For a while now, I've wanted to start a thread for member that are interested in this type of photography. I'd like for it to be a spot to share images, techniques and resources. There is no question that I caught the IR bug, and when it happens, you want everyone else to come down with the same illness, hahahah. Simply put, infrared (or near infrared) photography is when you take photos in that spectrum of light, normally invisible to the human eye. There are a number of ways to do this. Traditionally, IR film was used, but you had to be very careful when handling and processing it. With digital, there are 2 popular methods. The simplest is to purchase and R72 filter for your camera and fit it over the lens. For most digicams this will work, but exposures tend to be long (so a tripod is needed), image noise becomes an issue, and there can be a hotspot in the center of the image in many cameras. Now there are a few rare cameras with an already high IR sensitivity that allow you to take handheld photos, but they tend to be older models. The new Sony H9 with its Nightshot mode could be a great unmodified IR camera but we will have to wait and see. Fuji also sells a DSLR and prosumer camera that come without the IR filtering "hot mirror" in place for specific IR use. The other method is to remove the hot mirror from your camera yourself (a tricky proposition for most) or let a third party company do it for you. This will give you an IR capable camera that you can use in real time and not need a tripod. Image quality benefits as well. On the down side, you've now voided any warranty your camera may have had, and it isn't cheap to get this done. ($200-$550) [**Life Pixel**](http://www.lifepixel.com/) is considered by most to be the premier conversion company, and they have a fairly informative website if you'd like to take a look. I bought my Sony DSC-P200 used from person that converted it himself and was able to get a great deal that way. ([**Zep_Addict**](http://www.renderosity.com/homepage.php?Who=zep_addict)) If you have an older digicam laying around that you don't use much, it could be a good candidate for conversion. While DSLRs have the advance of great lenses and a better sensor, with other digicams you get real time EVF and LCD display in IR, enabling you to preview your image in real time. Modded DSLRs force the photographer to view the scene in Visible Color -- making them guess how the image is going to finally look in IR. There are still lots of things to cover but those are the basics. To get things started I'll post a few links that I've found quite valuable. ~ [**Infrared basics for digital photographers**](http://dpfwiw.com/ir.htm) The most complete online IR reference I have found, though a bit outdated. Great spot to start. ~ [**Infrared Photography Buzz**](http://www.irbuzz.blogspot.com/) A blog for all things IR. Another great learning spot. ~ [**IRTIST.com - INFRARED PHOTOGRAPHY Community**](http://www.irtist.com) THE forum for IR photographers worldwide. ~ [**jr-worldwi.de: Photography**](http://www.jr-worldwi.de/photo/ir_comparisons.html) My online introduction to digital IR. Great how-tos and camera sensitivy chart. ~ [**Wrotniak Infrared Photography**](http://www.wrotniak.net/photo/infrared/index.html) Another well rounded site. ~ [**diglloyd**](http://diglloyd.com/diglloyd/infos/GuideToDigitalInfrared/index.html) Great for beginners & veterans. ~ [**The IR Paper**](http://www.infraredphoto.eu/IR_Paper_Part_One.htm) A more technical look, but very complete. ~ [**Daniella T.'s Infrared**](http://www.pbase.com/zylen/infrared_with_dimage_7) A PBase gallery of a talented lady who shoots with an unmodded Dimage 7, much like our own Mayda Mason. There are many more links, but those can wait for now. I know that I've started you off with enough information here that it could take days to digest it all. Hopefully if you haven't tried IR yet, it will awaken a spark of interest inside of you. If you have tried it and enjoy it, why not share some of your own tips and experiences here? Thank you. ~Kort

Attached Link: Okaeri Nasai

An image where I posted an abbreviated tutorial on how to postwork an image taken using an unmodded camera and IR filter. 99% of IR photos benefit great from postwork, even if you just click on the "Auto Levels" adjustment. How much and what it is depends on the camera and filter you are using. With an R72 filter, some visible light reaches the sensor and depending on your color balance, you can acheive a pleasing false color scheme with that. With the stronger filters, the images are more monochromatic and willl need to you "hand color" the scene if you want to show different colors in the image.

This sound a good idea. I am not sure how I feel about IR. At first I hated it but now some I quite like, but I would like to see more posting first before I splash out. I am still getting to grips with my nikon and that is taking most of my time. I will hover on the fence, if you like and see how things go.

HI All
right here's my take on IR with a Canon 350D and a Cokin P Series IR filter.

If I have posted this in other threads please bear with me.

1. NEVER use the AWB feature on the camera when taking IR - it defeats the whole object

2. take a picture of grass sunlight, then set the WB to this picture

3. Mount the filter, set the film speed to between 100 and 800, any higher and you will get lots and I mean lots of noise

4. Also get a Pure red filter I use Cokin P Series, will dig the details out for those that are interested.

5. Mount the Red filter 1st, then the IR, mount the camera on the tripod and then, set for long exposures, anywhere between 1 and 15 secs (any more than this will cause lots of noise)

6. change the parameters to B&W with no toning and no filter effects

will post a more complete guide to using a 350D with IR as soon as I get the chance

John

That works for me Pat...just glad to have you here. And thanks John, you input here is greatly valued. A couple of previous IR threads: ~ Infrared Question !! ~ Great IR photographer(s)

first of all thanks to kort to advise me about this tread...
than excuse me for my english mistakes :(

my experience has start with an hoya r72... probably the well know infrared filter... it works at 720 nm... than i've tried a very cheap filter (10 dollars at ebay) that works at 900nm... the difference is really strong....

in the first case we may able to to capture part of visible light and the infrared light...
in the second case just infrared ... the result are strong contrast between the dark parts (for examples skies) and glowin' parts (foliage)... but due to the extremely long exposure (30" seconds... i've not yet a modified cam... hope it will come when the canon 40d will released)
and the monochrome result my choice was the hoya r72... i like false colours infrared a lot....

in this case the  first rule is (as john said) to forgot auto white balance!
the best result is setting the white balance manually... if you've the possibility to save your photography in raw this process may be very fast!

in the past some people has ask me a lot about infrared... so i've written a first-steps tutorial on my site

at this link

you may see the difference of white balance choices!
the rest depends by your fantasy!
hope it helps!

mayda

this site is also a good gallery to surf....

here are shown the results of a lot of postprocessing tecnique!

I've never tried it myself... but I do enjoy these types of images.

Thanx for the thread, Kortaloo. I'll make sure to keep an eye on it. And who knows, maybe I'll give it a go. I've got an old Dimage 7 lying around...

( and psst..in the meantime...can't I fake it with PS?  ;^P  )

Modded camera with Wratten 87 IR filter. Clouds and skies can be quite dramatic in IR. Thank you for visiting May and for sharing that. I enjoyed your very informative tutorial. The other link looks interesting as well.

hi Marlene!
i've an old dimage 7 as you ;)
it's really a good choice for infrared! so sensitive that you may use whithout tripod!
my paris infrared photography was done with it!

unfortunately a pc may not reproduce as well the infrared effect

Kort i envy your mooded camera!!!
grrrrrrrrr :)

Oops, hi there Marlenealouch ;'] By all means, break out your Di7 and play around. It is one of the better cams for this type of photography, just look at May's images. You can 'fake' IR in photoshop, but if will never look as good as the real thing. I know, I've tried it quite often in the past. Here is recent example. Normal photo on left, Photoshop IR conversion in middle, true IR on right. **EDIT:** Hahaha May, I am sure you will have one soon. Mine was forever in coming it seems. But I envy you your Dimage 7 -- I've seen it do some wonderful things and you can get false color with it. I can't with my Sony.

Ooh ! I gained an accent mark! Yay for mé!   LOL. ;^P

And May I loooooooooooooooooooove your IR shots! You took those with that cam?  Wow. That's good news for me then.

So what do I do next? I have to mail it somewhere? Hmmm I suppose I could bring it to B&H...

And lol ...PS certainly doesn't  look nearly as good. Oh well.  :^ )

Nope just purchase a Hoya R72 filter (eBay has'em cheap) that fits your lens thread and start clicking!

Even better!  I hate driving in the city...

( Actually , I hate driving in Delray even more... all those whiteheads in their cataract sunglasses, lol...but I digress.  ;^P  )

White heads -- you should seen them in IR! ;'P Actually, it is not so bad now, the snowbirds have headed back north.

LOL! Lucky me!  :woot:

"My parents didn't want to move to Florida, but they turned sixty and that's the law. "
  Jerry Seinfeld

Oops. See? You invite me to a thread and right away it goes OT...Sorry. My bad...  :tongue2:

LOL, NP. I'm heading home anyway. Have a great weekend.

Toodle-oo Kortaloo!  :m_wave:

Just a li'l tip....most digicams have custom setttings that can be stored and then readily accessible to use as needed.  My canon G6 has 2 that I use exclusively for IR.

One is set for b&w at 5 sec exp and the other is for color 15 sec exp.   I can then quickly switch between the two (along with the custom white balance).

hi All (again)

the tips I post usually works for me, but thats not to say they wont work for you, one other thing which I have found is a remote switch, which will save your tons of time.

the reason I use a red filter is too cut out a lot more of the IR spectrum, to give me a compressed tones image, which I then usually post edit in PS CS2.

Now when you take an IR picture, what you are actually seeing is the reflected IR light from the object you are taking.  So two other points.

1. The foucs point will change, so watch out and NEVER AUTO FOCUS, alwys focus first then, place the filter in.

2. higher ISO's will alwys lead to more noise (grain for film fans).  I have tried this will HIE IR FILM (kodak) and anything over 6 seconds will lead to reciprocity failure.

if anyone has a IR capable camera to donate, dont forget me

john

can your camera take color IR?  I took some in the early 1970's and I lost them. I bought two b/w IR film and just used one roll cost $18 each the color slide film will cost me $32. I did find some on the net for $22 but they wanted $8 shipping so what the diff? 

Oh is the filter 72 is it a red filter. I think I have it already for I put it on my film camera for the B/W shots. I am a color man I try the B/W but I alway wish for color. I would love to see what the bees sees on the flowers. Flowers have a IR to them and the bees sees this like a lighthouse. Saw that on one of those science channel.
I saw too this man in France was looking over the Roman battle where Cearer defected a army six times his side and the scincetist took IR photos of the area from a plane. It been around 2000 years that battle was and the land was farmed and all but the IR  light capture the outlines of where the Romans had they armys. The scincetis then got a better ideal of the battle.  I was happy to see what IR cameras can do 

Oh with the 72 filter you set the camera in B/W mode?

oh thanks for the head up here

Hi Y'all. 

Thanks kort for starting this thread. 
I am super passionate (ok maybe = obsessive) about IR Photography (some of you may know this and laugh!!)LOL. 

I have written an article that may be useful to post in the techniques section on rendo (but im not sure how to do this??).  Its a "word" based article so id be happy to email it to anyone who sends me a message request.

I know that a lot of the canon 300d, 350d & 400d cams have difficulty with focus and you have to experiment at the infinity end of the focus to get it right. The more portable compact digis (with "live" view screens work well) and movies in infra red look great too!!

I got my old canon 300d internally converted with an R72 filter plate and its just awsome and allows some blue light in.  If you use an 87c filter plate then you get the pure black and white images. I prefer the slight colour tints of the R72.

I agree that the custom white balance is the way to go ( i photograph a bitumen road to set my white balance by) but its fun experimenting with flouro and tungsten white balance settings as some of the camners produce quite striking colour casts of purple, red and blue!!

Bye for now
and cheers
Louise

Many thanks to Joe, John, Jocko and Louis for visiting and contributing to this thread. I look forward to seeing more interesting content added in the days to come. As a side note, John mentioned focusing and then putting the filter on. With the point and shoots, I've found that the autofocus work pretty well for me in most cases. Louise, I am not sure how to get that aritcle, I think we need to approach Danny or Bruce. You could also host it on a website if you have one and then link to it that way.

Kort this is a great tread, (thanks for a note)! ! Open a door to other photographers to experience something different. 

I discovered this wonder  through May's wonderfull IR shots when I started to upload here on rendo. I could not get enough of this magical colored pictures. I settled a bit since, now I do my own wonder with my camera and Hoya 72 r filter. I started to experiment with my Fuji s7000. Honestly that camera not much good for IR shots. I use now my Canon 400d , totaly different effect between a two camera. I have a slight problem thou, with my canon I always have a hot spot. My photoshop talent not a gretaest so I have great difficoulty to corect this problem on a picture. That is why I have not upload IR shots here. They not  worthy in quality but this is doesn't stop me not to take shots anyway. I love your IR clouds Kort. Soon as I have a little more time I will find out if I can convert my first digi camera, Fuji 620, so I might be able to shot in truly IR. If not, I will chase up a good second hand canon for this reason only! 
Untill then admire yours and and Lou's and a false color IR from May!

seeyus  Tunde

Babuci

there can be a problem with Canon lenses and hot spots I am currently, making a list of whats good and whats not

here's a list of hot spot lens problem...

link

for me was a very hard battle in the past...
btw it seems that a modded camera will not suffer this!

My humble attempt at IR.  Fujifinepix S5100 4mp, hoya r72, 6.5 sec exposure, iso200, f5.6, RAW.  Postworked with [www.pbase.com/dlarson2/ir_work_flow](http://www.pbase.com/dlarson2/ir_work_flow).  Breezy day.  I dont think this camera has the hotspot issue.

Thanks everyone for the tips and links.

Mike

@May, thanks for this link. I have a EF 28-80 does a same hot spot then a EF 18-55. I also used
my EF 75-300, not as strong but still produces a highlighted " middle"

@John, I am very interested in your list, wait to read it here....thanks for the effort.

seeya Tunde

@ babuci.... the canon 18-55 works without hotspot just at 35mm :)
than...
canon 100mm macro and the canon 70-300is works perfectly

compact cam:
olypmus c740 produce a light hotspot
canon powershot a620 is extremely good (for false colous too)
dimage 7 produce a light hotspot

i know that at dpreview.com there was a very long tread about this... but today i cannot log :(
i'll come back later with the link

any other experience will be greatly appreciate, thanks to all!

Thanks May! Today I went for some IR shot excursion....I got a fewer again since this tread...LOL Strangly some shot has a hot spot some not. I just checked my exif data and yes on 35mm shots doesn't have a hot spot. I will check those compact camies out, I might can get one for a good price and go tothe workshop for convert.

seeya  Tunde

Hi Tunde, 
theres an Aussie guy who does the conversions in Melbourne and has a good list of cameras that he can convert, prices are listed too!!
Hes at 
www.burren.cx/photo
Its a very safe site, hes a member of my camera club and a professional photographer too!!

Its where i got mine done.

cheers
Louise

Thanks Lou...I was about to send you an e-mail about that guy. I remember you made yours with him too. Thnks again I go check prizes...sight.

seeya  Tunde

HI All

Lenses with hotspots

Ef 18-55
Ef 10-22
Ef 17-40
Ef 28-105
Ef 35-70
Ef 28 - 200 (sigma and tamron)
EF 300 + focal lengths

this is all i have for now, but a tip what works for me is to use a piece of card above the filter  and lens which cuts out some of the hotspots, on short exposure times

thanks john for writtin'  your experience!

here's the link at
dpreview.com

here's another tread from
photography-on-the-net

You guys rock, thanks for this lens info!

seeyus  Tunde

Hi All
heres my small list of hotspot lenses

Ef 10-22
Ef 35-70
ef 28-200 (sigma)
ef 70-300 (sigma)
ef 300 + (anything above the focal length of 300)
ef 18-55
ef 28-105
ef 28-80
ef 50 mm (sigma - macro) + bellows

the amount of hotspotting is variable but one way of making sure it does not happen is to place black card above the filter to stop the stray light from behind hittin the filter.

More research to be done.

john

I'm glad to see that this thread has been getting a workout over the weekend. Good info and links everyone, thanks for participating. Hot spots can be an annoying problem. John's suggestion is good, but also experiment with the f/stop you are using. I can't recall at the moment, but either stopping down or up should minimize the hotspot. I THINK the wider the aperture, the less pronounced it is, but don't quote me on that. I have also hear that certain filters are more prone to it as well, specifically the R72s. The filters that block out more even more light are less prone to the hotspot effect. It is a little difficult to describe, but I minimize the hot spot I get using my C8080 and R72 filter by using the circular selection tool to select most of the photo, then feather 250 pixels and bring up either the darks or lights using levels to compensate. Then I select a smaller central circle and do the same thing until the image has evened out a bit.

HI All
again about hotpsots, they wil occur on the lenses which are older and have no multicoating, prime lenses are the worst (apparently).

Anyway a couple of other tips, if you want pure B&W IR, switch the camera to B&W then place a red filter behind the IR filter, this will increase the exposure times, but should shorten the wavelength you can get, upto 800nm +.  Although this is not accurate it works for me on CANON stuff, I dont know about other camera's.

You can get a Pseudo effect by leaving the camera to b&W and using a red filter,  but this will push the wavelength a little lower, some of you may like the effect, but hey its upto personal choice.

I am currently working an a long article to try and get to the bottom of IR work (including PS processing) and when it is finished I will post here or you can mail me for it, when its done.

One other thing, which is worth noting is that never shot directly into sunlight even with an IR filter on,

John

*"One other thing, which is worth noting is that never shot directly into sunlight even with an IR filter on"* Just curious about your reasoning there John. I don't make a habit of it but have in the past. You get a lot of flare but are you saying it will damage the sensor? You also mention a psuedo IR effect with red filter and B&W mode. I concur that you get a similar effect, but as you can see from my test sample above that green foliage still comes out dark whereas the red daisies became white. I think a green filter might give you lighter foliage, though I am not sure what it woul do to the sky. With a full IR filter (bottom), you see both red (tomatoe) and green (vine) lighten up. I look forward to seeing your article John. Perhaps you could host it online if it is really long and post a link to it here.

Here is another image comparison. Both were shot at the same time of day at the same approximate location. The first was with my unmodded camera and the second with the modded one. The only adjustments made were to resize and use Auto Levels to bring out the contrast. The hotspot is plainly visible in the top camera while none is to be seen in the bottom one.

@ Kort. Nice sample shots...I still love the false color versions and thanks for a tip about how to deal with hot spot.
@John. That IR artical with workflow would be a great idea. (I knwo many on the internet, but not here )
Thanks for an input I learned a bit more again about IR!

seeyus  Tunde

I may not know about the hot spots but it look to me you can put the image into phot shop and make a layer on top of the orginal image and on the top layer you can adjust the contract or levels to get very closet to the bottom layer. Then get the transparit brush and put it at 100 and as you work your way in set it at diff levels of tranparit like 50% or 30% and so om intill you get what you wish for ; no hot spot. maybe the hard way I guess.

here is what I talking about . hope you do not mind me useing your image

Kort,

Thanks for posting a link to my site.

www.irbuzz.blogspot.com

Hopefully it is helpful to those who want to get started shooting IR.

Take a look at the talented Featured IR Photographers to get inspiration.

If I can be of any help, please ask.

-=- Jerry -=-
.

hi
@ Twopynts

no what I am saying is that, even with a IR filter you MAY and I stress you may damage the sensor on long exposure shots.

john

currently typing away

Hey Jerry, good to see you here. I hope you'll start a little gallery here at Renderosity too. Don't worry, if we have any questions I am sure we'll ask you. ;'] No worries jocko, I am glad you used my image. You method of removing hot spots looks like it works pretty well too. Here is how it turned out using my method. BTW, this was one of the first test photos I took with my IR filter last year. @John, okay, thanks. I agree...not a good idea for long exposures.

Thanks Kort for starting this. You're absolutly right about this type of photography being addictive. My first experience was when I saw a photo that my uncle had taken in color ir. Many years later I picked up a Hoya R72 for my Nikon Coolpix 8800, I had a blast playing with that one, but I was jealous of anyone with a modded camera that didn't have to deal with the long exposures. This is when I decided to modify my first camera a Sony DSC-P200 I ended up doing three of these and I still keep one in my glove box today. I also modified a Canon Powershot A620 which I still take out on occasion this was my last effort and produces great images. I plan on getting out more this summer whith my latest, a modified Canon Rebel XTI, do to some health problems I have gotten to take more than some test shots with this one. I had Lifepixel do this one for me and I couldn't be more happy with their service or the conversion that they did for me. I look forward to seeing some more images from everyone here at Renderosity and I'd like to thank averyone that has left such wonderful comments in my gallery.

Thanks again and I hope to have some new images posted from my newest camera soon

Jimº°°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°°º¤ø

Thanks for popping in Jim. I look forward to seeing what you do with the modded Rebel. How different is it not to have a live preview? Here's a rececent photo with the P200.