Infrared photography: theory and practice. How to get started with infrared photography Shooting in infrared rays
Infrared photography allows us to see a world that is invisible to our eyes.
At first, these photographs may seem lifeless, but if you look closely, you can see in them a different space and a different reality. The pictures obtained using infrared photography are very surreal: hot summer turns into cold winter, the sky and water become almost black.
All these are pictures from other, parallel worlds.
Pleasure boats on the canal
This is not winter, this is summer, here the trees and grass are green.
What needs to be done to capture this fabulous, invisible world? The first step is to determine if your camera is suitable for infrared photography. Then equip yourself with specialized filters and a tripod. But there is also a folk method.
One of the specialists shared his experience and several works in the field of infrared photography:
“In order to get such pictures, I bought a used Canon 350D digital camera and “broke” it, replacing the hot mirror with regular glass. It was very scary to accidentally break the device completely. But the operation was successful, everything works, although I still had a couple of “extra” screws after assembly.”
Infrared radiation beyond the visible range was first discovered by the Englishman William Herschel back in 1800. At first, infrared photography was used by astronomers, used in aerial photography, as well as by the military and restorers when working with paintings by great painters.
Today, infrared photography is a great technique for those photographers who want to capture something unusual and make their creations stand out from the crowd.
Infrared photography began in the film era, when special films capable of recording infrared radiation appeared. But, since nowadays digital SLR cameras are much more popular than film cameras and it has become quite difficult to get special film (in addition, it should be noted that not every film SLR will allow you to shoot on IR film due to the presence of an infrared sensor inside the camera, which will expose the frames ), in this photo tutorial we will only touch on aspects of infrared
First, to understand the process of obtaining infrared images, you need to understand the theory. The radiation that forms the color image perceived by the human eye has a wavelength ranging from 0.38 microns (violet) to 0.74 microns (red). The peak sensitivity of the eye falls, as is known, on green light, which has a wavelength of approximately 0.55 microns. The wave range with a length of less than 0.38 microns is called ultraviolet, and more than 0.74 microns (and up to 2000 microns) is called infrared. Sources of infrared radiation are all heated bodies.
Reflected solar IR radiation most often forms an image on the film or matrix of the camera. Since infrared photography is most widely used in the landscape genre, it should be noted that grass, leaves and pine needles reflect IR radiation best, and therefore they appear white in the photographs. All bodies that absorb IR radiation appear dark in the photographs (water, earth, tree trunks and branches).
Now you can move on to the practical part.
Let's start with filters. To obtain an infrared image, it is necessary to use IR filters that cut off most or all visible radiation. In stores you can find, for example, +W 092 (transmits radiation from 0.65 microns and longer), B+W 093 (0.83 microns and longer), Hoya RM-72 (0.74 microns and longer), Tiffen 87 (0.78 µm and longer), Cokin P007 (0.72 µm and longer). All filters except the last one are regular threaded filters that screw onto the lens. Filters from the French company Cokin must be used with a proprietary mount, which consists of a ring with a thread for the lens and a filter holder. The peculiarity of this system is that for lenses with different thread diameters you only need to purchase the corresponding ring, while the filter itself and the holder remain the same, which is much cheaper than purchasing the same threaded filters for each lens. In addition, a standard holder can accommodate up to three filters with different effects.
Since we're looking at IR photography exclusively with digital SLR cameras, it should be noted that different camera models have different abilities to detect infrared radiation. Camera matrices themselves perceive infrared radiation quite well, but manufacturers install a filter in front of the matrix (the so-called Hot Mirror Filter), which cuts off most of the infrared waves.
This is done to minimize the appearance of unwanted effects in pictures (for example, moire). The ability to use the camera for IR photography depends on how much IR radiation is filtered. For example, the Nikon D70 with the Cokin P007 filter can be used handheld, but the Canon EOS 350D and most other cameras will always require a tripod due to long shutter speeds. Some photographers interested in infrared photography resort to modifying the camera by removing the infrared filter.
Now let's touch on image processing in Photoshop. The resulting frames, depending on the white balance setting, will have a red or purple tonality. To obtain a classic black-and-white infrared image, you will need to desaturate the image, for example, using a gradient map, after adjusting the levels and contrast. There are also several ways to take very impressive color infrared photographs. For example, you can use the Channel Mixer tool by first setting the red channel to Red - 0%, Blue - 100%, for the blue channel - Red - 100%, Blue - 0%, and then by small manipulations with the percentage of a particular color in channels, select values at which the picture will look most attractive.
The human eye is capable of perceiving rays in the wavelength range from 380 nm to 760 nm (violet to red). Everything that goes beyond these limits is impossible to see without special equipment.
Visible light is only a small part of the broad spectrum of waves. Neighboring regions of the spectrum are ultraviolet and infrared rays. They can be captured in a photograph because they are refracted by the lens of the lens, and the image can be focused onto the camera's sensor. Infrared photography allows us to capture wavelengths in a range inaccessible to our eyes - from 700 to 1100 nm.
In conclusion, we note the main advantages of infrared photography: the absence of haze in the images and always a well-developed sky, the absence of debris, since it does not reflect IR rays, and, of course, the most important thing was what was said at the very beginning - the opportunity to see unusual, an unusual world in which, in addition to fairy-tale colors, all moving objects disappear or turn into “ghosts”.
It's not warm yet, but it's no longer light.How to obtain an infrared image using a regular camera. How to make an IR filter from scrap materials. Specialized cameras. Difficulties when shooting and how to get around them. Selection of lenses, cameras and filters.
Interesting scenes in the infrared range.
Using live examples of infrared images, we will try to process them together. We will get ready-made solutions for image processing and together we will analyze how these solutions work.
THEORETICAL PART
Understanding of infrared, visible and ultraviolet radiation. Difference between infrared and thermal radiation.
Infrared radiation was discovered in 1800 by the English scientist W. Herschel, who discovered that in the spectrum of the Sun obtained using a prism, beyond the red light boundary (i.e., in the invisible part of the spectrum), the temperature of the thermometer increases. It was then proven that this radiation obeys the laws of optics and, therefore, has the same nature as visible light.
Fig.1 Decomposition into solar radiation spectrum
On the opposite side, beyond the violet band of the spectrum, there is ultraviolet radiation. It is also invisible, but it also warms up the thermometer a little.
Far infrared radiation (the longest wavelength) is used in medicine in physiotherapy. It penetrates the skin and heats the internal organs without burning the skin.
Mid-infrared radiation is recorded by thermal imagers. The most popular applications of thermal imaging cameras are for detecting heat leaks and non-contact temperature monitoring.
Rice. 2. Thermal imager (mid-infrared)
We are most interested in near (the shortest wavelength) infrared radiation. This is no longer thermal radiation from surrounding objects at room temperature, but not yet visible light.
In this frequency range, objects heated to a noticeable red glow emit quite strongly. For example, a nail heated red hot in a flame gas stove in infrared light - bright white (Fig. 3) Cooler areas (the redness of which is imperceptible in the visible spectrum) remain dark in IR.
Rice. 3 Near IR
It is this range of radiation that “works” when objects are heated in the sun or under incandescent lamps. And this same radiation is absorbed by “thermal” car windows and energy-saving double-glazed windows at home.
Its most popular application is remote control remote control(Fig. 4), infrared surveillance cameras with infrared illumination spotlights.
At one time, data transmission using the IrDA standard was popular. The same infrared port in phones and laptops.
Rice. 4. Remote control
In digital, as well as film photography, the sensitivity of the camera to infrared radiation is undesirable. It leads to color distortion - black velor jackets look blue, and the saturation of red is selectively lost.
Therefore, in modern cameras they fight it in every possible way using a wide variety of methods. However, there is still residual sensitivity, albeit very small.
Differences between black and white and infrared imaging.
Filters that make color photography look like infrared are quite popular on the Internet. However, they cannot work correctly because the color image does not contain information about the reflectivity of the materials in the infrared spectrum. Roughly speaking, they cannot distinguish between a green car and green foliage and make all green objects in the frame appear white. In the same way, everything blue becomes black.In the same way, infrared photography does not work with a simple red filter, no matter whether it is film or digital.
How to get an infrared image
In order to obtain a true infrared image, it is necessary, in the simplest case, not to allow visible radiation to pass into the lens, so that the camera’s residual sensitivity to infrared radiation forms the image.Infrared films
In the case of film photography, this is achieved by using special films Kodak High Speed Infrared HIE, Konica Infrared 750 and the most popular - Ilford SFX 200. However, film is not enough; you also need to install a filter that will cut off visible light. Otherwise, the film turns into regular black and white panchromatic film with increased grain. A completely uninteresting combination.Infrared film is very demanding on storage conditions - it is strongly recommended to store it in the refrigerator. It is necessary to load film into the camera in complete darkness, because the tail of the film acts as a light guide and exposes up to half of the film. Plus, frame counters in film cameras also expose the film. Under no circumstances should you expose the film when scanning luggage at the airport, and it is almost impossible to do this with modern security measures - the security service rears up and urgently asks to show what is in the box.
After exposure, the film must be developed using the classic black and white process in pitch darkness and preferably in a metal tank.
In summary, film infrared photography is more of a heroic activity than a practical one.
Digital cameras
In digital photography everything is much more interesting. In most popular digital cameras, the matrix has a residual sensitivity to the infrared range sufficient to photograph in the sun with a shutter speed of several seconds.Rice. 5. Infrared photography. Canon EOS 40D, F8, 30”. Slide film filter.
Although digital camera sensors are sensitive to infrared radiation, their sensitivity to visible light is thousands of times greater, so to take IR photography you need to block visible light with a special filter.
For example, Canon EOS 40D and 300D cameras in the summer sun required a shutter speed of 10...15 seconds at an aperture of F5.6 and a sensitivity of ISO 100. Under similar conditions, the Nikon D70 allowed working with a shutter speed of ½...1 second (which indicates a significantly weaker IR filter in the camera).
If you are not afraid of long exposures, then it is quite possible to work in this mode - simply install an infrared filter in front of the lens and take photographs from a tripod.
The disadvantage of this solution is not only long exposures, but also in the impossibility of cropping the picture - nothing is visible in the optical viewfinder. You always have to use LiveView, and not all cameras have it.
Cameras with retractable infrared filter (NightVision)
At one time, when digital SLR cameras had not yet gained the popularity they have today, Sony DSC-F707/717/828 cameras enjoyed authority among photographers.Fig6. Cameras Sony DSC-F717/828/707
Their special feature was the shooting mode Night Shot– in it, a filter that absorbs infrared radiation was removed from the camera matrix. This made it possible to install a special filter in front of the lens that transmits only infrared radiation and obtain an honest infrared photograph with relatively short shutter speeds. Albeit with a lot of automation limitations, this made it possible to photograph portraits in the IR range.
There is a legend that the Canon EOS 20Da and Canon EOS 60Da cameras designed for astrophotography are adapted for infrared photography, but this is not true. They have a different Low-Pass filter design and increased sensitivity in the red range. However, they are also insensitive to the infrared range.
Modification of the camera for infrared photography.
If the capabilities of a regular camera with a filter seem insufficient and you want to take infrared photographs with short shutter speeds, then you can remove the infrared-cutting filter (Hot Mirror) from the camera and get a camera with a fairly high sensitivity to the IR range. In ordinary visible light, the camera will stop working normally - the colors will be constantly distorted, and this can only be dealt with by installing the Hot Mirror filter on the lens. Therefore, for shooting in the IR range, they often use an old camera, which has already served its purpose and is not so bad to break.And since interference in the camera has begun, you can directly place an infrared filter directly in front of the matrix. The advantages of this solution are that the image is again visible in the viewfinder, and you no longer need to place an infrared filter in front of the lens. And since you don’t need a filter, you can use lenses with different filter thread diameters.
At home, it is theoretically possible to change the filter in front of the matrix, but in practice it is more profitable to give the camera to a specialist for modification - the result will be much better, and the camera will not be broken. Again, a knowledgeable person will test the camera’s autofocus for infrared photography and make adjustments if necessary.
Infrared filters
Shooting in the infrared range almost always requires the use of infrared passing filters. Filters that do not transmit visible light, but are transparent to infrared radiation.And in this matter, the simplest assistant is photographic film: developed color film is transparent in the IR range. This means that exposed and developed negative or simply developed slide film will turn out to be black in the visible range, but transparent in the infrared.
By the way, it is the IR transparency of film that film scanners with automatic dust removal use. They take an additional photo in the infrared range - the dust remains visible against the background of the transparent film. And this is a ready-made mask for removing dust.
Fig.7. Slide film
If so, then you can cut a circle of the required diameter from a suitable film and place it between the protective filter and the lens. If the effect is not enough, you can add several layers of film. The picture will lose a little contrast and sharpness, but the infrared component will become obvious.
Fig.7A Slide film and IR radiation
You can also look for black ones CD-R discs. They were popular for recording music, but recently, with the decline in popularity of CDs, they have become difficult to find. If you remove the cover from such a disc, you will get a black disc that is transparent in the IR range.
Fig.8. Black CD.
There are many options for off-the-shelf IR filters available. The most popular filter in Russia is the Hoya R72 filter. It blocks radiation shorter than 720 nanometers, which is exactly the limit of visible light. The Schneider B+W 093 filter is slightly less popular - it also completely blocks visible radiation.
Filters Schneider B+W 092 and Cokin P007 do not completely block visible radiation, so the picture is only slightly colored. Slide film shows an intermediate result, so it has to be stacked in several layers.
Lenses
One light filter is not enough for shooting - you need something else to form the image. The difficulty with infrared photography is that the lens will be used in an application that is not normal for it. The wavelength of light is at least a little longer than the visible one, which means that the refraction of light will be less (remember the prism from Fig. 1), which means that the scale of the picture will change. The lens will become slightly longer focal length. At the same time, a whole scattering of problems arises, which have a stronger impact in some places and less in others. Let's take a closer look at themFocusing
If the lens is pointed at infinity in visible light, then in the IR range it will be pointed a little closer. Front Focus will appear. But there is also a good side to this error - it is stable and it is enough to simply turn the focusing ring to a certain angle. It is for this purpose that Soviet lenses (for example, Jupiter-37A, Jupiter-9, Helios 44M-8 and some others) have an additional red mark R. To focus correctly in IR, you must first focus in visible light, and then turn the focus ring to the mark R.In modern lenses, this mark is quite rare, and in zoom lenses its position depends on the focal length. Therefore, you should not particularly trust the usual phase detection autofocus of SLR cameras. You can get around the problem either by using Live View and focusing on contrast, or focusing manually, controlling sharpness on the screen. If the camera does not have Live View, then you can simply aperture the lens further and thereby hide the focusing error in the depth of field.
Fig.9 Infrared mark on the focus scale.
On prime lenses, you can set this mark yourself by taking several shots and choosing the position with maximum sharpness. The position of this mark does not depend on the focusing distance and aperture, so it is enough to simply draw it once and use this correction in the future.
Quality of enlightenment
The antireflective coating on lenses is several layers of thin films, at the border of which a light beam is reflected, interferes with the main beam and significantly reduces the intensity of reflection. That is, each coating layer is designed for a specific wavelength. However, for infrared radiation there may not be its own layer of antireflection. Therefore, some lenses begin to “catch hares”, show quite strong flares and lose microsharpness. And some work normally in the infrared range.Field unevenness, Hot-Spot
Another problem with infrared optics is reflections at the junctions of the lenses in the lens. With especially multi-lens lenses, they sometimes fold so poorly that a bright spot of illumination appears in the middle of the resulting image - a Hot-spot (Fig. 10). The effect is more pronounced at closed apertures and at short focal lengths. If you remember that the matrix often has a hot-miror filter that reflects infrared radiation back into the lens, the picture turns out to be completely bleak.Fig.10 Hot-spot
It's a shame that this effect most often occurs with ultra-wide-angle zoom lenses. These are precisely the lenses that produce the most interesting infrared images.
Glare
Most lenses are not designed for infrared photography. Therefore, blackening of internal surfaces, protection against reflections and the location of drives inside the lens can lead to strong glare when direct sunlight enters the lens. You have to use deep lens hoods, shoot from the shadows, or take several pictures with different highlights and assemble mosaic panoramas from them.Rice. 11 Glare
All of the listed features largely depend on the type of lens and may vary slightly depending on the model or camera. There are reviews on various lenses on the Internet, tables describing suitability and problems that arise with lenses. You can find them by searching for “lenses suitable for infrared photography.” But this does not mean that pictures with other lenses will not work out at all. They may require some additional attention - for example, covering them from the sun, or framing them a little differently. But in my experience there was not a single lens that was completely unsuitable.
The only case where IR photography is completely unsuitable is for cameras with a lens set to the hyperfocal distance (cameras without autofocus). In their IR range, the sharpness zone moves forward, and there is simply nothing to correct the focus. But such cameras are practically no longer found in the form of separate cameras. They can only be found in the most inexpensive phones or as the front camera on tablets. I don’t think that shooting in the IR range with the front camera of a tablet can make even the slightest sense.
Practical part
Infrared photography is good because it is unusual and different from ordinary photography. Because familiar objects begin to look different. Therefore, it makes sense to focus on stories that highlight this difference.In the IR range it is possible to obtain a picture with very high contrast. It is somewhat reminiscent in contrast to a black and white photograph behind a rich red K-8X filter, but the picture is even more contrasting. Infrared photography is mainly good in landscapes. Both urban and natural landscapes. With an abundance of sky, foliage and space.
Fig. 12 Gradient on the sky in backlight
The sky looks interesting. A clear sky appears black because it does not reflect infrared radiation. Cirrus clouds, in turn, reflect solar and scattered infrared radiation very well, so they look bright white against a black sky. But thunderclouds, containing large raindrops and large volumes of water, already absorb IR. That's why thunderclouds look black. The picture turns out to be similar to the sky taken through a thick red filter, but much more contrasting. At the same time, even the smallest clouds are visible in the IR range, almost invisible in the visible range.
Fig. 13 Water and sky in IR
In our latitudes there is practically no dry and cloudless sky. There is almost always a slight haze in the sky and therefore the sky becomes very light when backlit. This interferes with shooting 360-degree panoramas, but looks quite natural in wide-angle shots, even with the sun in the frame, as shown in Figures 11 and 12.
If you hide the sun, for example, behind trees, as is done in Figure 12, then you get rid of two problems at once - both glare from direct sunlight and gradients in the sky.
The water surface looks very unusual in the IR range (Figure 13). Water absorbs IR radiation better than visible radiation and appears much darker in the IR range than in the visible. However, the reflectivity is slightly better than in visible light. These factors together create the feeling of a dark mirror.
Tree foliage and grass are greatly transformed in the IR range. They become very light, almost white. Which, however, is quite logical - the leaves should not heat up in the sun, and the IR receives the largest amount of solar energy. Tree trunks and dried vegetation absorb infrared radiation and appear much darker. This feature of IR images is used in aerial photography for agricultural purposes to highlight areas with dead vegetation.
Photos with lots of foliage look like winter landscapes. Flowers in IR can appear either light or dark.
Insects most often turn out to be very dark - since they cannot maintain their body temperature, they benefit from absorbing the sun's heat as well as possible.
Rice. 14 Flowers in IR
The city landscape is also fraught with unexpected twists - the brightness of paint pigments in infrared light can differ greatly from visible light, and dark windows of buildings turn out to be transparent (or mirrored - dark, as in photo 13). All this, combined with the contrasting sky and white foliage, makes the landscape unusual and therefore interesting.
It's not easy with IR portraits. Lips are equal in brightness to the skin of the face, eyebrows and eyelashes turn pale. The skin appears significantly lighter than in the visible range. Volume is lost. The eyes look very dark against the background of lighter skin.
People with fair skin have protruding blood vessels(Fig. 15). Cosmetics also add uncertainty - you can never guess in advance whether lipstick, eye shadow or foundation will be dark or light in IR. Dyed hair also becomes unpredictable, but most often becomes dark. Undyed hair becomes lighter.
Inexpensive plastic sunglasses often become transparent, and clothing changes brightness. All this makes the result unpredictable when shooting large portraits, but shooting full-length, and even in combination with a landscape, can diversify a photo shoot. Due to the distance of the figures, faces can be hidden, but the unusual contrast and rendition of tones will remain.
If you are going to have an infrared portrait photo shoot, then it is advisable to check all the products used for adequacy before the makeup application - it will be very sad if the powder that the makeup artist applies to the forehead and cheeks suddenly turns out to be deep black in the infrared range. If it is possible to persuade a model not to wear makeup before an IR photo shoot, then it is better to do so. It’s easier to draw a cut-off pattern during processing than to try to correct all the errors that appear in IR. But if you are unlucky and makeup in IR does not work, then you can limit yourself to general plans, and make the missing large portraits in visible light.
Rice. 15 Portrait in IR.
Fig.16 Channel mixer
After this, the sky will not be red, but blue, and the foliage will no longer be blue.
All that remains is to equalize the white balance, and Image -> Auto Color does an excellent job of this.
These two operations can be written into a separate Action and in the future simply call it, rather than searching for tools in the menu.
All that remains is to use curves and masks to bring the picture to perfection and, if necessary, convert the image into black and white mode in any way convenient for you.
Rice. 17 Result of replacing blue and red channels
Bibliography
Hayman R. Light filters. – M.: Mir, 1988. – 216 p.Soloviev S.M. Photography in infrared rays. – M.: Art, 1957. – 90 p.
Joe Farace Complete Guide to Digital Infrared Photography. – Lark Books, 2008. – 160c.
Cyrill Harnischmacher Digital Infrared Photography. – Rocky Nook, 2008. – 112 p.
Deborah Sandidge Digital Infrared Photography (Photo Workshop). – Wiley, 2009 – 256c.
David D. Busch David Busch's Digital Infrared Pro Secrets. - Course Technology PTR, 2007 – 288c.
Before us are two filters through which nothing can be seen. More precisely, through one of them, which has a dark red, almost black color, it is still possible to see something. This infrared filter B+W Infrared Dark Red 092, produced by Schneider Optics, a subsidiary of the Schneider-Kreuznach concern.
Be this one filter one, this material most likely would not have appeared. Cokin 007, Hoya R72, Heliopan RG715- these filters, which have been on our market for a long time and have already been fully mastered by photographers, are practically analogues of the “ninety-second”. And in this regard it is unlikely B+W 092 you should expect some surprises.
But from the completely black B+W Infrared Black 093, and this is the second one under consideration filter, surprises are quite possible. Their reason is in the spectral characteristics of this filter in relation to art photography, which are fundamentally different from the characteristics of B+W Infrared Dark Red 092.
Filter B+W Infrared Dark Red 092 blocks visible light up to a wavelength of 650 nm, transmits 50% at 700 nm. From 730 to 2000 nm, more than 90% of radiation is transmitted. Recommended for artistic photography on black and white infrared materials. Increasing exposure for various materials can be 20–40x.
The B+W Infrared Black 093 filter blocks visible light up to a wavelength of 800 nm, transmits 88% at 900 nm. Designed primarily for scientific photography. Rarely used in artistic photography due to the catastrophic drop in photosensitivity of general-purpose black-and-white infrared films.
To put it very briefly, filter 093 transmits only infrared radiation, while in the passband of the 092 filter there is a certain proportion of the visible spectrum, which can be recorded, for example, by digital camera sensors.
Filters Available in round threaded frames with diameters from 30.5 mm to 77 mm. True, you won’t find such abundance in Moscow stores, and the range presented is usually limited to the most popular diameters, starting from 58 mm and above.
Received for testing filters with a diameter of 72 mm. Frankly, we would like 77 mm to work with professional high-aperture zooms (remember that these lenses, as a rule, have just such a mounting thread for filters). However, a way out of the situation was found - a transitional reduction ring of 72/77 mm.
There will be vignetting from the frame filter or not depends on the design of the lens frame and its focal length (more precisely, the angle of the field of view). The only lens where we observed vignetting was the Sigma 10–20/3.5–5.6 EX DC HSM extra-wide-angle zoom (for digital SLR cameras with an APS-C sensor). But even at focal lengths of 10–12 mm, only a slight cutting of the corners of the frame was observed, and starting from f=13 mm it completely disappeared.
Cameras
The fact that the test takers light filters threaded, and of large diameter, predetermined the choice of the type of test camera - a reflex camera with interchangeable lenses. And although we did shoot a video of infrared black-and-white photographic film, the main testing tool was a digital camera.
There is information on the Internet about the suitability of a particular digital camera for infrared photography. The matrix itself is sensitive, sometimes even quite significantly, to infrared radiation. But in front of the digital sensor there is light filter(internal IR cut filter), which blocks this radiation. And depending on what the spectral characteristics of the matrix and this filter, depends on how suitable a particular camera is for infrared photography. However, we somehow don’t believe in the absolute unsuitability of modern DSLRs...
We chose Nikon D50 and Canon EOS 350D as test cameras. The first one is considered to be good for infrared photography, and the second - not so much.
The main part of the shooting was done with Nikkor AF 24–120/3.5–5.6, Tokina AF 20–35/2.8 and Tokina AF 80–400/4.5–5.6 lenses on a Nikon D50 camera; EF-S 17–55/2.8 IS USM and EF 28–105/3.5–4.5 II USM - on Canon EOS 350D.
Focusing
Despite the fact that when installed light filter 092 the image in the viewfinder is barely visible, the autofocus system of both cameras turned out to be functional. In conditions of sufficient lighting, for example, during the day outdoors, the cameras focused quite clearly on the object (but it was difficult to see it in the viewfinder).
Does it follow from this that you can rely on camera automation? The answer will be this: depending on the camera, and even then not always. The fact is that in the infrared region of the spectrum the focal plane turns out to be slightly shifted, i.e. the lens draws a sharp image in a slightly different plane than for the visible part of the spectrum. And autofocus is configured to work specifically in the visible range.
There are, however, some nuances here. Thus, the Nikon D50 camera without and with the 092 filter installed focused strictly at the same distance. This means that frames taken with autofocus through this infrared filter, will appear out of focus.
The picture is different with the Canon EOS 350D digital camera. With the filter on, it autofocused at a slightly closer distance, the pictures turned out to be quite sharp, so there was no need to manually adjust the focus. As practice has shown, when using the Canon EOS 350D, the correction scale for shooting in the infrared range is suitable for a strong filter 093, and for filter 092 the mark should be moved approximately twice as close to the usual focus mark in the visible range.
When we talk about focus correction, we mean the following. Sometimes on the lens frames, more precisely on the distance scale, there are one or more (in the case of a zoom lens) additional marks to the main one. Their purpose is to adjust the focus of the lens so that after installation infrared filter the image at the camera's focal plane remained sharp. Proceed as follows. First without light filter focus on the subject - automatically or manually. Then, having installed the filter and switched the camera’s autofocus to manual mode, they shift the lens meter scale so that the focusing distance opposite the main mark moves to the “infrared”.
When working with light filter 093 has to do just that. And although cameras were sometimes able to focus through such a black filter, it is still worth recognizing that autofocus systems are not designed to work with it.
Performing this focus correction with filter 092, we got crystal sharp images every time on the Nikon D50 camera. infrared images, and at a fully open aperture. Under exactly the same conditions, the image with filter 093 turned out a little soapy.
What to do if there are no infrared focusing marks on the lens (as a rule, these are budget, inexpensive lenses)? You need to try to independently determine in a practical way at least approximately the required movement and aperture the lens strongly. Aperture, however, will noticeably lengthen shutter speeds, which are already long for infrared photography. If not long-lasting.
Exposition
Shooting c infrared filters requires an increase in exposure, in practical terms - the shutter speed processed by the shutter. For light filter 092 this increase is significant, for 093 it is very significant.
Nikon D50 exposure metering works quite accurately through filter 092, while the increase in exposure is about 5-6 steps, which is very good. Let's call this exposure the base exposure for infrared photography. But even if the camera’s metering worked inaccurately with a filter or did not work at all (like with 093), it is not difficult to find the basic exposure, at least from the histogram of the image - it should be “good”. By the way, having found a discrepancy between the basic and normal exposures (i.e. for shooting in the visible range of the spectrum) in EV steps, you can not use the camera exposure system, but measure it with an external exposure meter.
Exposure metering on the Canon EOS 350D camera also works through filter 092, but the pictures turn out dark (severe underexposure), and an additional 4-5 steps need to be added. In this case, the total increase in exposure to the base one is 10–11 steps.
Compared to 092, filter 093 will require increasing the exposure by another 4 stops. Thus, when shooting through it, you will have to increase the exposure: for Nikon D50 by 10 stops, for Canon EOS 350D - by 16 (!).
What are 16 steps in practice? For example, on a sunny day at ISO 200, the shutter speed at f/5.6 can be 1/2000 s. An increase of 16 steps lengthens it to... 30 s! And in cloudy weather with poor lighting, minutes will count. So working at high ISO (at the same time shutter speeds will be shorter) is a necessary measure for a Canon camera, but this does not benefit the image. Long shutter speeds and high ISOs are precisely the reasons that complicate infrared photography on the Canon EOS 350D.
When shooting through filter 092, we would recommend not limiting yourself to the basic exposure, but taking an additional 2-3 frames, each time increasing the shutter speed by one more stop. In this case, the picture on the camera’s LCD screen will look simply terrible, and the histogram will show severe overexposure, but it is still advisable to take these additional “defective” frames. We'll tell you why a little later.
Treatment
When shooting with both filters The resulting images are highly colored. For 092 the predominant shade is red-orange, for 093 it is red-violet. In any case, most of the outdoor shots with the Nikon camera were exactly like that. (The shade depends on the spectral composition of the lighting, the characteristics of the infrared filter, the characteristics of the internal cut filter and color filters on the matrix, as well as the color interpretation algorithm of the camera processor or computer program.) Therefore, strong white balance correction is inevitable, and it is better to do it in a RAW file. We used Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) and Pixmantec RawShooter 2006 (RS 2006) converters.
When converting an image to black and white, filter 093 turned out to be almost completely problem-free. It is enough to set the white balance with an eyedropper, and the image becomes monochrome gray (or almost so). Yes, it is sluggish, the contrast is greatly reduced, but this can be easily corrected directly in the converter or later in the editor. In a word, filter 093 is an easy and quick conversion of an infrared image into black and white.
The same cannot be said about filter 092. In this case, the picture will never turn out pure black and white. The reason is that, in addition to the infrared filter, this filter also transmits part of the visible part of the spectrum, so the image in the picture is a combination of regular and infrared. So in the converter, despite the fact that the photo will look color, you need to create a good foundation in order to then get a visually pleasing infrared effect in the editor. In a word, you will have to tinker.
How to distinguish a regular black and white photograph from an infrared one? First of all, in terms of the tone of the green vegetation - it becomes light gray and even almost white. Everything is correct - greenery reflects infrared radiation well, so it should look light. This highlighting of it in the picture is called the wood effect, but it has nothing to do with wood. (In fact, the effect is named after the famous experimental physicist who used ultraviolet and infrared photography in his research - Robert Wood).
As we noticed, some images were converted into black-and-white infrared images quite easily, while others were quite troublesome. In terms of the distribution of tones, the image differed from the usual black and white, but it didn’t look much like infrared either. It is clear that the infrared component of the image was somehow distributed across the RGB channels of the image. It is important to be able to find this information and extract it most effectively.
In photographs taken with the Nikon D50, in most cases the infrared signal was in the blue channel of the image, sometimes in the green and very rarely in the red or all three at the same time. (For other cameras, this relationship may remain the same, but may be different, so do your research on your model.)
In order not to stretch out the “weak” blue channel, we recommend doing several takes when shooting, increasing the exposure relative to the base one. An overexposure of 2–3 stops will be sufficient.
With such a supply of source material, the procedure for converting images taken through the 092 filter is greatly simplified. You need to select a frame with the best blue channel and “pull” this channel, not paying attention to the others. This is the general scheme; details may vary in each specific case.
And further. Initially, a good fullness of the “infrared channel” (for example, blue) will require less conversion in the converter, and therefore there will also be less noise and artifacts in the final image. For example, we received absolutely clean, noise-free infrared images, although the original color frame looked more like an outright defect.
So the time spent on filming takes is completely justified.
Conclusion
Which of the considered infrared filters give preference? For photographers who still remain faithful to film, it is unlikely that it will be B+W Infrared Black 093. To work with it, film is required, the sensitization of which goes far into the infrared region.
But this one light filter allows you to quickly (unless you take into account very long shutter speeds when shooting) and easily obtain digital black and white photographs.
Light filter B+W Infrared Dark Red 092 can be considered universal, suitable for film and digital photography. And some of the hassle that may arise when processing frames taken with its help is more than compensated by operational advantages - working camera automation and shorter shutter speeds when shooting.
Photography offers us a huge variety of creative techniques. One of these unusual techniques is infrared photography. Infrared photography allows you to capture in photographs an absolutely amazing world hidden from human eyes. Photography in the infrared range is a unique opportunity to see familiar objects and natural landscapes in a different light. Pictures taken using special infrared filters literally captivate the eye with their unusual beauty, attractiveness and drama. Also, the beauty of infrared photography is that its results can never be predicted in advance. This is one of the most interesting and creative types of photography.
Do not think that infrared photography is a completely new phenomenon, which turned out to be accessible only to modern photographers armed with the latest equipment. In fact, infrared photography appeared in the era of film cameras. In particular, already in the thirties of the last century, the first photographic films sensitive to infrared rays were released. At first, such film was used exclusively for astronomical purposes and aerial photography. However, due to its unusual results, infrared film has become popular among ordinary photographers. Infrared photographs with amazing colors were used to design the albums of legendary 60s musicians such as Jimi Hendrix and Frank Zappa. With the advent of digital photographic technology, interest in infrared photography has only increased. The features of infrared photography will be discussed in this article.
Infrared radiation
Before we talk about infrared photography, we should say a few words about infrared radiation. As you know, infrared radiation is outside the light range we can see. The human eye is capable of perceiving light rays with wavelengths ranging from 380 nm to 740 nm, that is, from purple to red. Everything that lies outside this range can be recorded only with the help of special instruments. The wavelength range up to 380 nm is called ultraviolet, and more than 740 nm is called the infrared spectrum.
Infrared radiation was first recorded by the English astronomer W. Herschel in 1800. Sources of infrared radiation are heated bodies. It is also worth noting that infrared radiation can be near, medium or far in wavelength. Infrared photography uses near-infrared radiation with a wavelength of up to 1350 nm, since the camera sensor simply cannot capture mid- and far-infrared radiation. The latter, by the way, is perceived by humans as warmth.
Infrared photography takes advantage of the ability of a digital camera sensor or film to be sensitive to infrared radiation. Infrared photography deals with reflected solar infrared radiation, which forms an image on the camera matrix or on sensitive film. Solar IR radiation, in particular, is well reflected from ordinary grass, pine needles or leaves. Therefore, these objects appear light in the photographs. In turn, objects that absorb infrared radiation, such as tree trunks, water or earth, appear dark in photographs. These unusual effects that appear in infrared photography look especially good in landscape photography.
Infrared Photography Equipment
What does a photographer need to have to take infrared photography? First of all, this is, of course, an infrared filter. But the ability of optics and digital cameras to record infrared radiation is also important.
IR filters
Today in specialized stores you can find a sufficient assortment of infrared filters of almost any diameter, however, they are not cheap. The job of an IR filter is to block visible light, since digital camera sensors are much more sensitive to visible light than to infrared radiation. The most popular IR filters are Hoya R72 and Cokin P007.
Hoya IR 72 filter applied Each infrared filter has a specific bandwidth, that is, they block radiation starting at different wavelengths. In particular, the same Hoya R72 filter blocks radiation with a wavelength starting from 680 nm. If the IR filter also allows a small portion of visible light to pass through, this is not a disadvantage since the exposure time will be shorter. There are IR filters that can block the entire visible spectrum. However, to use them, you must have a camera whose matrix will have very good sensitivity to infrared radiation.
Because IR filters are often quite expensive, many photographers use developed, unexposed slide film to filter visible light. This kind of film can be found in a photo shop or darkroom. A small piece of film is taken and attached to the camera lens so that the entire area of the outer lens is covered. To do this, you may need to cover this surface with several layers of film.
The point of this procedure is to create a kind of filter that would cover most of the field of view of the lens. Unexposed positive film is capable of blocking the visible spectrum of light, but at the same time transmits the infrared and ultraviolet range, which is what the photographer needs. Thus, positive film is a kind of inexpensive alternative to an IR filter.
Camera
Not every camera is suitable for high-quality infrared photography, since each model of digital camera has a different ability to record infrared radiation. Although the matrices of modern cameras perfectly capture light in the infrared range, this light, unfortunately, arrives at the matrix with insufficient intensity.
The thing is that manufacturers install a special filter in front of the matrix, called Hot Mirror. It cuts out most of the infrared wavelengths in everyday photography to avoid color distortion caused by infrared radiation. Thus, it turns out that some cameras cut off the IR range almost completely and become unsuitable for infrared photography, while others provide acceptable results. Therefore, if you decide to try your hand at infrared photography, you should first check how suitable your digital camera is for IR photography.
Nikon with IR filter + SB-600 flash through a photo umbrella + foil reflector The method for testing a camera for infrared sensitivity is very simple. To do this, you can use a regular TV remote control. In complete darkness, point the remote control light at the camera lens and press any button on it. If we are talking about a compact digital camera with a screen, a pink or blue dot will appear in the camera viewfinder. This means the camera is suitable for infrared photography.
With DSLR cameras the test becomes a little more complicated. You need to place the remote control in front of the lens and focus on it. Then turn off the light and take several test shots at different shutter speeds and apertures. If the frame remains black and there is no light spot from the light bulb visible in the photo even at a 30-second shutter speed, then your DSLR camera is not suitable for infrared photography.
Features of shooting in the infrared range
Camera settings
A characteristic feature of infrared photography is long exposures, since the amount of light hitting the camera sensor is negligible. When shooting in the infrared range, the shutter speed should be increased by approximately 9 to 12 stops compared to normal shooting. Infrared photographs traditionally contain more noise, so it is recommended to immediately set the sensor sensitivity to the lowest possible sensitivity during preparation for shooting.
Only the experience of the photographer helps in determining the correct shutter speed for certain shooting conditions. In this regard, you should not be afraid to experiment with settings and shutter speed, since only in this way can you not only learn how to correctly determine the settings for infrared photography, but also achieve the appearance of your own author’s vision. High shutter speeds when shooting in the infrared range make all objects completely blurry, but at the same time, thanks to this, the photograph acquires some amazing surreal shades.
It is best to set white balance on your camera in manual mode. This should be done on grass or leaves through a filter. If possible, it is recommended to shoot in RAW format. A RAW converter will be useful when later editing the white balance. In addition, shooting in RAW gives you the opportunity to correct exposure errors made when determining shutter speed by eye.
Shooting process
In principle, you can get interesting infrared photographs in both sunny and cloudy weather. Therefore, shooting time and weather do not play a big role here. Magnificent shots are obtained both at sunset, and in the rain, and in calm weather, when only light cirrus clouds slowly float across the sky. To shoot infrared with a DSLR, you need to mount it on a tripod, put on an IR filter, and then focus on the subject of interest. You should choose your composition before you put the filter on the camera lens. After all, with an infrared filter screwed onto the lens, you won’t see anything in the viewfinder.
Infrared photography of Niagara Falls Next, you should disable autofocus. Compact digital cameras and SLR cameras with the Live Veiw function will, of course, be preferable in this situation, since focusing using the LCD display is much more convenient than constantly removing and putting on an IR filter before each frame.
Focusing during infrared photography requires special attention. The fact is that infrared radiation is not focused at the same point as visible light. That is, there is a difference in focusing between visible and infrared light. When shooting landscapes in infrared, this difference becomes less noticeable due to the wide-angle lens, high aperture and long distance to the subject of focus. However, when it comes to shooting close-up objects, you can easily notice in the captured frames that the objects that are sharp are not the ones that the photographer was focusing on.
Therefore, some lenses today are equipped with a special IR scale, which shows how much the photographer should adjust the focus between visible and infrared light. If there is no such scale on the lens, then you will have to first take several test frames, focusing on some object located at a short distance from the lens, in order to thereby determine the correct focus for infrared photography.
After adjusting the focus, you need to calculate the shutter speed. To do this, you may need to take a few test shots at high ISOs. After selecting the appropriate settings and correct focusing, you can finally shoot finished frames, preferably, of course, in RAW format.
Post-processing
Processing captured footage in Photoshop is an almost integral part of the process of obtaining high-quality images in infrared photography. The problem is that all the captured frames, depending on the white balance settings you choose, will one way or another acquire a red or purple tonality. Therefore, most often manipulations in Photoshop have to be done in order to adjust the tonal range and select the optimal values in color channels. As a result of these manipulations, the final picture should be more interesting and attractive.
Also, when shooting at long shutter speeds, quite a lot of digital noise often appears, so you also have to modify the photo in a computer editor to remove it if possible or make the noise more natural-looking. When you post-process the footage in Photoshop, you can optionally desaturate the image to create a black-and-white infrared image or add more natural colors to the infrared photo. Thus, there are a huge number of options for computer processing of infrared photographic images. In fact, each individual photo is a huge field for creative experiments.
Of course, the most attractive and interesting thing about infrared photography is the ability to capture the world in a completely different way as our eyes see it. Shooting in the infrared range seems to open up another reality, an unusual world full of dramatic and fabulous shades. Infrared photography is most popular among landscape painters. However, photographers who master other genres can also find in infrared photography a source of inspiration and new ideas for their creativity.
The skill of a photographer lies not in beautifully photographing what is already beautiful, but in showing that beauty that others have not noticed. However, there are also phenomena in nature that are almost impossible for even the most talented photographer to notice, but this does not stop them from being beautiful. One such phenomenon is infrared photography, which will be discussed in this lesson.
A little theory
The eye of even the most advanced photographer does not see all of the solar radiation. In addition to the visible, there are also ultraviolet, infrared, radio radiation, x-rays and many others that form the spectrum. It would be strange to expect the eye to be able to view radio waves. We were a little more lucky with ultraviolet radiation - our skin “looks” at the world through ultraviolet, and tans at the same time. In ultraviolet radiation, using a special filter, you can shoot very interesting landscapes: in photo 1 I show a landscape shot in the combined ultraviolet-infrared range.
As you can see from Photo 2, the thermal infrared portion of the spectrum is located beyond the red “end” of visible light, closer to microwave radiation. We often feel radiation in the infrared (IR) range as heat. When switched on, an electric heating plate emits heat in the infrared range, which can be felt by hand from a distance, before heating up to the point of glowing with visible light. Fortunately for us photographers, this radiation is perfectly “seen” by both the film and the camera matrix! This radiation has some characteristics similar to radiation from the visible part of the spectrum: just like visible light, it is refracted in the lens, in the same way it cannot pass through the light-protected camera body - this makes it possible to register it with the photosensitive material of the camera.
In order to start photographing infrared landscapes in practice, we must understand what our camera records: color, heat, or something else. And understand what the sources of this invisible radiation are. Let's look at photo 3. As can be seen from the photo, everything that was green in nature, in infrared form turned white. The question is: what will the other colors look like? I photographed a package of multi-colored markers in normal light and through an infrared filter. All markers turned out to be of a similar shade, which excludes the assumption that the shade corresponds to the color. So, does the photographic material react to temperature? I conducted another experiment: I photographed an iron in a cold and heated state through an infrared filter. The result was two identical photographs, proving that in the infrared world all irons look the same gray (that’s why I’m not posting the photographs). Therefore, the camera records not heat or color, but something else.
This “other” is the reflectivity of surfaces towards infrared radiation.
You can find both regular paint and infrared reflective paint at the hardware store. A house painted with this paint will not heat up in the sun in summer. So be prepared for the fact that one green house in our infrared photo may come out white, while another green house may come out completely black. Surfaces that reflect IR radiation will appear lighter in photographs than surfaces that absorb it. In order not to memorize tables with the reflectivity of various materials in the infrared range, remember that surfaces that absorb infrared radiation become very hot. This means that bodies that usually heat up in the sun will appear dark in infrared photography, and those that do not heat up will appear light. In this case, the degree of brightness of the body does not depend on its actual temperature. Light gray asphalt, both in winter and summer, will turn out significantly darker than its usual shade, because it can heat up in the sun to high temperatures, and foliage, pine needles and grass will turn out white, since they, protecting themselves from overheating, reflect thermal radiation.
It is worth mentioning separately about water surfaces, snow and sky. In infrared photographs, water appears darker than usual because its surface does not reflect infrared rays well (although it reflects visible radiation well).
Pure snow perfectly reflects infrared radiation and will appear “whiter than white” in the image. The sky cannot be classified as either a surface or a body, and the suspension of dust and microdroplets contained in it has almost no effect on its infrared properties. A clear sky in infrared photography will always appear very dark, almost black. Clouds partially transmit infrared radiation and will turn out no darker or lighter than usual, but will look very contrasting against an almost black sky. Let's identify possible sources of infrared radiation. They can be all those objects that emit light during the heating process. The main source of infrared radiation is the sun. At night it may be incandescent lamps. Fluorescent lamps They are unlikely to be able to take part in our “infrared performance”, since their energy goes mainly into the light range. An open fire produces a large amount of infrared rays.
Practice infrared photography
Infrared photography can be done with both film and digital cameras. For best results, we may need a tripod and a fairly expensive infrared filter. Such filters cost from $50 to $200, depending on the bandwidth and size. For example, the 55mm Tiffen 87 filter I use cost me $94. A “weaker” Hoya RM-72 filter of the same diameter costs about $60.
Instead of a filter, you can use an unexposed piece of developed reversible photographic film. But if you choose a filter from this table, keep in mind: the lower the filter is placed, the worse its throughput, and this leads to increased exposure. I do not recommend using the two bottom filters for owners of digital cameras, due to the presence of its own IR filter built into the camera.
Different digital cameras react to infrared radiation differently. There are significant differences even within the line of cameras from the same manufacturer. It is not difficult to determine whether your camera is capable of infrared vision at all: just point the TV remote control at it, press its button and see if the bright white spot of the IR emitter is noticeable on the monitor. If the spot is quite bright, order a filter! Digital IR photography of landscapes is complicated by the presence of a built-in infrared filter that protects the matrix from a significant portion of IR radiation. Based on personal impressions, this built-in filter in my Nikon D70 camera has a bandwidth of somewhere between 820 - 840 nm and shorter. Sony matrices transmit approximately 40% of radiation located beyond the 700 nm boundary (iXBT.com). This is how digital camera manufacturers are struggling with the appearance of moire, and the worse the matrix perceives IR radiation, the better it is for the quality of the resulting photographs in normal, visible to the eye,range. When shooting infrared, you have to catch pitiful “infrared crumbs” in a very narrow range of 780–820 nm. This leads to a significant increase in exposure values. So, depending on the filter used and the specific camera, exposure corrections range from 4 to 12 steps! That is, if without a filter some scene requires a shutter speed of 1/500 s, then with such a filter it will already be as much as 8 s! All exposure corrections are determined experimentally, for each scene separately. For a DSLR Nikon D70 they are 9–11 stops, while for some compact Nikons they are 5. If you rely on the metering results with a filter on, you will need to make an additional correction of +3EV (for example, with measured 1 s and f8.0 , you will need to set it to 8 s at the same relative aperture), otherwise the photo will turn out underexposed.
A number is a number, but the palm in infrared photography today still belongs to photographic film. As you can see from the table here, there are not only black and white infrared films, but even one is colored! We are talking about professional reversible film Kodak Ektachrome Infrared EIR. True, the colors on it are significantly different from the usual ones, for example, the green grass we are already familiar with will look raspberry-pink!
Infrared photography on traditional black-and-white photographic film gives significantly better results than on a digital matrix: the “grain” is an order of magnitude smaller, the sharpness is higher. Due to the lack of a built-in IR filter in a film camera, the entire infrared range of the spectrum falls on the film. Exposure should be in accordance with the sensitivity recommended by the developer. Despite the infrared specialization of these films, when shooting you still need to use a filter that cuts off visible radiation. For many of these films, you can get by with a simple Kodak Wratten 25 red filter. The downside, compared to digital, is that infrared films are very sensitive to radiation. Opening a plastic container and inserting films into the camera is only allowed in complete darkness. These films must also reach the laboratory in their own containers. And they cannot be used in cameras with an infrared frame counter, that is, in the vast majority of cameras produced today! We will have to take our old dusty FEDs, Zenits and Smena-8Ms off the shelf, figure out how to attach a filter to them, and only after that start shooting. However, cheaper pseudo-infrared films do not show up in the Nikon F65 and Nikon F75 SLRs.
When photographing a landscape through an infrared filter, we most often do not have the ability to control where the focus is focused: through a dense crimson filter, nothing is visible at all except the sun or incandescent lamps. It is better to refuse to use autofocus (there will either be no sharpness, or it will be aimed somewhere in the wrong place), and focus on the range scale on the lens or in the viewfinder window. If your camera lens has a red R mark or red line, then set the range relative to this mark - it takes into account the difference in the refractive characteristics of visible and IR radiation. You should clamp the aperture firmly, thereby increasing the depth of field of field in order to eliminate possible inaccuracies when focusing. Apertures f11 - f32 will be just right, but this, of course, leads to a significant increase in shutter speed, up to 30 seconds even on the clearest day. Therefore, you can’t do without a tripod. Only owners of some digital cameras with a special night shooting mode in the IR range are spared from these worries. There you can focus on the image in the electronic viewfinder. Various white balance settings when shooting digitally produce nothing but monochrome images of different colors, which will still have to be desaturated in Photoshop. Examples are shown in photo 6. If you manually set the white balance on a neutral-colored surface, you will get a black-and-white photo with an almost complete loss of color tones.
The Creative Aspects of Infrared Photography
The use of any new survey tool is justified only when necessary within the framework of the task at hand. Instead of looking for a subject to use with a filter, you should look for the filter that best realizes the idea of the photo. Firstly, the use of an IR filter is only justified for monochrome photography. Secondly, all objects will be illuminated from only one source - the sun, objects look contrasting, shadows are deep - this creates the illusion of a night landscape shot under the full moon.
How to use it? To emphasize the mysticism, the surrealism of some scene, when we describe some final stages of development, some vague forebodings. Abandoned ruins, old cemetery (photo 8), devastation (photo 9). The military instructor at our school said: “The sentry must go around everything and see if everything is broken.” If everything around us is “broken,” the filter will enhance the atmosphere.
When an infrared landscape has a clear sky with scattered clouds, the contrast between the black sky and white clouds often results in a dramatic picture. It is possible that this impression is somehow associated with the atmosphere of an approaching thunderstorm, similar in the distribution of light spots - houses and trees illuminated by the sun against the backdrop of a pre-storm black sky. Example: photo 5 “Pumpkins for Halloween”.
Drama and mysticism are optional effects from an infrared filter. If there is no sky in the frame, or the shooting will be carried out in cloudy weather, you can get a photo with positive energy, made in a light key. Example: the photo shown earlier with a waterfall.
Processing images in Adobe Photoshop
What we have at the output of the (digital) camera is very far from perfect: crimson and blurry (photo 10). It is better to convert an unsuccessful color to b/w. You can do this the usual way using Image > Mode > Grayscale, but the red, green and blue channels will be mixed according to the algorithm inherent in the program. In conditions where only one of the three channels is informative, this can lead to unpredictable consequences. It is better to mix color channels in given proportions; to do this, go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Channel Mixer, click OK there and in the resulting window, mark the Monochrome box, varying the “weight” of each color channel with the sliders. I recommend one by one viewing the contents of all three color channels of the resulting image. It is possible that something other than red will play the first role in your photo. For example, images from my camera contain higher sharpness in the green channel. But it is not advisable to completely get rid of the information contained in other channels; this will lead to increased noise.
All other manipulations with the image, such as increasing sharpness, brightness or contrast, are no different from those applied to any other monochrome landscape.
That, in fact, is all I wanted to tell you about infrared landscape photography. I hope that the article will serve as an incentive for new creative experiments. Good luck!
