choosing to 1 filter ring attachment. So no vignetting. ;) The polarizers are flush together, rotated until maximum light cutoff occurs. This will give you a Kodak ectachrome ir film look. Red foliage with deep blue skies. I added a red filter to 1 of my 2 "False color" IR pass filters for a different color format. I also take a White-balance measurment with the camera from the leaves with the filter on. Gives me an extra color set Below are test photos i took to inspect what happens to my color channels when i use the filters. I used my plain CPL Ir pass filter(auto whitebalance) and my other CPL IR filter with red addon(auto WB and Custom WB)

This shot is with plain CPLx2-autoWB-almost max light cutoff Color channels are- Red channel=Ir light Green channel=Slight IR/visible light mix Blue channel=Visible light

This shot is with CPLx2+red filter-Auto WB Color channels are- Red channel=visible light Green channel=slight IR/visible light mix Blue channnel=Ir light

This shot is with CPLx2+red filter-Custom WB taken from tree leaves. Color channels are- Red channel=visible light Green channel=Some Ir light Blue channnel=Ir light Other color filters can be used,but i find red the most pleasing/flexible with IR and whitebalance settings....sometimes i use yellow. Hope this research helps you. :)

Keep in mind what gets blocked with color filters though. A yellow filter blocks blue, so your skys are gonna be yellow. Skys are either visible light or nothing, which is why they are black in b/w IR photos. So in my false color photos, they are either normal visible blue or red from the red filter(not counting custom WB version, that totally whacks the colors). :)

I dont have a test photo like the others...But i located a pic i did with CPLx2 only Custom white balance off the leaves. My cameras default IR color is a magenta type color....we see since i filtered out the red of the leaves with custom WB, Ir light takes over the reds of the vegetaion giving them a magenta color. Color channels are- Red channel=Pure IR (actually "NIR", but that just confuses people, so we'll say "IR" :P) Green channel=Moderate IR/visible mix Blue channel=Heavy IR/visible mix(dont ask me why blue now collects IR/visible instead of just visible) Looks like when i balanced out the red, i somehow unleashed IR light across all three color channels. Go figure.

P.s....TwoPynts.... I bought the R72 awhile back thinking of false color IRs also. But my camera(Nikon 8700)couldnt quite pic up visible light through it. So all i got was my magenta IR pics that i would expect from my B+W(#092)IR pass filter(That filter blocks all visible light). No good for FalseColor:( So its either the CPLx2 filters or photoshopping it. Im more of a purist so i chose the CPLx2 so i wont have to alter the colors in programs.

Wow, great set of shots. Thanks for explaining your method. Yeah, the IR filter does only allow the magenta light through to the sensor. I had the B&W preset on accidentally, but shut it off and got the magenta look. Your way sounds (and looks) extremely cool. I really like some of the effects you achieved, esp. in 30 & 32. I'm gonna bookmark this thread so I can look it over more closely when I pick up some more filters. Until then, I guess I better stick to monochrome. ;] Thanks!

Thanks:)How about some more info for your archives? I dont get to see many IR threads. I went with either b-w images or left it magenta or altered the magenta in PS to another color for 3 years before i started experimenting with getting "False-color". ;) Also i used BIC pen ink pens for B-W IR images.....Took out the ink tube from the pen, and applied it smoothly and evenly to the front of a sunglass lens, then i took a lens from a second pair of the same type and side and place it on top of the ink laden lens...sandwiching the ink inbetween the 2 lenses.

I allowed it to dry a few days and it gave me an IR image comparable to a R72 filter.

But i wanted falsecolor, so i started more mad experiments....with 6, regular sunglass lenses, stacked and taped together with black electrical tape. It gave me this.....Up top^^^^:):):)

Message edited on: 02/27/2006 18:48

Message edited on: 02/27/2006 18:49

This one is 8 lenses instead of 6. Used Nikon 4300 with these shots, before i had 8700.

Message edited on: 02/27/2006 18:51

Sorry... my other IR pas filter is a (Biermannand Weber)B+W #093, i said #092(which is more comparable to Hoya R72...#093 blocks out all of the visible spectrum. Cant use it anymore, it was sized for my 4300 and is to small for the 8700. :(

Wow, even more amazing images Mike. You REALLY went through a lot of experimentation, I am quite impressed. I am very thankful you shared all of your methods with me. 36 is just amazing and 37 is so dramatic. I only got one IR photo in this weekend -- it was rainy and cloud most of the time. It started off magenta, but I edited to get what you see here. Gotta run, dinner time! ;]

Looks great! Like the sepia type color. Good subject, water is always good with IR shots. You can also bump up the aperture and thatll let more IR collect to darken the clear sky parts more, and itll mirror the water out more. Water and glass become opaque in heavy IR and almost mirror like. Ir light penetrates some materials deeper than normal light. Skin, fabrics and other things can become translucent. Tripod, obviously is required, but if you have one on you youre set. Also magenta isnt being let in though the filter, Its the common color most digital cameras seem to display IR as. The only color really getting through is deep, deep red, which is more IR-ish than visible-ish. IR has no color of its own. Id go ahead and add some more contrast in PS, bring out those clouds and distant branches and water ripples. Have fun:)

Thanks for the feedback and for the tips about opening up the aperature. This wasn't a good shot to begin with and I already postworked it to bring out the detail and remove the hotspot and vignetting as much as possible. More contrast and it looses that nice "fluffy" IR feel. ;] I'm looking forward to photographing some people. Getting them to hold still for 6 seconds, that is going to be the hard part, hahah.

Here is another test shot taken outside of my office. Postwork was done to even out the tonality and to add a hint of color.

Looks great! Sorry i didnt respond sooner....was very very ill for a bit.:( Keep at it. :)

That's okay...I hope you are feeling better.