Infrared Tutorial for anyone interested :)

[g8ina]

I've been doing infrared for a while now and have had a few folk ask how it is done, so I thought I'd just jot down a few of the things I've learned about it. I use a Nikon D70 and D200 for infrared, both are fine, but the D70 has the edge on exposure times - when I have enough funds I intend to convert the D70 to full time dedicated infrared.

* I use a Hoya 62mm R72 & a Link Delight 77mm R72 IR filter - I started by using a Cokin fit cheapie but as u can see from my "Dead Tree" shot, its not very good.

* I always shoot in fully manual mode, including focus.

* I always try and use the smallest aperture I can, this increases contrast and helps with the focus shift you will get when shooting in IR.

* I always take a full colour shot first, so I can mix the colour back into the infrared using HDR techniques.

* I always take 4 or 5 bracketed infrared shots.

* I always use the white balance trick of shooting at green grass as a white balance setup shot. This reduces the pink/red colour cast and does maintain some other colours in the shot, esp on the D200. D70 seems to only want to give me mono.

* I use a variety of Photoshop action sets to do my convertions, it makes it a lot easier (listed below).

OK, bullet points over, I'll go thru a sequence I use for taking the shot.

Firstly, there is little point in trying to shoot IR on a cloudy, cold winters day, wait for summer, its **so** much easier You *will* need a very stable tripod. You *will* need a remote shutter release.

Setup the shot without the IR filter, and take a couple of bracketed shots for reference.

Next, and be careful not to move the tripod here, fix the filter to the lens, and switch to manual mode for exposure *and* focus otherwise the camera will hunt for focus lock and switch to preset white balance having set this up on blurred green grass with the filter attached. Use the remote shutter release to prevent camera shake, with mirror lockup if u have it.

You will lose anything up to 10 or 12 EV when switching to IR (D70 a lot less loss than D200), so if your standard mode is say, 1/250th second, u will need anything from 1 to 30 seconds depending on aperture and light/heat conditions. I dont think Ive ever used anything slower than 30 seconds, even when playing about in cold winter.

Always chimp the shots you take, and adjust exposure accordingly - a dark shot in IR is often more useful than a light one, so check the histogram too, it need to be about 1/3 to the dark side. Take a good few bracketed around your optimum point anyway, just in case. Don't forget to use smaller apertures where possible, this increases the DOF (which also accounts for the IR focus shift) and improves contrast.

If u look at older lenses, they will have a red dot off one side of the DOF distacce marks. This is for IR, because infrared light has a much shorter wavelength than visible, it shifts the focus point. Newer lenses dont tend to have the red dot, so you must compensate in other ways.

Dont worry about people walking across your shot, on a 20 or 30 sec exposure, u probably wont see them

Now onto processing -

You will notice that your main IR shots will appear to have only one colour in them (depending on camera of course - some compacts like the Olympus 2020 can give very good colours with IR).

There are two main ways to deal with ir shots. First, use a plug in to switch the blue/red channels - Khromagery is the one I use.

Or u can just use fully manual processing - Import your shot into Photoshop, and first of all, use "Image/Adjustments/Black & White". Reduce the magenta, blue & cyan to zero, or near zero, and increase yellow, green and red to suit. This darkens skies, and makes grass and leaves go white. You will need to fiddle about to get the right balances here.

Once that is done, you can add noise if required, and any other effects you like - I like a very dark IR image, with a glow and a vignette around it, but from here on its all personal taste. Another thing I like to do is add colour data back into the shot by using the original full colour shot in HDR, I do like the washed out look it gives, while maintaining the high contrast of the IR shot.

I also use some freely available Photoshop action sets, like "Khromagery", "Dave's Ethereal Glow", "Infrared (GFA)", "HDR for Dummies" and "Amanda's Outer Vignette", google will find these for you.

Some useful links -

These guys can convert your DSLR :
http://www.lifepixel.com/IR.htm
http://www.maxmax.com/ircameraconversions.htm
http://www.advancedcameraservices.co.uk

And some nice infrared work by my hero of this genre, Simon Marsden :
http://www.marsdenarchive.com/library

My own stuff can be seen at http://www.redbubble.com/people/g8ina including my new project to shoot all the old churches in Northants in infrared Thats over 200 places !!

[Sk!mD4Rk]

Thanks for that!

I've been thinking about getting into ir for a while now. Currently shooting with a D300 and sigma 10-20 which is 77mm filter size so an ir filter this size is a fair amount of cash.

Love your church shots and they look great in ir.

[g8ina]

Just search ebay for Link Delight, their 77mm IR is only 14 quid (UK pounds) inc del to UK. AND, judging by the results, I wouldnt be surprised to learn thnat it came from the same factory as the Hoya !!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=200310896494

hth

[Sk!mD4Rk]

Oh great, thanks again. £14, bargain!

My spare slr is a D50 and an ir conversion would be great but £250 is a bit steep. Might attempt it myself though one day.

[^SwITcH^]

Thanks for taking the time to post - nice info!

[Zero 101]

Look for a Minolta Dimage 7, only 5mp but is capable of producing good handheld ir without any mods other than a R72. It will also autofocus and meter so less faffing around.
Check here Daniella Theoret http://www.infrareddream.com/ir1.html and here for more ir info http://www.cocam.co.uk/CoCamWS/Infrared/INFRARED.HTM